Cutting Scope 3 Emissions Across the Supply Base

The challenge

An energy-sector business had made public commitments on emissions, and most of its footprint sat in Scope 3, embedded in the goods and services it bought. Its estimates relied on spend-based averages that could not distinguish a low-carbon supplier from a high-carbon one, so procurement had no way to reward progress.

The approach

Procurement worked with its largest tier-one suppliers to move from estimates towards supplier-specific data. It agreed a common reporting format, offered guidance to suppliers at an earlier stage of their own measurement, and was open about how the data would and would not be used.

Emissions criteria were then built into category strategies and supplier reviews alongside cost, quality and risk. Reduction plans were developed jointly, focusing on the areas each supplier could genuinely influence, such as materials, energy sourcing and logistics.

What changed

The organisation gained a clearer, more defensible view of where its embedded carbon sat and which suppliers were making progress. Sustainability moved from a separate reporting exercise into everyday sourcing decisions, and several suppliers used the shared approach to strengthen their own customer reporting.

Lessons for practitioners

Scope 3 reduction is a supplier relationship programme before it is a data programme. Suppliers engage when the purpose is transparent and the effort is shared; they disengage when reporting requests feel like an audit with no benefit to them.