How Do You Engage Low-Maturity Suppliers? Key Insights from the PACT Scope 3 Summit 2025

‍New York City, October 2025. At this year’s PACT Scope 3 Summit, more than 120 sustainability practitioners convened during New York Climate Week to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in corporate climate action: how to effectively engage suppliers with low climate maturity in Scope 3 decarbonization.

Hosted at SAP’s offices in Hudson Yards, the Summit marked a defining moment for the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) and the wider ecosystem driving product-level carbon data exchange. Participants from leading global companies, consultancies, and technology providers came together for an action-oriented dialogue on building the practical, inclusive foundations needed for credible Scope 3 progress.

Why this matters

For most companies, Scope 3 emissions account for the vast majority of their footprint, often more than 80%. Yet many suppliers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and early-stage corporates, face significant barriers to measuring and reducing emissions: limited resources, inconsistent requests, complex methodologies, and uncertainty around how their data will be used.

This year’s discussions made it clear that unlocking Scope 3 decarbonization requires more than data collection. It demands trust, clarity, and shared accountability between buyers and suppliers.

Four key lessons for buyers engaging low-maturity suppliers

Across panels, workshops, and roundtable discussions, participants distilled four practical insights for companies mobilizing suppliers earlier in their climate journeys:

1. Start with the “why.”
   Before asking for carbon data, companies must clearly explain why they are requesting it, how it will be used, and what it means for suppliers. Data requests without context risk being seen as box-ticking exercises rather than opportunities for joint business value, and risk being ignored.

2. Listen before you lead.
   True progress comes from dialogue, not directives. Listening to suppliers, especially their operational constraints, helps shape achievable goals and fosters a sense of partnership rather than compliance.

3. Meet suppliers where they are.
   Not all suppliers share the same level of climate maturity. Segmenting suppliers by capability and industry, and tailoring engagement accordingly, is far more effective than one-size-fits-all approaches.

4. Share the responsibility.
   Buyers should help suppliers secure internal buy-in and resources rather than shifting the burden entirely onto them. Support might include co-developing business cases, connecting sustainability goals to procurement decisions, and celebrating supplier achievements publicly.

Collective insights from across the ecosystem

Roundtable discussions led by Bain & Company, Fujitsu, RMI, SAP, Schneider Electric, Scope 3 Peer Group, UL Solutions, and Unilever, together with contributions from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), revealed a growing maturity and pragmatism in how organizations approach Scope 3 decarbonization. Across industries, participants identified five common themes shaping progress today:

• From data to decisions: Companies are increasingly integrating supplier-specific Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data into procurement processes, hotspot analyses, and product innovation, turning transparency into tangible business value.

• From tools to trust: Digital tools are essential, but they only work when paired with simplicity, segmentation, and collaboration. Building trust, aligning internally, and recognizing supplier efforts remain critical for scaling adoption.

• From measurement to action: Perfect data is not a prerequisite for progress. Organizations are acting now, piloting clean energy initiatives, linking carbon data to procurement incentives, and using insights to guide improvement.

• From fragmentation to harmonization: Participants emphasized the importance of aligning methodologies and frameworks to reduce supplier burden. Progress on interoperability between standards such as ISO and PACT was seen as a vital enabler of credible, scalable implementation.

• From regional pilots to global collaboration: Shared methodologies and localized engagement are proving successful in bridging regional supply chains, demonstrating that standardized frameworks can empower collective action across geographies.

Together, these insights reflected a shift from compliance-driven reporting to value-driven collaboration, a signal that Scope 3 decarbonization is moving from intention to implementation.

Major PACT announcements

The Summit also marked two key milestones for the Partnership for Carbon Transparency:

1. Opening membership to all companies
   PACT has expanded beyond WBCSD members, now welcoming organizations of any size and sector. This change lowers barriers to entry, democratizes access to PACT tools and networks, and strengthens the credibility of carbon data exchange across the value chain.

2. Launching the PACT Consultancy Accelerator
   This new program empowers consultancies to scale supply chain decarbonization by building the technical and advisory capacity needed to support suppliers worldwide. It reflects PACT’s commitment to building an open, collaborative ecosystem where expertise can multiply impact.

To find out more information and join PACT, please go here.  

From conversation to action

The tone of this year’s Summit was refreshingly pragmatic. Conversations were candid, often self-reflective, and focused on progress over perfection. Attendees left with tangible next steps, whether testing supplier segmentation approaches, aligning procurement incentives with PCF data, or refining verification methods for credible reporting.

One unifying message emerged: decarbonization is a shared responsibility. Buyers, suppliers, and solution providers must move forward together, each accountable for translating carbon data into business decisions that drive measurable emissions reduction.

Looking ahead

As global regulations tighten and expectations for transparency grow, PACT continues to serve as a bridge between ambition and implementation, building the infrastructure, methodologies, and community that make credible Scope 3 action possible.

The 2025 Summit reaffirmed what the PACT community has long believed: real progress starts when data becomes dialogue, and dialogue becomes action.

Join PACT

Be part of a collaborative network driving supply chain decarbonization. Join PACT.  

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