Supplier Data Checklist

This checklist is published by OCEANS™ Sustainability, carbon-accounting software from TheEvenity Pvt Limited built for growing US manufacturers, to help your team request and review supplier-provided emissions data consistently — whether you're sending a data request to a priority supplier or reviewing what one has sent back.

How to use this checklist

Work through it once per supplier response. For every field, capture: was it provided, is it usable as-is, and does anything need to be flagged as an estimate or limitation before it goes into your inventory. A response missing several of these fields isn't necessarily unusable — but the gaps should be recorded, not silently filled in.

Supplier identity

• Supplier legal or trading name
• Internal supplier ID or account number, if your systems track one
• Contract or purchase-order reference the data relates to

Product or material

• Product or material identifier (SKU, grade, or part number)
• Plain-language description of the product or material
• Category it falls under in your own inventory (e.g. purchased goods, packaging, a specific commodity)

Quantity and unit

• Physical quantity actually supplied in the period (not just an invoice or spend total)
• Unit of measure, matched to how the supplier tracks it internally
• Confirmation the quantity reflects what was delivered, not what was ordered

Reporting period covered

• Start and end date of the period the figures represent
• Confirmation the period aligns with (or can be mapped to) your own inventory period

Footprint boundary

• What life-cycle stages are included (e.g. cradle-to-gate, gate-to-gate, cradle-to-cradle)
• What is explicitly excluded from that boundary
• Whether the boundary matches what your inventory needs, or requires an adjustment before use

Calculation method used by the supplier

Record which of the four GHG Protocol Scope 3 Category 1 methods the supplier actually used — this determines how much confidence to place in the figure:

• Supplier-specific method — calculated from the supplier's own facility- or product-level activity data and factors
• Hybrid method — a mix of supplier-specific and secondary (average) data
• Average-data method — secondary emission factors applied to the supplier's own reported activity data
• Spend-based method — an industry-average factor applied to spend, with no physical activity data behind it

Allocation approach

• How the supplier apportioned emissions to your specific order, if they serve multiple products or customers from the same production run
• The allocation basis used (e.g. mass, spend, revenue, physical units)
• Whether that allocation basis is documented well enough to defend if questioned

Emission-factor source and version

• Name of the factor database or source used, if any (e.g. a recognized industry or government database)
• Version or publication year of that factor
• Confirmation the factor's boundary matches the footprint boundary reported above

Supporting evidence

• What documentation backs the figure (a calculation worksheet, a third-party report, an internal methodology note)
• Whether that documentation was actually provided, or only referenced
• Contact point for follow-up questions on the calculation

Assurance or verification status

• None — the figure is unverified
• Self-reported — reviewed internally by the supplier but not independently checked
• Third-party reviewed — and at what scope (the specific figure, the underlying methodology, or the supplier's broader inventory)

Known limitations

• What the supplier has flagged as estimated, excluded, or uncertain in their own figure
• Any limitation you've identified during review that the supplier didn't flag themselves
• Whether those limitations are material enough to affect how the figure should be used

Marking status

Once a supplier response has been reviewed against this checklist, mark it Complete, Partially complete, or Not usable as-is. A "Partially complete" response with clearly documented gaps is more valuable to your inventory than a complete-looking figure with no visibility into how it was built — the gap itself is information, and it belongs in your record alongside the number.