> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.greeninsider.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What a Customer Sustainability Questionnaire Really Costs, and What To Do First - URL: https://www.greeninsider.org/customer-sustainability-questionnaire-what-to-do-first/ - Published: 2026-09-07T14:47:37.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-09T11:36:50.000Z - Description: No EU law requires your company to answer a customer sustainability questionnaire. Here is what it costs, what each question type actually wants, and the four facts to confirm before you start. - Author: Veljko Plavšić - Tags: ESG & Reporting **Short answer.** Do not open the form yet. Confirm the requesting entity, the binding deadline, the platform, and the reporting year first, because those four facts determine the scope and effort. Then sort the questions by evidence type, since facts, documents, processes, calculations, and claims each fail differently. *Practical tools and source links updated 9 September 2026\. Read the method note and disclaimer below.* The difficulty with a supplier sustainability questionnaire is not the questions. It is that the same form can mean a fifteen-minute onboarding check or a scored assessment deciding whether you stay on a preferred supplier list, and nothing in the covering email tells you which. ## Key takeaways - **Clarify the obligation.** Separate the customer’s commercial request from any contractual or statutory duty. - **Confirm the fee.** Use the applicable platform plan or a written quotation. - **Budget the work.** Count evidence collection, calculations, review and submission. - **Check electricity claims.** A green tariff alone does not establish zero market-based emissions. - **Reuse deliberately.** A shared dataset is useful when customers accept overlapping evidence; there is no universal three-customer threshold. --- ## Why is this landing on you now A customer can ask for sustainability data for procurement, financing or its own disclosures even when your company does not prepare a mandatory sustainability report. Ask which purpose applies instead of assuming the form itself establishes a legal duty. Your own reporting scope, contractual commitments and any sector-specific requirements are separate questions. Confirm them for your company and jurisdiction. The practical task here is to clarify the request, produce supportable answers and avoid repeating the same data collection for every buyer. --- ## Establish four facts before you answer anything 1. **The requesting entity and the trigger.** A tender, an onboarding check, and an annual review carry different consequences. Ask explicitly whether a minimum score applies and what happens below it. 2. **The binding deadline.** Portal deadlines and the date in the email frequently differ. Ask which governs. 3. **The reporting year and boundary.** Calendar or financial year, and whether they want the legal entity, the group, or only the sites serving them. A wrong boundary can make otherwise accurate figures unusable. 4. **The platform.** A short customer form, a CDP supply chain request, and a rated assessment can require very different evidence and review. Confirm the route before estimating your budget. Send one email covering all four. Procurement teams field these routinely, and asking makes you look like a supplier who has done this before. Green Insider · Practical tools ## Your questionnaire action plan Open this article in a browser with JavaScript enabled to use the planner. Start by confirming the requester, deadline, reporting boundary and platform. Mark only what you have confirmed. Your next steps update below. What is already clear? The requesting entity, purpose and any minimum score. The binding deadline, including any portal/email difference. The reporting year and entity, group or site boundary. Confirmed request routeNot confirmed yetCustomer's own formCDP supply chain requestRated assessment Question you are working onFacts & figuresPolicies & documentsProcesses & practicesClaims & commitments 0 of 4 setup details confirmedSetup checklist, not a compliance score ### Confirm the request first 1. Confirm the requesting entity, purpose and any minimum score. 2. Confirm the binding deadline, reporting year, boundary and platform. 3. Assign an owner and collect evidence before drafting answers. Copy action plan Draft a clarification emailReview before sendingCopy email draft Copy manuallySelect and copy this text Planning guidance only. This does not determine legal obligations, assessment scores or fees. This tool does not send or save your selections; reloading resets them. --- ## Sort by evidence type, not by section Questionnaires look long because they mix five kinds of questions into one list, each failing differently. __Evidence triage — open each row for the evidence and checks__ | Type | Examples | Prepare the evidence | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Fact | Headcount, sites, turnover, energy use, waste volumes | View checklist**Buyer needs:** A number tied to a stated period and boundary.**Collect:** Utility bills, payroll summary, waste invoices.**Check:** Right number, wrong period or entity. | | Document | Environmental policy, code of conduct, anti-bribery policy | View checklist**Buyer needs:** An approved, dated file applicable to your supplier record.**Collect:** Policy with version, approval date and signature where required.**Check:** Approval or applicability is unclear; check the actual assessment criteria. | | Process | Supplier monitoring, incident handling, assigned responsibility | View checklist**Buyer needs:** Evidence of recurring practice.