Exchanging Product Carbon Footprint Data with Business Partners

In this lesson, you will see how buyers and sellers exchange product carbon footprint (PCF) data with each other using the Process applications (Manage Footprints, Manage Inbounds, and Manage Outbounds) in SAP Sustainability Data Exchange.

Company A manufactures integrated circuits and batteries using rare earth metals that they procure from their supplier. Company A sells their products to their customer that design electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones.

The supplier receives a request for PCF data from Company A. To fulfill their request, the supplier calculates and assesses its own PCF values for the requested products. Then, they transfer its calculated PCF values to Company A as a PCF data request response.

After receiving the PCF data from the supplier, Company A calculates and assesses its own PCF values by incorporating the supplier's data. Now, Company A can transfer its PCF values further down the supply chain to their customer if they receive a PCF data request from their customer.

You can view and manage all the product carbon footprints data of all your own products as well as purchased products from suppliers using the Manage Footprints application. You can also see the status of the available footprints such as valid, expired or no data. Select the item for which you would like to view the footprint details. You can also edit the footprint data of the products that you produce. To ensure the data sovereignty, you cannot modify the footprint data of your suppliers.

The table below provides a description of products, data owner, and footprint status.

You can maintain or update the PCF details based on standards (WBCSD PACT, Catena-X, and so on) manually, or by importing the calculation results from an external calculator.

You can take the following actions to request, share and receive PCF data using SAP Sustainability Data Exchange.

• Request PCF Data: As a buyer, initiate requests to your suppliers asking them to share the actual PCF data associated with the products you are purchasing from them by using Manage Inbounds.

  Manage Buyer Requests: As a supplier, manage all incoming requests for PCF data from your buyers of the products you are delivering in Manage Outbounds. In case there is an open request, it is also showing up in the Open Activities area. This ensures that buyers receive the PCF information they need in a timely and organized manner.

• Bulk Responses: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange platform facilitates the process by enabling you to send these requests in bulk to multiple suppliers simultaneously, streamlining the data collection process. Conversely, it also supports bulk responses to multiple buyers. This feature allows you to respond to several PCF data requests simultaneously, thereby streamlining the process and reducing administrative overhead.
• Proactive Data Sharing: As a supplier, you can proactively share PCF updates with your buyers, whether or not they have previously requested the information. This proactive approach helps in maintaining transparency and building stronger relationships with your buyers. Communication channels facilitate this seamless sharing of data, ensuring that buyers are always informed about the latest PCF updates.

Watch the following video to learn how you can use SAP Sustainability Data Exchange to request and manage PCF data from suppliers. You will also learn to maintain and share PCF data with buyers.