Understanding industrial buyers’ motivations for CO₂e data requests: Implications for standardized supplier reporting

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Useful qualitative evidence on how Scope 3 data requests operate in practice and where standardization gaps lie.

🏢実務担当者:Suppliers can use this to anticipate buyer expectations on product-level CO2e data; buyers can benchmark their own request practices.

🏛政策担当者:Shows that regulation is a key driver of supplier-level data requests, yet standardization and comparability remain unresolved—useful for designing disclosure mandates.

Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions have been a constant global issue. Industrial companies are therefore facing rising pressure to be more transparent in their environmental performance. Companies have been required to measure and report emissions, and to extend this transparency across their supply chains. As a result, industrial buyers are increasingly requesting CO2e data from their suppliers. However, what is truly behind these requests and what is expected in terms of data and reporting practices are still unclear. This thesis attempts to support a case company to investigate the reasons behind the requests made by industrial customers for CO2e data, the types of data they require, and how this data is expected to be communicated. The research was carried out as a qualitative study, with the focus on industrial customers of the case company. Semi-structured interview was used to collect primary data from professionals in procurement, sustainability, and related functions. Data was analyzed with thematic analysis to identify patterns and key themes across the interviews. The findings suggest that CO2e data requests are mainly driven by pressures from outside the organizations, especially regulations and customer expectations, while internal sustainability targets further drive these requests. In terms of data, product-level emissions are mentioned as the most required type of information since they can be directly linked to purchased quantities and used in calculations of Scope 3 emissions. In addition, transport emissions are also gaining attention as part of the total product footprint, although methods to handle them are also not yet well developed. However, it was also observed that CO2e data is still primarily used for reporting purposes, rather than as a key factor in procurement decision-making. A number of challenges were also discovered. There is a lack of standardized data, difficulties in comparing emissions across suppliers, and challenges in integrating CO2e data into procurement processes. In summary, companies appear to be in a transitional phase, with systems and processes for collecting CO2e data becoming more established, but the practical use of this data in procurement decisions is still developing. The study will provide insights on customer expectations and outlines key challenges and considerations to improve CO2e reporting practices in industrial supply chains.

• openalex https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/145595first seen 2026-08-02 16:55:53 · last seen 2026-08-02 16:55:55