**Collect:** Procedure plus a dated record of it being used.**Check:** Policy supplied without evidence of application. | | Calculation | Scope 1 and 2 emissions, energy intensity, recycling rate | View checklist**Buyer needs:** A reproducible figure with method, boundary and factor source.**Collect:** Calculation file and source records.**Check:** A number nobody can reproduce next year. | | Claim | Renewable electricity, carbon neutrality, reduction targets | View checklist**Buyer needs:** A statement supported by appropriate evidence.**Collect:** Relevant contracts, certificates, retirement records and target documentation.**Check:** A target or unsupported claim presented as an achieved result. | > Question triage for supplier sustainability questionnaires. Green Insider, September 2026. Claims create the real risk. When a buyer repeats your claim inside a regulated disclosure, an unsupported answer stops being your problem alone. --- ## What each route actually costs __Compare routes — costs must be confirmed for your request__ | Route or tool | External cost | Scope, effort and reuse | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Customer’s own form | Confirm any portal or service fee; budget internal work. | View planning notes**Scope:** Customer-specific questions.**Plan:** Ask for the question list, required attachments and deadline. Effort depends on gaps and review, not only question count.**Reuse:** Save approved answers with period, boundary and evidence links. | | CDP supply chain request | Confirm the applicable fee and services for your invitation. | View planning notes**Scope:** CDP questionnaire and disclosure cycle.**Plan:** Confirm the questionnaire version, reporting cycle, portal access and current scoring guidance.**Reuse:** Check whether the same disclosure meets each requesting customer’s needs. | | EcoVadis rated assessment | Check the plan for your company size and country; obtain the current price. | View planning notes**Scope:** Tailored questionnaire and evidence review.**Plan:** Confirm the evidence boundary, submission deadline and assessment timing. Do not confuse your preparation time with assessor turnaround.**Reuse:** Confirm scorecard sharing permissions and renewal terms. | | VSME-aligned dataset | Budget preparation and any optional advice; a dataset is not a paid assessment. | View planning notes**Scope:** Basic or basic plus comprehensive module.**Plan:** Map the customers’ questions against the standard and agree the reporting period.**Reuse:** Ask whether customers will accept the dataset before building it. | | Carbon accounting software | Obtain a quote covering entities, users, implementation and renewal. | View planning notes**Scope:** A supporting tool, not a submission route.**Plan:** Allow for setup and data review. Software does not remove the need for a clear method and boundary.**Reuse:** Assess recurring needs and export access before committing. | Editorial comparison, not a market price survey. Platform references appear under Sources; preparation time must be estimated for your own evidence gaps. Separate the external fee from internal effort. EcoVadis offers different plans and a company-size and country selector; use the applicable offer rather than a generic price range. Internal hours may exceed the subscription cost, but the balance depends on your situation. Understand who can see the results and how a correction or reassessment works before submitting. Do not assume that only a rated assessment can have a commercial consequence. ### What will your response cost? Enter your own estimates for one submission. Defaults are an illustrative example, not market benchmarks. Count person-hours across everyone involved. Collecting evidence · hours Calculations and drafting · hours Review and submission · hours Blended internal cost · EUR/hour External cost allocated to this response · EUR Estimated response cost €960.00 24 person-hours × €40.00 + €0.00 external cost. What this estimate includes Total = all entered hours × blended hourly cost + allocated external cost. Use a consistent tax basis. Allocate shared annual subscriptions once; do not count the same fee in every response. Zero external cost means excluded from this estimate, not a claim that a platform is free. Waiting time, assurance and remediation are excluded unless you include their costs. --- ## The two answers that go wrong most often **Renewable electricity.** A green tariff alone does not establish a zero market-based Scope 2 figure. Check the contractual instruments against the GHG Protocol’s quality criteria, including exclusive claims, retirement and the relevant timing and market rules. Ask the supplier for evidence and use the applicable guidance rather than a blanket “same calendar year” shortcut. Keep location-based and market-based results distinct where dual reporting applies. **Emissions boundary.