Regulation and sustainability
When the supplier does not have the data
The commonest situation when new regulation starts, and what to do without blocking everything.
You ask for composition, origin or footprint and the supplier says they do not have it. They are not lying: most likely nobody ever asked them, and they in turn depend on their own supplier. It is the commonest situation at the start and it has to be handled without stopping supply.
What to do, in order
- 1
Record that you asked
With its date. It is what shows diligence even if the data never arrives, and it is what you will be asked about.
- 2
Ask which part they do have
It is rarely all or nothing. Often they have origin but not footprint, or the reverse.
- 3
Give a realistic deadline
If they depend on their supplier, two weeks is not enough. An impossible deadline guarantees no answer.
- 4
Decide whether it changes anything
Do you keep buying? Look for an alternative? It is a commercial decision worth taking rather than leaving open.
Important
What you must not do is fill the gap with an estimate and treat it as fact. If you pass it to a customer as a firm figure, that number carries your signature and your company answers for it, not the supplier who did not have it.
What you can answer meanwhile
"We do not hold that data as of today; we requested it from our supplier on X and expect it by Y." That is a professional, verifiable answer and far better than an invented number. Most customers accept it; those who do not are asking you to lie.
Watch out
If several customers ask for the same data, do not chase it separately. One case per supplier with the request made once serves to answer all of them, and stops the supplier receiving the same request four times.
Worth knowing
The sooner you start asking, the less it hurts. Suppliers who lack it today will acquire it, and those asking you will do so on ever shorter deadlines.
›Can I require it contractually?
On future renewals it is standard; check with your adviser.
›What if they never provide it?
That is information for a commercial decision. The case at least proves you asked.
›Is an unsupported declaration from them enough?
It depends on the data and who you pass it to; ask before assuming it suffices.
A real case
The situation
A manufacturer receives the same origin request from three customers and lacks it from eight suppliers.
What you do
- Launches a single request per supplier with a two-month deadline
- Tells all three customers what it has and when the rest will come
What you get
Keeps all three customers without inventing a figure, and two months later holds six of the eight.
The situation
The supplier says they do not have the data and it stops there.
What you do
- Records the request and the reply
What you get
The gap is a documented finding rather than silence.
The situation
The whole file is blocked over one missing figure.
What you do
- Moves on with the rest and flags that point
What you get
What can be completed is completed.
The situation
The supplier does not understand what is being asked.
What you do
- Explains the data point with an example
What you get
The reply arrives on the second request.
The situation
The data sits with your supplier's supplier.
What you do
- Asks them to pass it back up the chain
What you get
The chain is walked to where the data is.
The situation
An estimate is invented to fill the gap.
What you do
- Declares it as an estimate and on what basis
What you get
What is declared is defensible.
This article answers
- my supplier cannot give me the composition
- supplier without sustainability data
- what to do when origin data is unavailable
- non-eu supplier not responding with data