Sustainable Supply Chains & Scope 3
Measure Scope 3, engage suppliers, score their data, run due diligence and prepare for CBAM with practical tools and worked examples.
- Last updated 12 Nov 2026
- English
- Intermediate
- 5 CPD hours
What you’ll learn
- Screen the 15 Scope 3 categories and prioritise the material ones
- Calculate spend-based, average-data and supplier-specific estimates and explain their limits
- Design a supplier engagement programme and score supplier data risk
- Apply supplier codes of conduct, risk-based due diligence and audits with corrective action tracking
- Explain CBAM obligations and prepare installation-level embedded emissions data as an exporter
- Embed sustainability criteria in procurement policy, tenders, contracts and performance reporting
Course content
6 sections · 24 lessons · 4h 33m total length
-
Most of the footprint is outside the fence
For most companies, the largest part of their environmental and social footprint is not in their own buildings and vehicles. It is in what they buy and what happens to what they sell. In greenhouse gas accounting this is Scope 3: all indirect emissions in the value chain that are not purchased energy (Scope 2). For a retailer, a bank, a food company or a construction contractor, Scope 3 is often much larger than Scopes 1 and 2 combined, and much of it sits with suppliers.
The same is true for social and governance risks. Forced labour, unsafe working conditions, bribery by intermediaries and pollution by subcontractors may happen in another company, but customers, investors, lenders and regulators increasingly hold the buying company accountable for knowing about them and acting.
Four pressures moving down the chain
- Customers. Large buyers set their own Scope 3 targets and ask suppliers for emissions data, product footprints and codes of conduct. A supplier in Egypt, Morocco or Kenya selling to a European retailer receives the same questionnaire as a supplier in Spain.
- Regulation. The EU's sustainability reporting standards (ESRS) require value-chain information where material. The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) requires importers of certain goods to report and pay for embedded emissions, so they ask exporters for data. Due diligence laws in several European countries and at EU level push companies to assess human rights and environmental risks in their chains.
- Capital. Investors and banks ask about Scope 3 through ISSB (IFRS S2), CDP and their own financed-emissions work.
- Resilience. Supply disruptions from climate events, water stress or sanctions show that knowing your suppliers is also basic risk management.
What this course covers
- Scope 3: the 15 categories, how to screen them and how to calculate with spend-based and supplier-specific data.
- Supplier engagement: segmenting suppliers, requesting data, reviewing it and scoring how far it can be relied on.
- Codes of conduct, risk-based due diligence and audits.
- CBAM and what it means for exporters in our regions.
- Sustainable procurement policy: tenders, contracts and metrics.
Vignette
A packaging manufacturer in the UAE received requests from three multinational customers in one quarter, each asking for the carbon footprint of its products and evidence of a supplier code of conduct. Its own Scope 1 and 2 data were in good shape, but it had no information from its resin and paper suppliers. Its first step was not a sophisticated model: it ranked suppliers by spend, estimated their emissions with spend-based factors, and invited the ten largest to submit their own figures. Within a year, supplier-specific data covered most of its purchased-goods footprint.
Common mistakes
- Waiting for perfect data before starting. A transparent estimate with a plan to improve is better than silence.
- Treating supply-chain sustainability as a reporting exercise only. The goal is to reduce emissions and risks, not to fill tables.
- Leaving procurement out. Sustainability teams cannot engage hundreds of suppliers without the people who hold the contracts.
- The 15 Scope 3 categories and relevance screening · Article 14:00
- The spend-based method: a first estimate · Article 14:00
- Activity and supplier-specific data: moving up the hierarchy · Article 13:00
- Knowledge check — Scope 3 basics · Quiz 04:00
- Segmenting suppliers: where to start · Article 12:00
- Requesting and reviewing supplier data · Article 13:00
- Scoring supplier data risk · Article 15:00
- From data collection to joint reduction · Article 13:00
- Knowledge check — Supplier engagement · Quiz 04:00
- Supplier codes of conduct and onboarding · Article 13:00
- Risk-based due diligence in the supply chain · Article 14:00
- Supplier audits and corrective action · Article 13:00
- Knowledge check — Codes, due diligence and audits · Quiz 04:00
- CBAM in brief: goods, timeline and actors · Article 14:00
- Embedded emissions: actual versus default values · Article 14:00
- Estimating the CBAM cost · Article 14:00
- Preparing your company for CBAM · Article 13:00
- Knowledge check — CBAM · Quiz 04:00
- Writing a sustainable procurement policy · Article 13:00
- Sustainability criteria in tenders and contracts · Article 14:00
- Measuring and reporting supply chain performance · Article 13:00
- Knowledge check — Procurement and performance · Quiz 04:00
- Final assessment — Sustainable Supply Chains & Scope 3 · Quiz 12:00
Requirements
- Basic understanding of greenhouse gas Scopes 1, 2 and 3
- Familiarity with procurement or supply chain processes is helpful
Who this course is for
- Procurement and supply chain managers
- Sustainability and ESG reporting teams
- Exporters of steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers and related goods
- Consultants supporting supplier programmes
Description
For most companies the largest share of emissions and social risk sits in the supply chain. This course shows how to screen the 15 Scope 3 categories, start with spend-based estimates and move your largest suppliers to supplier-specific data that reflects real reductions.
You will learn how to segment and engage suppliers, review their submissions, and score how far their data can be relied on using the transparent rules applied in Phi, Corprise's ESG platform. You will also build the governance around supplier codes of conduct, risk-based due diligence, audits and corrective action.
Exporters in the MENA region and beyond will learn what the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) means for them: embedded emissions, actual versus default values and how to estimate costs. The final module turns all of this into a sustainable procurement policy, tender criteria and a focused set of indicators.
Your instructor
Sustainability, governance and investor-relations faculty at Corprise.ai
- 0 students
- 30 courses
Corprise Academy is the teaching team behind Phi and Corprise IR. Our courses are written from real reporting projects in Egypt, the Gulf, North Africa and Europe.
View full profileStudent reviews
No reviews yet
Enrolled students can rate this course from the course player.
Sustainable Supply Chains & Scope 3
$ 99.00
Course preview