For most organizations working toward meaningful carbon reduction, scope 3 emissions are the elephant in the room. They typically account for the vast majority of a company’s total carbon footprint, yet they sit outside direct operational control. That’s what makes them both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity. And at the heart of scope 3 strategy? Your suppliers.
Engaging suppliers in your scope 3 reduction efforts isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. With frameworks like the CSRD and SBTi pushing companies to account for their full value chain emissions, supply chain sustainability has become a core business priority in 2026. The good news is that supplier collaboration, done well, benefits everyone involved. Here’s how to make it work.
Why suppliers hold the key to scope 3 emissions
Scope 3 emissions cover everything that happens outside your own operations, from the raw materials your suppliers extract to the way customers eventually dispose of your products. Categories like purchased goods and services, upstream transportation, and business travel can collectively represent anywhere from 70 to over 90 percent of a company’s total emissions footprint, depending on the industry. That means your own operational improvements, however important, will only take you so far.
This is why supplier engagement is so central to any credible scope 3 strategy. The companies that make the most progress on carbon reduction aren’t just cleaning up their own house. They’re working closely with the businesses they buy from, sharing data, setting expectations, and building relationships that make emissions reductions possible across the entire value chain. Without that collaboration, scope 3 targets remain aspirational rather than achievable.
Mapping your supply chain to prioritize engagement
Before reaching out to a single supplier, it’s worth getting clear on where your biggest emissions hotspots actually are. Not all suppliers contribute equally to your scope 3 footprint, and spreading your engagement efforts too thin too early is one of the most common mistakes companies make.
A practical starting point is a spend-based emissions analysis, which uses procurement data to estimate emissions across supplier categories. This won’t give you perfect accuracy, but it’s a fast way to identify which categories and suppliers are likely responsible for the largest share of your footprint. From there, you can layer in additional factors like supplier size, geographic location, and the availability of primary data to build a prioritization framework that’s grounded in real impact rather than guesswork.
Once you have a clearer picture, segment your suppliers into tiers. Your tier-one suppliers, those you buy from directly, are usually the most accessible and the best place to start. Deeper tiers are harder to reach but may be worth the effort for high-impact categories. The goal isn’t to engage every supplier at once. It’s to focus your energy where it will move the needle most on your overall carbon reduction goals.
Practical strategies to bring suppliers on board
Getting suppliers genuinely engaged rather than just nominally compliant takes more than sending out a questionnaire. The most effective approaches combine clear expectations with real support.
- Set clear, measurable expectations: Suppliers respond better when they know exactly what you’re asking for. Whether that’s submitting emissions data through a platform like CDP, committing to science-based targets via SBTi, or providing product-level carbon data, specificity helps suppliers understand what “good” looks like.
- Offer education and capacity building: Many suppliers, especially smaller ones, simply don’t have the internal knowledge to measure or reduce their emissions. Hosting workshops, sharing resources, or connecting them with relevant tools can make the difference between a supplier who wants to engage and one who actually can.
- Use procurement as a lever: Incorporating sustainability criteria into supplier selection and contract renewals sends a strong signal that this isn’t optional. Rewarding progress with preferred supplier status or longer-term contracts creates a genuine incentive to act.
- Collaborate on solutions: Rather than just passing down requirements, explore joint initiatives. Co-investing in renewable energy for a key supplier, or working together to redesign a packaging process, often delivers faster results than a top-down mandate.
What ties all of these together is the shift from compliance to partnership. Suppliers who feel supported and valued are far more likely to go beyond the minimum and contribute meaningfully to your shared supply chain sustainability goals. The relationships you build matter just as much as the tools and processes you put in place.
Common barriers to supplier collaboration and how to overcome them
Even with the best intentions on both sides, supplier collaboration on scope 3 emissions runs into predictable obstacles. Knowing what they are makes it easier to plan around them.
One of the most common is data availability. Many suppliers, particularly in manufacturing or agriculture, haven’t historically tracked their emissions in a way that’s useful for scope 3 reporting. The fix here isn’t to demand perfect data immediately. Starting with estimates, being transparent about methodology, and gradually improving data quality over time is a far more realistic and productive approach.
Capacity constraints are another real barrier, especially for small and medium-sized suppliers who don’t have dedicated sustainability teams. This is where your role as a customer becomes important. Pointing suppliers toward accessible frameworks, or even subsidizing access to tools and training, can unlock engagement that wouldn’t happen otherwise.
There’s also the challenge of competing priorities. Sustainability may be central to your strategy, but your suppliers are managing a dozen other pressures at once. Framing carbon reduction in terms of cost savings, risk management, and future business opportunities tends to land better than a purely environmental argument. When suppliers see a clear business case, the conversation shifts from burden to opportunity.
Measuring progress and keeping suppliers accountable
Engagement without accountability tends to stall. Building a system to track supplier progress is what turns good intentions into actual emissions reductions.
Start by establishing a baseline. Before you can measure progress, you need to know where suppliers are starting from. This might mean collecting self-reported data, using spend-based estimates, or requesting third-party verified figures from larger suppliers. The level of rigor you apply should match the scale of the supplier’s contribution to your footprint.
From there, set milestones rather than just end goals. Annual check-ins, progress reports, or regular data submissions through platforms like CDP give you visibility and give suppliers a structure to work within. Tracking metrics like the percentage of suppliers with approved SBTi targets, or the share of your spend covered by primary emissions data, can help you report meaningful progress both internally and in disclosures under frameworks like the CSRD.
Transparency also plays a role. Sharing aggregated results with your supplier base, recognizing progress publicly, and being honest about where gaps remain creates a culture of accountability that’s harder to build when everything happens behind closed doors. Suppliers who see that their peers are making progress are more likely to step up themselves.
Ready to move faster on your scope 3 strategy?
Building a supplier engagement program that actually works takes time, expertise, and often a very specific kind of knowledge. Scope 3 emissions reduction is a specialized area, and the right support can make a significant difference in how quickly and effectively you make progress.
That’s where we come in. At Dazzle, we match organizations with pre-screened sustainability freelancers who specialize in exactly this kind of work, whether you need someone to lead your supplier engagement program, build out your data collection process, or support your broader scope 3 strategy. Our network of 150+ experts is available on a project or interim basis, and we can connect you with the right specialist within 48 hours. If you’re ready to get moving, reach out to our team and let’s find the right fit for your challenge.
If you’re interested in learning more, contact our team of experts today.
