From Default to Supplier-Specific: How to Refine Your Carbon Footprint Over Time

When organisations first tackle carbon accounting they often face a choice: launch quickly with imperfect data or chase perfect accuracy and delay action. Good news: you do not have to choose. By following a progressive refinement pathway you can publish credible numbers within weeks and still move towards supplier-specific precision.

Emitrics describes this journey as Default → Supplier-Specific → Product-Level. Below you will find what each stage involves, the value it unlocks, and how to move from one tier to the next without disruption.

1 Default Factors – Establish a Rapid Baseline

What it isDefault factors, usually drawn from input-output models, link spend categories to average emissions intensities (kg CO₂e per pound). They cover Scopes 1, 2 and most of Scope 3 from day one.

Why start here

• Speed: Connect Emitrics to your ledger and generate a footprint in minutes.
• Visibility: Hotspot analysis across every spend category shows where action will deliver the biggest impact per pound.
• Engagement: Rapid results build momentum and prove to management that carbon data is both tangible and actionable.

Typical use-cases: SECR reporting for SMEs, first-time GHG Protocol inventories, quick supplier-screening exercises.

2 Category-Specific Factors – Narrow the Uncertainty

Not every cost line behaves alike. Business travel, cloud computing and construction materials vary far more than stationery. The next logical step is refinement at category level.

Identify the 10–15 per cent of spend categories responsible for 70 per cent or more of emissions.

Replace broad IO factors with finer, activity-based factors: kg CO₂e per passenger-kilometre for flights, per kilowatt-hour for colocation, and so on.

Record the provenance of each new factor to satisfy auditors.

Accuracy typically improves by 20–30 per cent while data-collection effort stays manageable.

3 Supplier-Specific Factors – Turn Averages into Advantage

Supplier-specific refinement becomes possible when a vendor provides its own verified emissions data, ideally cradle to gate.

Why bother

• Differentiation: Compare suppliers that deliver the same service but very different carbon intensities.
• Targeted reductions: Shift spend to lower-emission vendors without changing internal processes.
• Procurement leverage: Include carbon clauses or scorecards in tenders to drive supply-chain decarbonisation.

How Emitrics helps

• Supplier portal (coming soon): Vendors upload factors once; the data applies to every client on the platform.
• Fallback logic: If supplier data is missing the platform transparently reverts to category or default factors, so no gaps appear.

4 Product-Level Precision – The Gold Standard When Needed

For flagship products, government tenders or eco-label claims you might require full life-cycle assessments or Environmental Product Declarations. These trace emissions from raw material extraction through to end-of-life.

LCAs cost time and money, so target them where return on investment is highest:

• Customer-facing goods that command sustainability premiums.
• Requests for proposals that demand product-specific carbon data.
• High-impact capital projects under regulatory scrutiny.

Emitrics stores LCAs alongside spend-based and supplier-specific factors and always applies the most accurate figure for each transaction.

5 Build a Seamless Data-Quality Roadmap

Incremental improvement beats giant leaps. Follow these practical steps.

• Set a baseline date: Freeze your default-factor footprint so that year-on-year progress is fair.
• Rank hotspots: Use Pareto analysis: a few categories often create most emissions.
• Engage suppliers: Ask the top quartile of suppliers by spend or carbon impact for factors first.
• Automate validation: Emitrics flags anomalies; if a supplier factor claims less than the laws of physics allow you will know!
• Celebrate milestones: Each refinement drop, such as moving from default to supplier factors, often shows double-digit percentage reduction. Share that success with leadership.

6 Case Example – Professional-Services Firm

• Within Hours: Default factors generated from a simple accounting export (one hour of internal effort). Uncertainty ±35 per cent.
• Within Days: Category-specific refinement for flights and electricity use via a travel-agency CSV and pdf bill uploads. Uncertainty ±10-20 per cent.
• Within Weeks: Supplier-specific factors for the top ten vendors collected through an Emitrics survey. Uncertainty ±10 per cent.

Result: The firm can set an SBTi-aligned target early, then cut emissions by switching electricity providers, without waiting for perfect numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I prioritise suppliers? Rank them by emissions contribution multiplied by ease of engagement. High-impact, collaborative vendors first.

What if a supplier refuses? Use contractual levers. Include carbon data requirements in RFPs or prefer vendors who disclose.

Will refining factors inflate last year’s baseline? No. Emitrics stores each year’s factor set, so historical footprints stay consistent even as accuracy improves.

Conclusion

Data perfection is a journey, not a starting point. A staged refinement pathway lets businesses act on carbon now while steadily sharpening their numbers. Emitrics automates that path: default IO factors today, supplier-specific or product-level precision tomorrow. You spend time decarbonising, not wrangling data.

Ready to move beyond averages? Join the waitlist and see how simple progressive refinement can be.