‘Suppliers and venues aren’t ready, and won’t share data.’ It’s a common way to explain why supply chain emissions stay unmeasured, and it usually reflects a real experience: a request for carbon data lands nowhere, or comes back as a general sustainability policy PDF instead of numbers.
However, the assumption that suppliers can’t or won’t provide this data doesn’t hold up against what they’re already tracking. Fuel, power, loads and waste are part of how they run their business day to day. The information exists. It’s how we’re requesting the data that’s usually the problem.
The reality behind the excuse
Suppliers and venues tend to hold more insight than people assume. Fuel, power, loads and waste are part of their normal operations and often data requests aren’t being made optimally. Broad questions about sustainability credentials get vague answers. Specific requests, ideally tied to a contract and a deadline, tend to get solid numbers.
Almost the entire footprint of an event, 97.9%, sits in the supply chain, which means it can’t be measured around, only measured through. As Troy Renolds of Imaginneurs puts it in the guide: 5 Simple Steps to Engage Your Supply Chain, ‘There’s currently no onus on small businesses to provide information to big companies, but there’s no reason why a small business shouldn’t be able to report on its Scope 1 and 2 emissions, you just need your bills.’
What this looks like in practice
Successfully obtaining supplier data is about asking earlier and being more specific:
- Start early: Build sustainability requirements and data expectations into RFPs, briefs and onboarding conversations from the outset, rather than a follow-up once the contract is signed.
- Understand your supplier: get to know what data is available and it what format. Work with them.
- Give more lead time: Longer timelines aren’t just for delivery. Suppliers need time to collect data too, particularly smaller ones without a dedicated sustainability function within their team.
- Set clear expectations: Define what data you need, when, and how it should be submitted. A template or a defined format gives you a better chance of getting answers than an open-ended ask.
- Embed commitments in contracts: Measurement and reporting requirements carry more weight written into a contract than raised informally during delivery.
- Tailor the approach by supplier size: Be consistent but patient with smaller or under-resourced suppliers, and expect more from larger ones who have the capacity to deliver..
The business case for taking it seriously
Supply chain engagement is fast being solidified as a compliance exercise. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Green Claims Directive, and incoming circular economy legislation all push in the same direction: better reporting and data sharing across the full value chain. Just reporting on your own operations emissions is not enough.
Getting this right also has a direct payoff. Reliable supplier data improves reporting accuracy and reduces exposure to greenwashing accusations, an increasingly costly risk under the Green Claims Directive. It cuts the time lost to repeated back-and-forth requests. And it strengthens supplier relationships rather than straining them, something Hannah Robinson of BMA House sums up plainly: ‘All of these requirements are just making us be a better business.’
The practical next step is picking one supplier relationship, usually the one with the biggest share of your event’s footprint, and asking a specific, well-timed question instead of a broad one. The data is very likely already sitting in an invoice or a utility bill.
TRACE’s free guide, 5 Simple Steps to Engage Your Supply Chain, walks through this process in more detail, including what to expect and how to handle the suppliers who push back.
