What is the WPM and why does it exist?
In the context of the 2019 Climate Agreement and ongoing efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, the Work-related Personal Mobility (WPM) has been created. The main goal of this law is to reduce the CO2 emissions from work-related travel, as part of broader initiatives to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. This means that certain companies are required to report annually on the number of kilometers traveled by employees.
This focuses only on the (business) transport of employees within your organization. This includes, for example, commuting and travel to customers. There is no need to report on, for example, business mobility realized with gray license plates or specially adapted vehicles (such as vans and trucks). The data related to the professional transport of people (such as train drivers, taxi and bus drivers) also does not need to be reported.
You also do not need to report on the private use that your employees drive. For an overview of the rules regarding whether or not to report specific data, we would be happy to refer you to the blog with points of attention regarding the WPM.
Who is the WPM applicable to?
The WPM will apply from July 1, 2024 to Dutch employers with 100 or more employees. This is based on the company’s Chamber of Commerce number. Multiple locations can have the same Chamber of Commerce number and are therefore jointly subject to the reporting obligation. In the blog employee for the WPM the concept of ’employee’ is further elaborated to provide full clarity on who exactly are considered as such.
What needs to be reported?
The reporting obligation under the WPM requires employers to provide an annual overview of the total number of kilometers traveled by their employees for business purposes. The annual kilometers must be specified based on the type of vehicle, the fuel type, and whether it is commuting or business mobility. This data forms the basis for calculating the CO2 emissions.
The first report must be submitted by June 30, 2025 at the latest. You do this with the regional environmental service. They will check whether you have submitted the data on time and correctly. You can choose to report over the entire 2024 or only over the mandatory part of 2024. In that case, you report from July 2024. Note: if you choose to report from July 1, this date also applies as the reference date for your number of employees.
How do you measure that?
Measuring work-related personal mobility involves accurately recording traveled kilometers, distinguishing modes of transport and fuel types, and classifying mobility as commuting or business travel. This takes into account various factors, such as the type of vehicle (car, train, bicycle, etc.) and the propulsion used (diesel, LPG, natural gas/CNG, electric, etc.).
We recommend looking ahead and proactively anticipating new legislation. This reduces the number of requests your company has to make. You can do this, for example, by already taking into account the GHG protocol. This protocol uses the number of liters of fuel consumed as the primary metric, in contrast to the WPM which does not inquire about this. By directly integrating this type of data into your records, you also comply with future reporting requirements such as those of the CSRD.
Processing and enforcement.
Compliance with the reporting obligation is monitored by the environmental service in the region where your headquarters is located. This specific environmental service is also responsible for supervising the data of any locations outside the region. As a result, your organization only has to deal with one competent government authority. The digital platform identifies the competent environmental service based on the postal code of your headquarters. The entered data is then prepared by the platform for this specific authority.
Voluntary reporting.
Do you have less than 100 employees? Then you can report voluntarily. You will also receive feedback on the CO2 emissions from the mobility of your employees. Voluntary reporting can, for example, help you identify sustainability opportunities, practice reporting before you become obliged to report, or gain insight into the status quo regarding the sustainability of your work-related personal mobility.
At Cooperate Green, we are happy to help you seamlessly integrate the reporting process with existing administrative processes. If necessary, we offer practical tips to adapt the administration or implement alternative data collection methods.