Introducing our Supplier Engagement Tool

What’s new? A simpler way to collect supplier emissions data

One of the biggest blockers to a more accurate Scope 3 footprint is getting clear, usable data back from suppliers. In practice, the process of supplier data collection often turns into a long email chain, a fair bit of confusion, and information that’s hard to use, or can’t be used at all.

So, we’ve built a simpler way to collect supplier emissions data, from directly within the Seedling platform - with a clear request form that suppliers can complete in minutes, and responses that pull straight through into your footprint.  

Why we built it

Seedling is designed to make carbon measurement manageable for busy teams, with an expert in your corner when you need one.  

Supply chain emissions are often a real sticking point. Emissions data from your suppliers can be limited, and where it exists it can be tricky to pull together. More and more teams are aiming to tackle the challenge of better supply chain engagement when it comes to carbon data.

Seedling’s Supplier Engagement Tool helps solve this key challenge, by providing an easy way to collect data in the correct format, and that integrates automatically into your Seedling footprint. It’s built to make supply chain emissions reporting quicker, clearer, and much easier to manage.

How it works

From within Seedling, you can now:

• Send suppliers a clear, straightforward data request form

• Send via email straight from the platform, or generate a shareable link

• Collect responses that automatically pull through to your Seedling footprint

No copying data between tools, no translating data into revenue-based metrics, just one clear request, and automatic data collection.

What you’ll get from it

This feature is designed to help you:

• Improve Scope 3 data quality over time, without making supplier requests feel like a huge and daunting job

• Reduce admin/back-and-forth, so you spend less time collecting data and more time acting on it

• Build a better supplier conversation, starting with a simple, structured ask

• Keep your footprint work in one place on the Seedling platform, alongside the rest of your measurement and reporting workflow  

A tip for getting better response rates

If you’re rolling this out for the first time, here's how to start:

1. Pick your priority suppliers first (the ones most likely to influence your footprint)

2. Explain the ‘why’ to get buy-in (e.g. this is important to us as we’re: responding to data requests from our customers / meeting regulatory reporting needs)

3. Lean on Seedling’s form to describe the exact data needed – skip the confusion over emissions attribution and format.

Your Seedling adviser can also help you figure out where supplier-specific data will make the biggest difference to accuracy.  

And if your suppliers don't have carbon data just now, refer them to Seedling and you'll get £250 (for yourself or the planet).

Ready to try it?

If you’re already using Seedling, you’ll find the Supplier Engagement Tool available within the platform – the video at the top of this article shows you where to find it.

And if you’re not yet using Seedling, you can sign up here to explore the free-version of our platform here, and see how we help growing teams measure a full-scope footprint and report with confidence.