As companies struggle to decarbonize supply chains, programs that help suppliers cut emissions have become a must-have component of climate strategies.
But what do suppliers think of these efforts? More than 180 recently weighed in on the issue — and the results suggest buyers may need to recalibrate their efforts.
The comments came after the Scope 3 Peer Group, a collective of 4,000 professionals working to reduce supply chain emissions, posed a question to companies that sell to group members: “What do you most want customers to know about the reality of being a supplier asked to decarbonize?”
The suppliers were promised that answers would be anonymized. “Pour your heart out,” Oliver Hurrey, the peer group’s founder and chair, told them. And, he added, “they went to town.”
“You ask us to decarbonise, then buy on price”
The top theme by some margin, mentioned in 43 percent of responses, was that while low-carbon options often cost more, contracts are still awarded on unit price.
“The suppliers are actually willing,” Hurrey said. “They’re basically saying you’re not giving us practical, consistent or frankly believable commercial outputs.” Or as he puts it, summarizing the voice of the suppliers: “Once the sustainability team asks us to decarbonize, we do all this great stuff, and then we go to the commercial procurement team and they go, ‘What’s decarbonisation?’”
“Your specifications are our emissions”
Just under a quarter of respondents raised a second way large companies can undermine their own decarbonization efforts: requests for product specifications that limit sellers’ ability to reduce emissions. This inflexibility is critical because most of a product’s footprint can come from the materials a supplier purchases for manufacturing.
“Our customers usually specify what material to use and even which suppliers to use,” wrote one supplier. “If the customer wants us to decarbonize, these specifications need to align with the wish to decarbonize!”
“We spend more time reporting than doing”
Sustainability professionals at large companies often complain of the burden imposed by the many sustainability frameworks they are required to report under, which makes it somewhat ironic to hear that some buyers are imposing similar misery on sellers.
“We are overwhelmed with questionnaires,” one respondent wrote. “The majority of time we receive no feedback or engagement as a result of our participation —
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