About the data

This credit recognizes institutions where employees use preferable modes of transportation to travel to and from the institution. Commute modal split is a common measure used to evaluate the sustainability performance of a transportation system. Using alternative modes of transportation reduces local air pollution and GHG emissions. Walking and biking offer health benefits as well.

Institution's employees (faculty, staff, and administrators) get to and from campus using more sustainable commuting options such as walking, bicycling, vanpooling or carpooling, taking public transportation, riding motorcycles or scooters, riding a campus shuttle, telecommuting, or a combination of these options.

Employees who live on campus should be included in the calculation based on how they get to and from their workplace.

This metric is looking for the percentage of employees that use more sustainable commuting options:


For WikiRate researchers:

Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.

  • Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research

  • By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.

    NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on WikiRate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.

  • To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Operations - and Credit Category - Transportation - to finally select the Credit Title: Employee Commute Modal Split.

  • You should now be on the report page that discloses the percentage of employees that use more sustainable commuting options. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like employee commute, sustainable commuting, and sustainable transport.

  • Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value

  • Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like:

    • a brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about employee commuting

    • the website URL where information about sustainable transportation for employees is available

Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.


STARS compliance guidance for institutions:

Timeframe
Institutions should report the most recent data available from within the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission.

Sampling and Data Standards
Institutions may use a representative sample to gather data about employee commuting behavior. For information about how to measure commuting behavior, see the guidance provided by the Massachusetts Rideshare Program and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

This credit is scored based on the percentage of employees using alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle commuting (i.e., more sustainable commuting options).