This playbook was developed by sustainability and procurement leaders across 18 companies, who worked collaboratively to build this document as part of the Supply Chain Practitioners Working Group of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3). The Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) is a membership-driven non-profit working to leverage the power of business to incubate and scale innovative solutions to address climate change.

In May 2023, the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) released A Guide to Developing and Achieving Scope 3 Supplier Engagement Targets. This BC3 playbook is intended to complement the SBTi guidance and share the approaches and perspectives of BC3 member companies across the various stages of a supplier engagement journey. Many organizations are taking action in a complicated space where guidance is sometimes unclear and there may be several approaches that one could take. Our playbook helps to tactically lead corporate practitioners through the journey by offering advice, approaches, and resources to help lessen the burden. In doing so, we hope to increase transparency and efficiency across corporate supplier engagement programs. 

Our hope is that this guide will:

1. Accelerate supply chain decarbonization progress & provide “springboards” for companies just getting started. 

2. Reduce burdens on internal teams and shared suppliers in terms of program integration, communications, data reporting and verification.

3. Mobilize corporate action by demonstrating a shared demand from customers.

Many BC3 members have already set Science-Based Targets (SBTs), and have begun their journey to reduce emissions. For most companies scope 3 emissions, represent the largest portion of their emissions. Therefore, company supply chains represent a huge opportunity to reduce scope 3 emissions for most companies, and yet it is a very challenging task. With emerging mandatory climate disclosure regulations in California, the U.S., and Europe, it is more critical than ever for companies to measure and reduce their scope 3 emissions.

Launching and executing a supply chain decarbonization program at an individual company is challenging and complex. Rather than “go it alone”, BC3 members and leaders recognize that by sharing strategies and approaches, we can accelerate progress, reduce the chance of falling into the same traps and realize cost-savings for companies driving climate action and for suppliers responding to their requests and expectations.

Intended Audience

This guide was developed by BC3 members for BC3 Member internal use. It is not intended for members to send to their suppliers, and it is not available publicly. We may develop a future version that could be shared with your suppliers.

This playbook is intended to be iterative

We encourage members to reach out to bc3@bc3sfbay.org for any reason, including:

• Feedback about the playbook, including if you find something out of date or that needs correcting

• Your own examples, templates, guidance that you would like incorporated in this playbook

Using this BC3 playbook in tandem with the SBTi Guidance:

This Playbook mirrors the SBTi Guide in terms of content flow so users can get the most out of both guides. Our goal was to reduce overlap between the guides, and address things that the SBTi guide did not address or was vague in addressing. The BC3 playbook offers member company approaches, tactical tools, templates, etc.

Guides you can share with suppliers

The BC3 GHG inventory & Target setting basics guide and the BC3 How to Achieve SBTs guide was developed by BC3 members and can be sent to any BC3 member suppliers.