How this helps your business
Stronger supplier relationships: Working with suppliers on sustainability builds trust, improves communication, and often leads to shared opportunities and better long‑term partnerships.
Creating chances to cut emissions: Engaging your suppliers may not cut emissions immediately, but it lays the groundwork for tackling the harder‑to‑reach parts of your footprint. It helps identify new areas for emissions reduction, fosters collaboration on innovative low‑carbon solutions, and positions you as a proactive leader. It also gives you a strong, forward‑looking story to share with customers and staff, enhancing your credibility and competitiveness when bidding for work.
Is this right for you?
Engaging your suppliers is an accessible step for most small businesses. It works especially well for businesses that:
Buy significant volumes of materials, products, food, packaging, or energy‑intensive services.
Have a set of key suppliers, where they have good relationships already established.
Are starting to measure or understand their Scope 3 emissions.
How to engage your suppliers
✅ Create a list of suppliers
Start by choosing 5–10 suppliers you’d like to engage. Focus on those you think you’ll get a good response from and those likely to have the biggest emissions impact - for example, suppliers you spend most with, those you believe may have higher emissions, or those you already have a good working relationship with. Engagement can work with big suppliers too, so don’t be afraid to include them on your list.
✅ Start the conversation
Once you’ve chosen a few suppliers to focus on, start the conversation in a simple way, either by email or during a regular check‑in call. This could fit into existing processes such as annual compliance reviews, where you already confirm details like insurance cover or revisit contract terms. The aim at this stage is simply to open the door to future discussions, not to request data or place any expectations.
A good first message could include:
Explaining briefly why you’re looking at your climate impact and why it matters to your business.
Highlighting why this supplier is important to you (e.g., you buy from them regularly, you value the relationship).
Asking whether they’ve thought about their own emissions, and if they’d be open to exploring simple ways to reduce impact together.
If they are a large company, you might ask how you can align with their sustainability initiatives.
Requesting to speak to the person responsible for sustainability in their business.
For example:
Dear Supplier,
I hope you’re well. As part of our work to understand and reduce our carbon footprint, we’re looking more closely at our supply chain and how we can align with the sustainability efforts of the businesses we work with.
Because you’re an important supplier for us, I wanted to ask if you have an approach to carbon reduction, or whether this is something you are planning to look into? We are keen to explore whether there are simple ways we might work to lower emissions together — for example around packaging, deliveries, or product options.
If someone in your team would be the best contact for this, I’d appreciate you pointing me in the right direction — or I’m happy to continue the conversation with you if that’s best.
Kind regards
✅ Consider the responses
For some suppliers, decarbonisation won’t be a priority, or they may not be ready to engage. In these cases, you’ll need to decide whether it’s worth continuing the conversation. When you’re starting out, it’s usually easier to focus your time on the suppliers who are open and willing to collaborate.
You might not get any positive responses, and that’s okay. By reaching out you’ve already taken a proactive step. Inviting a supplier to take part, and explaining why it matters for your business, may encourage them to see decarbonisation as more important to their own business than they did before.
✅ Follow up
Once a supplier is open to the conversation, a call or visit to discuss both your aims and ideas for decarbonisation is a good next step. When exploring options, focusing initially on quick wins can help build momentum.
Here are some actions you could explore together:
Switch to bulk or consolidated deliveries to cut down on transport emissions.
Reduce or remove packaging or trial reusable options.
Swap practical examples of what’s working on each side to spot ideas that could benefit both businesses.
Review lower‑carbon product alternatives they already offer or ask what’s coming soon that you could switch to.
If you’ve reached this stage with a supplier, your engagement is already going well. Don’t worry if you don’t find opportunities to collaborate straight away, you’ve created the foundations for future progress. A simple way to keep the door open is to set reminders to check in periodically. Sharing an annual update on your own carbon‑reduction efforts, alongside any new goals or actions you’re taking, can be a low‑effort way to maintain the conversation and make it easier for suppliers to re‑engage when they’re ready.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Dropping communication if nothing happens immediately: Many suppliers need time to understand their own emissions or find the right contact internally. A gentle follow‑up a few months later keeps the door open and signals that this is an ongoing partnership.
Cost and Effort
Cost: £0
Engaging suppliers is one of the lowest‑cost decarbonisation actions for small businesses. Most of the investment is time spent reaching out and coordinating conversations.
Effort: Low
Early stages (first 2–3 months): 1–2 hours per week (Selecting suppliers, sending first messages, logging responses, arranging initial conversations.)
Ongoing (after initial engagement): 1 hour per month (Light follow-up, sharing updates, tracking progress.)
This will vary depending on the number of suppliers you choose to engage and how responsive they are.
Conclusion
Engaging your suppliers doesn’t need to be complicated or time‑consuming. Starting small, keeping the conversation simple, and focusing on suppliers who are ready to engage will get you further than trying to develop a full supply‑chain strategy from day one. Every conversation you open helps build awareness, strengthen relationships, and create future opportunities to cut emissions together.
Find out more in Sage University's Reducing Carbon Emissions courses: