How to build climate criteria into every RFP

Procurement teams are asked to score carbon alongside price and quality, usually with proxy data and a spreadsheet. That makes climate criteria feel like extra work rather than part of the evaluation. With supplier level emissions data in front of you, climate criteria can sit in every RFP without adding a week to the cycle.

What does climate criteria in an RFP actually mean?

Climate criteria are the emissions questions and scores written into the RFP itself: a supplier's reported footprint, whether it holds a target, the data quality behind the number, and how much of the total score that is worth. They sit next to price and quality, not in a separate sustainability annexe nobody scores.

Set in the scoring model before the bid opens, emissions criteria let a category manager:

• state the expectation before the award rather than negotiate it afterwards
• compare suppliers on the same basis, including the ones that have never returned a survey
• show a third party auditor how the decision was reached, and on what data

How do you write climate criteria into an RFP, step by step?

1. Set the emissions standard for the category: Start from what is already known about the incumbent suppliers, then set a range rather than one hard threshold. Spend based figures are enough to open with, and supplier specific data replaces them as it arrives.
2. Give carbon a weighting and publish it: Pick a weighting your category can defend, and state it in the RFP document so bidders price against it. Suppliers answer what is scored, and an unweighted climate section reads as optional.
3. Ask for the data once, in the questionnaire you already send: Prepopulate what is already public and ask the supplier to confirm or correct it. A part filled request gets a better response than a blank survey, and it stops one supplier being asked the same thing by three different teams. Example questionnaire wording: "Provide your most recent Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, the reporting year, the calculation method used, and any third party verification statement. Where a figure is estimated, say so." Have your own legal and category teams approve any wording before it enters a contract.
4. Score it inside the tools the team already runs: Feed emissions data into the sourcing or P2P system so the carbon score appears next to the commercial score. Manual scoring in a side spreadsheet is where climate criteria quietly stop happening.

Can you add climate criteria without slowing the sourcing cycle?

Yes, when the data is in place before the RFP opens rather than chased during it. DitchCarbon provides verified emissions data for over 2 million organisations, so procurement, sustainability and finance teams can measure and act on supply chain and portfolio emissions from one source. A category manager opens the tender with numbers you can defend within 2 weeks instead of waiting on a survey round. In practice, a recent deployment reached about 60% of a large supplier base within 2 weeks.

Will the carbon score stand up to an auditor?

It has to, because the sourcing decision feeds the same reporting an auditor reviews. Every figure carries its source and change history, and coverage gaps are shown rather than hidden, so a third party auditor can follow how a supplier's score was reached. The DitchCarbon Portal calculator is verified to ISO 14064-3, limited assurance, by UL Solutions, renewed annually, and the emission factor methodology was independently assessed by Globus Thenken, August 2025, for spend based Scope 3 categories 1 and 2. That verification is what makes the data audit-ready and auditable, rather than simply described that way. Both reports are on our trust centre. One caveat worth saying plainly: putting a climate criterion in an RFP is not a compliance outcome. Whether your reporting satisfies CSRD, SBTi or your own auditor is a judgement for you and them.

What to change in your next RFP

Take the next tender in the pipeline and add two things: a weighted emissions criterion in the scoring model, and a prepopulated data request in the supplier questionnaire. Both run on data you can pull before the bid opens. The wider approach sits on our pages for climate based sourcing strategy and supplier engagement.

See the coverage on your own supplier list

Send the categories going out to tender this quarter and we will show what emissions data already exists for those suppliers, and where the gaps are. Request a walkthrough.

Being asked for emissions data by a customer's procurement team? Answer once and reuse the answer: claim your company profile.