Product-level carbon data: Procurement's newest currency
December 16, 2025By Tyler DiFiore, ClimatePartner USA
From Climate Week NYC to COP30, the biggest challenge sustainability and procurement leaders identified is decarbonizing the supply chain. Many organizations have already calculated their scope 1 and 2 emissions and started to implement reduction measures. Scope 3 is less straightforward, but more rewarding.
Because scope 3 emissions sit largely outside direct operational control, addressing them requires new approaches, creative solutions, and meaningful collaboration across the value chain. For procurement teams and suppliers, this is increasingly showing up as a new kind of requirement in tenders and supplier scorecards: product-level carbon data.
Leading companies are responding by leveraging Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs). By requiring suppliers to disclose product-level carbon data, buyers can report more accurate scope 3 footprints, make better-informed purchasing decisions, and accelerate progress toward climate targets.
Suppliers that can provide credible PCFs are better positioned to win—and retain—business as carbon becomes a core part of commercial decisions.
Why buyers need accurate product carbon data
For buyers, supplier product carbon data is essential to achieving meaningful climate impact. Over 12,000 companies have set targets or commitments with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), signaling a clear priority to reduce emissions in line with climate science. Achieving reduction targets, whether near-term or net zero, requires high-quality carbon data from across the value chain.
In many sectors, 90% of emissions in a Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) come from scope 3, especially category 1 (purchased goods and services). As a result, engaging suppliers and obtaining product-level data has become a foundational element of any decarbonization strategy. When suppliers calculate and reduce their PCFs, buyers benefit through more accurate scope 3 data and a clearer view of where to focus reduction efforts.
Additionally, this high-quality product-level data can show that supply chain impacts are lower than generic spend-based models would suggest. This provides a more accurate baseline for climate action, helps organizations avoid over- and under-estimating their footprint, and supports more precise target-setting.
Some of the largest corporations are already making carbon data a core requirement for suppliers. About 94% of PepsiCo’s emissions are scope 3, making supplier engagement central to its climate strategy. To better understand these emissions, the multinational food and beverage company has required its largest suppliers to submit PCFs aligned with global carbon accounting standards, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. These PCFs are updated annually to maintain accuracy and to verify progress from decarbonization activities. PepsiCo’s focused approach—engaging a small number of high-impact suppliers—offers a scalable model for companies of any size.
How suppliers turn carbon data into commercial value
For suppliers, calculating a PCF is not just about compliance—it’s increasingly a source of competitive advantage. As procurement teams integrate carbon metrics into sourcing decisions, PCFs provide critical information that can differentiate one supplier from another when everything else looks similar.
Offering low-emission products, and being able to quantify those emissions, leads to tangible commercial benefits, including:
- Preferred supplier status or “preferred buyer” opportunities
- Higher sustainability scores in RFP evaluations
- Access to long-term contracts or exclusive partnerships
Beyond commercial positioning, the process of calculating PCFs can increase efficiency in product design, manufacturing processes, energy use, and transport.
The advantage for suppliers is clear in Nike’s “Move to Zero” initiative. Product design teams use internal sustainability indices built on environmental data to assess materials, manufacturing processes, and design choices. The indices, developed from data supplied by 741 vendors and comparing over 57,000 different materials, allow designers to select lower-impact materials and more efficient production methods. Suppliers who provided this data were positioned as preferred partners and rewarded for demonstrating emissions reductions.
Competitive today, compliant tomorrow
Carbon transparency has become core commercial information, not a “nice-to-have.” Buyers need PCFs to reduce their scope 3 emissions, while suppliers that calculate and improve their PCFs strengthen customer relationships and gain a competitive edge in procurement.
At the same time, calculating PCFs for key products helps prepare organizations for emerging regulatory requirements. Frameworks such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will see product-level emissions data increasingly become a requirement rather than an option.
ClimatePartner works directly with suppliers to standardize PCF calculations, improve data quality over time, and develop buyer-ready footprint documentation. This enables suppliers to respond confidently to customer requests, support their buyers’ climate targets, and build long-term commercial partnerships in a low-carbon economy.