The 1.5°C
Supplier
Engagement
Guide

Clear management support from the start as well as a defined structure of responsibilities enable effective implementation of your goal internally with suppliers.

• Secure management commitment to work with suppliers to halve their GHG emissions before 2030.
• Define clear internal responsibilities to achieve this goal and align departments and processes with the company’s climate goals.
• Assign clear responsibilities, identify potential actions, and clarify implications for each department or function.

• Seek top management’s commitment to working with suppliers to halve their GHG emissions before 2030 to ensure support and commitment at the highest levels of leadership.
• Have management facilitate alignment on climate strategy with relevant departments, such as sourcing, indirect procurement, R&D, compliance/legal, product, and finance, to help set expectations and bolster accountability.
• Assign clear responsibilities, identify potential actions, and clarify implications for each department or function. Potential departmental actions:
  • Finance: Consider how to support suppliers’ transition needs through finance, such as pre-payment, supporting green loans via sustainable supply chain finance, or similar.
  • Public Affairs: Lobby and advocate for strong climate policy.
  • Procurement: Support supplier training and accountability.
  • Audit: Include climate considerations as part of supplier auditing.

Publicly stating your supplier engagement target and working directly with priority suppliers communicates to stakeholders – including suppliers – your company’s ambition to align its procurement with climate science.

• Set and publicly state the goal to engage with suppliers to halve their GHG emissions before 2030.
• Communicate your target to suppliers, prioritizing which suppliers to engage with directly for maximum impact, and which to direct to publicly available tools and resources like the SME Climate Hub (for small and medium sized suppliers).

• Set your target and craft a plan to achieve it. The target should include requesting suppliers to set science-aligned Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction targets, and a Scope 3 target if these emissions are greater than 40% of their total).
  Possible target metrics:
  • % or number of strategic suppliers (e.g., by spend or invested value) to set science-aligned targets by a given year.
  • Reducing supplier GHG emissions by a specified percentage by a given target year.
• Publicly state your supplier engagement target.
• Include interim goals in the run up to 2030 to facilitate progress.

Calculating Scope 3 emissions identifies hotspots and GHG reduction potential across the supply chain, informing where supplier engagement is likely to yield the greatest impact, therefore allowing companies to use limited resources most effectively.

• Perform a full Scope 3 emissions inventory based on the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.
• Understand the main GHG hotspots across your supply chain, the GHG reduction potential, suppliers’ maturities, and buyer leverage.
• Prioritize which suppliers to engage with directly for maximum impact, and which to direct at publicly available tools and sources like the SME Climate Hub (for small and medium sized suppliers).
  • Decision criteria for prioritization may include suppliers’ risk exposure, strategic importance, or maturity in decarbonization.

• Conduct a full Scope 3 emissions inventory to understand where the largest GHG emissions sources are located within your entire supply chain, including of tiers 2, 3, and beyond.
• Identify which suppliers to include in your supplier engagement target, typically by ranking suppliers according to their portion of your total Scope 3 emissions but sometimes also by geography or product category.
• Prioritize which suppliers to engage with directly, using criteria such as emissions volume, emissions reduction potential, readiness of suppliers to engage, strength of relationship with suppliers, strategic status of suppliers, suppliers’ emissions maturity, and suppliers’ risk levels.

• • Direct engagement with selected suppliers can help facilitate climate action and focus resources where they are likely to make the biggest impact.
  • Support can be provided to other suppliers through connections to publicly available resources, like the SME Climate Hub (for small and medium sized suppliers) or SBTi (1.5°C goal set out in the Paris).