Dive Brief:

• Global automakers and suppliers collaborated to release the Automotive Climate Action Questionnaire to improve consistency in Scope 3 emissions reporting, according to an April 3 press release from Suppliers Partnership for the Environment.
• Participating automakers and suppliers include Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, Denso and Toyota Motor North America.
• The questionnaire provides a standardized template that can help companies collect supplier information to “measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions within their supply chains,” Kellen Mahoney, director for Suppliers Partnership for the Environment, said in an email.

Dive Insight:

Although companies have been shifting toward greener operations for years, Scope 3 remains the most challenging to measure and control. While scopes 1 and 2 are emissions directly made by a company, Scope 3 covers the rest of a company’s supply chain, where outside vendors and other partners come into play.

Scope 3 is the largest carbon emitter for many businesses, but gaining a line of sight into those emissions can be difficult. According to an IBM report from September 2023, just 38% of over 3,000 surveyed businesses were tracking their Scope 3 emissions. Creating a standardized way for suppliers to self-report can increase visibility.

The Automotive Climate Action Questionnaire, which is hosted through the Manufacture 2030 program that gives access to learning tools and support services, asks about suppliers’ climate goals and targets. It also collects data on energy consumption and water consumption, waste generation, and other environmental metrics at the site level, Mahoney said.

Automakers can invite their suppliers to complete the Automotive Climate Action Questionnaire annually, Mahoney said. Suppliers only need to fill out the questionnaire once, then select which data to share with which manufacturers based on their specific inquiries. The responses are fed into an interactive dashboard that allows manufacturers to track emissions and energy-reduction efforts, he added.

The supplier pool has grown from more than 12,000 sites in 2023 to nearly 20,000 sites now being invited to participate by participating automotive supply chain owners, according to the press release.

The questionnaire also builds on existing industry guidance developed through Suppliers Partnership for the Environment, including a Scope 3 Maturity Benchmark and a variety of documents and tools.

“It can be quite difficult for suppliers to manage responding to different requests for sustainability data from various different stakeholders, so this is providing a standardized template which seeks to improve consistency and reduce reporting burdens by aligning around a set of common questions and definitions,” Mahoney said.