Answer your customer's ESG questionnaire with real numbers today

Why are customers sending ESG questionnaires?

Your customer needs your data to complete their own reporting. Large companies are increasingly expected to report the emissions in their supply chain, called Scope 3, and your footprint is part of theirs. So they ask you.

The pressure is growing. The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) were published on 25 February 2026 for voluntary use, and the FCA is expected to require listed companies to use them for periods starting from 1 January 2027, subject to its final rules. Nothing is proposed for SMEs directly, but your listed and large customers will need supplier data to report properly.

If you sell into the EU, there is a helpful limit. Under the EU’s 2026 Omnibus changes, large reporters cannot demand more from value-chain partners with 1,000 employees or fewer than the voluntary VSME standard defines. That gives you a sensible ceiling on what is reasonable to ask.

What do supplier ESG questionnaires usually ask?

The forms vary, but most cover the same ground:

• Emissions: your Scope 1, 2 and sometimes 3 emissions in tCO2e, the reporting period and the method used
• Policies: environmental policy, code of conduct, health and safety, data protection
• People: headcount, Real Living Wage, training, diversity monitoring, incident recording
• Governance: who is responsible for ESG, supplier due diligence, modern slavery
• Targets: whether you have a carbon reduction or net zero target

ESG Now asks about each of these in plain English and turns your answers into a report you can attach. Every emissions figure comes with the activity data, the official UK government factor used and the result, so you can paste numbers straight into a portal and point to the working if asked.

What about EcoVadis and other platforms?

Some customers use a ratings platform rather than their own form. EcoVadis is one example. It is a paid assessment that tailors its questionnaire by company size, industry and country, and it expects you to back answers with uploaded documents.

ESG Now does not give you an EcoVadis score. What it does give you is some of the evidence those platforms ask for: a measured carbon footprint and a written record of your policies, workforce and governance practices. If you still need an environmental policy or code of conduct, our environmental policy and code of conduct templates give you a starting point to adapt. Having those ready first makes a platform assessment far less painful.

How to use your report to answer the form

Start with the emissions questions, because they look the hardest and are now the easiest. Copy your Scope 1 and Scope 2 totals from the report, note your reporting period and say the method is the GHG Protocol using UK government conversion factors. For Scope 3, give the sources the report covers (waste, water, business travel, courier deliveries, and estimates of commuting and homeworking) and say which figures are estimates. If you skipped the optional spend-based estimate of purchased goods, say that it is not yet measured. That honesty reads well. Our guide on how to answer a supplier sustainability questionnaire goes question by question.

An office-based business usually finishes in 20 to 30 minutes, and answers save as you go. Your first report is free. Start your report and send your customer a proper answer this week.