Gathering supplier emissions data is one of the biggest challenges in calculating a business’s total emissions. Many companies find themselves staring into a vast data chasm when trying to measure their Scope 3 emissions.

The solution lies within your supply chain. Suppliers, intermediaries and traders can help bridge this gap by measuring their own emissions. It’s important to remember that these businesses are at different stages of their sustainability journey. Many are likely staring into the same Scope 3 data chasm you are.

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While suppliers may need support gathering emissions data, developing a collaborative engagement strategy benefits everyone. On one hand, businesses gain the data needed for impact measurement and compliance, while suppliers can reduce both their own emissions and those of their customers.  

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Help Them to Help You: Effective Supplier Support

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Support flows both ways in the supply chain, where shared data benefits everyone. Supplier engagement and supplier support are one and the same, and it’s worth thinking strategically about how you approach them: how can we enable suppliers to provide scope 3 data while achieving their own emissions targets?

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This breaks down into four key areas:

1. How do we identify levels of sustainability maturity among suppliers including those new to emissions calculations?

2. Where are the easy wins that will allow us to begin engaging suppliers at scale?

3. How do we address supplier fatigue and encourage participation despite the overwhelming number of requests they might receive?

4. What methods are available to pinpoint carbon hotspots and climate risks in the supply chain for better prioritization and meaningful impact through supplier collaboration?

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Best practice in supplier engagement means meeting suppliers where they are, reusing existing data to avoid fatigue, offering free or low-barrier tools to calculate footprints, and providing clear next steps that make engagement worthwhile for the supplier as well as the customer.

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Priorities: Where to Start?

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Suppliers vary widely in their data capabilities – from those with comprehensive emissions data to those just beginning. It’s important to recognize many face significant challenges: overwhelming data requests, reporting fatigue, and limited resources. Considering a supplier’s individual levels of maturity in sustainability practices is foundational to effective supplier engagement.

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Start by identifying which suppliers are ready to provide primary data, whether that be their own spend-based assessment of their footprint, facility specific emissions, or (the holy grail) their own product level carbon emissions. Prioritize engaging mature suppliers first for quick wins. Either way, the job just got a little bit smaller because you’ve understood the task at hand for your suppliers and recognized the mutual benefits.

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Forward-looking procurement teams are also using this data not just for compliance, but to inform sourcing decisions and support suppliers with the biggest opportunities for reduction.

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engage50: Bridging the Emissions Gap Together

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Thankfully, tools exist to help businesses engage suppliers who are behind on their emissions reduction journey, or even yet to start.

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Green Project’s supplier engagement platform, engage50, automates the assessment of Scope 3 emissions with publicly available data that you can use prior to engagement. Overburdened suppliers asked repeatedly to gather and provide the same publicly available data will suffer from emissions data fatigue very quickly.

For suppliers unsure about what their first steps towards emissions reduction might be, engage50 offers a free, lightweight version of the platform that includes:

• Carbon footprint calculation tools for inputting product information and calculating their carbon footprint.  

• Scorecards with suggested steps to reduce emissions.  

• A free Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) calculator

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engage50 empowers your suppliers to move beyond just reporting data. With simple, no-cost tools and clear guidance, they can start reducing their own emissions, which in turn improves the quality of data you receive across your supply chain.  

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Shared Data, Shared Success

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For suppliers, remember you are your customers’ Scope 3 emissions. Your ability to collect and share emissions data will become a competitive advantage as businesses seek to meet compliance targets.

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By fostering collaboration and providing practical tools, this approach not only streamlines data collection but also strengthens supplier relationships, drives shared sustainability goals, and helps create a more resilient, transparent supply chain. It’s a win-win scenario that supports long-term success for you and your suppliers.

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