** Choose and document an appropriate consolidation approach under the Corporate Standard, such as equity share, financial control or operational control. Apply it consistently and explain any change. Then confirm whether the customer requests the same entities and sites. --- ## When the honest answer is that you do not track it Say so, and say what happens next. A blank field leaves the reviewer unable to distinguish missing data from an overlooked question. Three sentences suffice: what you have, what you do not, and when you expect to have it. Use the requester's vocabulary. If they name a framework, answer in its terms, because the analyst reading your response checks against that framework's criteria and not your phrasing. --- ## Build the file once The real problem is never the first questionnaire. It is the fourth, from a different customer, in a different format, six weeks later. Keep one owned, current folder: company facts with their period, signed policies with version dates, monthly energy, fuel, and waste data, the emissions calculation with method and boundary stated, certifications with expiry dates, and every questionnaire already submitted. Assign an owner per category and a quarterly review. Reuse can reduce later work, but each response still needs a period, boundary and accuracy check. --- ## Is a VSME report worth doing instead? EFRAG developed VSME as a voluntary reporting standard for non-listed micro, small and medium enterprises. It offers a basic and a comprehensive module, with supporting materials intended to make repeated sustainability data requests more manageable. Compare the one-off preparation and ongoing maintenance with the repeated work you could avoid. The number of customers alone does not decide the answer: their acceptance of the dataset, overlap in questions and need for extra evidence matter. A reusable dataset can support a response, but it does not automatically replace a requested platform assessment. Use the exact standard and version accepted by the requester. EFRAG describes its VSME project as outside the CSRD; this article does not establish the current legal obligations of a particular company. --- ## Method note The tables are editorial planning aids. They do not establish market-average prices, guaranteed turnaround times or legal exemptions. The calculator uses user-entered assumptions and performs arithmetic only; its defaults are examples. Inputs remain in the page and reset when it is reloaded. Primary reference pages were consulted on 9 September 2026 and are linked at the bottom. No vendor quotations, customer contracts or company-specific legal scope review were obtained. Confirm the current terms and applicable reporting requirements before committing resources. --- ## What to do this week 1. Send the four-question email and ask directly whether a score threshold applies. 2. Sort the questions by evidence type and name an owner for each. 3. Fix your reporting boundary in writing before anyone calculates anything. 4. Pull twelve months of electricity, gas, fuel, and waste data into one sheet. 5. Ask your energy supplier, in writing, whether certificates are retired against your consumption and for which year. 6. Save the completed answers in one folder before submission, not after. You can read who writes Green Insider and why on the [about page](https://www.greeninsider.org/about/). --- ## Frequently asked questions ### Am I legally required to answer a customer sustainability questionnaire? A customer form does not by itself establish a statutory duty. Check the contract, tender terms and applicable law before deciding whether you can decline. The customer may also attach commercial consequences to non-response. ### My company is below every reporting threshold. Why is this happening? Customers may collect sustainability information for procurement, financing or reporting. Ask for the purpose; do not assume the customer’s own regulatory scope. ### Does the supplier pay for a rated assessment, or does the buyer? A rated supplier may need a paid subscription. Confirm the supplier-side price, sharing rights and any buyer-funded arrangement for the specific invitation. Buyer services and supplier plans should be checked separately. ### What if I have never calculated my emissions? State that and supply the activity data you hold, typically twelve months of energy consumption. Ask whether the buyer accepts activity data instead of a completed inventory. Estimating a figure you cannot reproduce is worse, because you will be asked to defend it next cycle. ### Do I need carbon accounting software to answer this? Not necessarily. A well-controlled spreadsheet may be enough for a simple inventory if it meets the requester’s requirements and records the method, factors, sources and boundary. The case strengthens with multiple entities, recurring Scope 3 requests, or an assurance requirement. --- *Green Insider is independent. No vendor, platform, or consultancy paid for a mention in this article, and none was given advance sight of it.* --- ## Sources Reference pages consulted 9 September 2026\. These links do not automatically update the article. 1. [EFRAG — Voluntary reporting standard for SMEs](https://www.efrag.org/en/projects/voluntary-reporting-standard-for-smes-vsme/concluded?ref=greeninsider.org) — Standard, modules and supporting materials. 2. [CDP — Disclose data](https://www.cdp.net/en/disclose?ref=greeninsider.org) — Disclosure routes, questionnaire versions and links to reporting guidance. 3. [EcoVadis — Plans and pricing](https://ecovadis.com/plans-pricing/?ref=greeninsider.org) — Company-specific plan selection and sharing features; no universal fee inferred. 4. [GHG Protocol — Scope 2 Guidance](https://ghgprotocol.org/scope-2-guidance?ref=greeninsider.org) — Purchased-energy accounting and contractual-instrument quality criteria. 5. [GHG Protocol — Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard?ref=greeninsider.org) — Organisational boundaries and corporate inventory methods. ### Disclaimer This article and its tools provide general planning information, not legal, accounting or financial advice, certification or a compliance assessment. Results depend on the information entered. Verify current requirements, contractual terms and platform prices for your circumstances before acting.