Turning measurement into action with ACT Group

Using Green Project, ACT improved the accuracy of its carbon footprint, engaged 250 suppliers and created a stronger foundation for measurable emissions reductions.

When your business helps clients decarbonize, applying that same discipline to your own operations is what proves it works.

In its FY26 Sustainability Report, ACT Group showed what that looks like in practice. Using Green Project, its own carbon accounting and decarbonization platform, ACT measured its footprint, engaged its suppliers, improved the quality of its Scope 3 data, and began turning that insight into action.

Challenge: Understanding a complex Scope 3 footprint

ACT Group is an international environmental services company that operates nine offices across three continents and serves 8,000+ clients in 130+ countries. Like many companies with a services-heavy footprint, most of ACT's emissions don't sit in facilities or vehicles it owns and controls directly. They sit in its value chain, in the goods and services thousands of suppliers provide.

That created three distinct problems for ACT:

• First, most of its footprint sits outside its direct operational control, shaped by decisions it can influence but not dictate.

• Second, the default way to estimate that footprint, applying industry-average emission factors to what ACT spent with each supplier, has real limits: it says little about what any individual supplier is doing to cut emissions.

• Third, many suppliers, particularly smaller ones, had never calculated a greenhouse gas footprint before and lacked the resources or expertise to know where to start.

Credible decarbonization requires credible measurement, and that is what ACT set out to build. This report also represented the first time ACT set a formal, science-aligned emissions reduction target for its own operations.

"For us, leading by example means applying the same rigor to our own footprint that we ask of our clients,” said Joost Gorter, Director of ESG at ACT Group. “Green Project gave us a stronger understanding of our Scope 3 emissions and a practical way to engage suppliers. That means we're not just improving the quality of our reporting, we're building the foundation for more targeted decarbonization action.”

ACT approached this the same way it advises its clients to: one deliberate step at a time.

Measure: Establishing a credible baseline

First, ACT calculated and disclosed its footprint following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, using Green Project’s carbon accounting solution.

This included reporting on material Scope 3 categories, distinguishing between market-based and location-based Scope 2 emissions, and drawing on credible third-party emission factor sources, such as the Association of Issuing Bodies, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and UK DESNZ.

Engage: Moving from estimates to supplier data

ACT then launched a twelve-week supplier engagement program, powered by Green Project's supplier engagement solution, reaching 250 of its highest-priority suppliers, covering 79% of corporate spend-related emissions.

In this first engagement cycle, 26 suppliers provided primary emissions data. While representing only a portion of the suppliers contacted, these companies accounted for approximately 40% of ACT's purchased goods and services emissions based on previous spend-based estimates.

That concentration mattered: ACT was able to replace generic estimates with supplier-specific information precisely where improved data quality could have the greatest impact.

For many participating suppliers, this was their first experience calculating a GHG footprint. The engagement was deliberately designed around participation rather than compliance: with Green Project's support, ACT provided webinars, structured guidance, and, for larger suppliers, an AI-assisted screening process to identify publicly available emissions data and improve overall coverage.

Outreach was localized where appropriate, including Dutch-language engagement for suppliers in the Netherlands, reinforcing that this was a collaborative relationship rather than a compliance exercise.

Act: Helping suppliers decarbonize

ACT deliberately went beyond asking suppliers to report. For smaller suppliers, the company subsidized access to renewable energy solutions, helping remove one of the practical barriers standing between a supplier and actual footprint reduction.

By connecting carbon measurement, supplier engagement, and renewable energy procurement into a single, coherent offering, ACT began closing the gap between knowing where emissions sit and doing something about them.

The goal was to make decarbonization actionable and accessible to suppliers who might otherwise lack the resources to pursue it independently.

"Companies increasingly need to move beyond estimating emissions toward understanding where they sit and how to act on them,” said Sam Stark, CEO and Founder of Green Project. “ACT's experience shows what that journey looks like in practice: better data, deeper supplier engagement, and a clearer path from measurement to action."

Validate: Adding independent assurance

ACT also subjected its Scope 1, 2, and 3 disclosures to independent limited assurance by Deloitte Accountants, adding external scrutiny to the data underpinning its sustainability reporting. The full assurance statement is available in ACT's FY26 Sustainability Report.

Impact: Better data, better decisions, measurable progress

The first supplier-engagement cycle materially improved ACT's understanding of its Scope 3 footprint, and gave the company a credible foundation to set its first reduction target.

The highlights:

• 250 suppliers engaged, covering 79% of corporate spend-related emissions.

• 26 suppliers providing primary data, representing approximately 40% of purchased goods and services emissions, based on previous spend-based estimates.

• 10.6% year-over-year decrease in reported Scope 3 emissions supported by improved supplier-specific data, rather than confirmed emissions abatement alone.

• >4.2% annual reduction target against ACT’s FY24 baseline, on the path towards a minimum 21% reduction by FY29

• Independent limited assurance over Scope 1, 2, and 3 disclosures performed by Deloitte Accountants

The first cycle of supplier engagement gave ACT measured data where it mattered most, and a foundation to build on in future cycles as more suppliers report and more spend-based estimates give way to accurate, actionable figures.

For ACT, the exercise wasn't simply about producing a better carbon footprint. It was about building the data, supplier relationships, and infrastructure needed to manage that footprint over time.

And for Green Project, ACT provides a particularly relevant test case: its own parent company using the platform to tackle the same measurement and decarbonization challenges faced by clients around the world.

Read ACT Group’s full FY26 Sustainability Report here.

"Green Project gave us a stronger understanding of our Scope 3 emissions and a practical way to engage suppliers. That means we're not just improving the quality of our reporting, we're building the foundation for more targeted decarbonization action."