The good news is that more than three quarters (78%) of respondents recognise that reducing scope 3 emissions is important to them; in fact only 10% stated that it wasn’t important. However just over one-third (39%) of those surveyed admitted to being underprepared to report emissions under management, indicating that there is clearly work to be done to bridge this gap.  

In fact, less than a quarter (23%) feel that the business strategy for scope 3 has been adequately communicated. These types of programmes require strong leadership and regular communications on actions and results; however, only one third (33%) of respondents feel they have sufficient education on the subject, with 27% saying they have some knowledge, and only 6% feeling they are ‘well educated’.  

The report reviews responses from over 200 enterprise-level corporate procurement, sustainable procurement, and sustainability professionals representing a broad range of industry verticals, with a focus on sectors with high addressable spend.

Commenting on the report, Richard Hogg, Vizibl CEO, says: “The main trend we found in this first report is that most companies – despite having overall pledges to reduce scope 3 at the corporate level – are not doing a great job of cascading the realities of achieving these goals down to the people tasked with making this happen.  

“What is encouraging is that the market clearly understands the value of reducing these value chain emissions, but we found that the majority of respondents are struggling with a lack of education on the subject itself and uncertainty around how, in their roles, they can directly contribute to reducing scope 3.”  

Delving into the barriers to achieving their pledges and robustly reducing scope 3 emissions, more than a third (38%) cited a lack of data availability and/or quality. This was followed by supplier engagement and internal alignment (14% respectively), followed by budgets and incentives (11% respectively).    

When asked whether they had the correct technology stack to work alongside suppliers to reduce emissions in line with targets, only 5% said they have the full tech stack they need to properly manage and reduce emissions. Worryingly 29% admitted to having no technology, while 14% didn’t know and 26% said they had some technology to support their requirements.  

Richard Hogg continues: “There is no doubt that having good data will help enterprises to move closer to their targets, however this shouldn’t prevent organisations from taking action now, as they endeavour to seek the perfect datasets. Here at Vizibl we advocate taking action and moving forward with what you have, while making sure you’re always improving data quality and breadth over time.   

“It is also clear that all but a few feel they have adequate tech stacks to help in this process, which is somewhat alarming. Overall, while areas of this report are encouraging, the unavoidable takeaway is that at present we are worryingly immature and woefully unprepared to tackle the climate challenge. The 2030 deadline is looming and every 5 weeks sees 1% of the decade disappear.”  

With over ten years’ experience in the procurement technology sector, Vizibl’s market-leading Supplier Collaboration and Innovation (SC&I) platform enables procurement teams to effectively tap into hidden value in supply chains. Vizibl’s platform provides a unique and powerful combination of Supplier Relationship Management and Supplier Sustainability Management, along with a Supplier Collaboration Workspace and Supplier Innovation Hub.