---
id: KB-NO-016
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/regulation/when-you-are-asked-for-sustainability-data
idioma: en
categoria: normativa
subcategoria: cadena
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-NO-004, KB-NO-010]
citadoPor: [KB-IU-013]
---

# When you are asked for sustainability data

_A large client sends an environmental questionnaire. What you can answer with what you already have, and what not to invent._

**Responde a:** client environmental questionnaire · they ask for our carbon footprint · sustainability data for a supplier · sme sustainability reporting

Increasingly, a large client that buys from you asks for environmental data: consumption, waste, material origin, sometimes footprint. They are not asking out of conviction: it is being asked of them and they need the part that comes through you. And most of those questions are answerable with what you already have, if it is findable.

## The three kinds of question, and where each answer comes from

| Kind | Example | Where the answer comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What you already measure by obligation | Waste handed to a contractor, invoiced consumption | Your own documents |
| What you know but have not gathered | Which materials you buy and from whom | Supplier documentation |
| What has to be calculated | Footprint attached to a product or a shipment | A calculation with criteria, not a document |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The difference between the first two and the third is what keeps you out of trouble. The first two are **collection**: you have the data and need to assemble it. The third is a **calculation with assumptions**, and a figure calculated with no method behind it becomes a claim you will have to sustain every year and that a client may ask to have audited.

## How to answer without over-committing

1. **Separate measured from estimated, and say so** — "Actual invoiced consumption" and "estimate based on X" are two different answers, and both are valid when labelled.
2. **Answer with the period and the source** — A figure with no period or origin is useless to the recipient and forces you to redo it.
3. **Do not promise improvements you have not decided** — A commitment in a questionnaire ends up in next year's contract.
4. **And keep what you answered, dated** — Next year they will ask the same and you will have to be consistent.

> [!WARNING]
> Point four catches most companies in year two. A questionnaire answered from memory today and another answered from memory twelve months later almost always contradict each other — and to the client, that contradiction matters more than either figure. Keeping your answers is not bureaucracy: it is what makes the second answer defensible.

## What you already have that helps

**En corto**

- Waste transfer documents and who collects it.
- Consumption from your own utility invoices.
- Origin and certifications of the raw materials you buy.
- And transport documentation, if they ask about shipments.

Those four cover most of a typical supplier questionnaire. What they do not cover is exactly what is worth reviewing with someone before answering.

> [!NOTE]
> Sustainability reporting frameworks, who they bind and from when are moving, and what is voluntary for you today may arrive through your client before it arrives through the rules. **What applies to you and with what scope is a question for your adviser**; this only describes how to organise the answer with what already exists in your documents.

**Can I say we do not measure it?**

Yes, and it beats inventing it. Add what you do measure and since when.

**Do we need certification?**

To answer a questionnaire, hardly ever. Ask before investing.

**What if the client insists on data we do not have?**

Then it is a business decision: calculate it with a method, or say it is not available.

## Ejemplos

**A small firm receives an environmental questionnaire from its largest client and considers estimating figures.**

- Answers with what is measured and labels what is estimated
- Keeps the answers with their period and source

→ The following year it answers in an afternoon without contradicting itself, which is what the client checks.

**Figures nobody can back up are given.**

- Answers with what is already measured, and says so

→ What is declared holds up.

**What is not held is left blank.**

- Explains what is not yet measured and from when it will be

→ An explained gap reads as a footnote.

**The data sits in invoices and delivery notes, ungrouped.**

- Gathers what already exists into a file

→ There turns out to be more than it seemed.

**Every year it is rebuilt from scratch.**

- Keeps what was answered with its evidence

→ The following year starts from there.

**A figure depends on a supplier who does not reply.**

- Records the request and the reply

→ The gap is documented rather than blank.