There is no single "ESG requirement." What your customers ask for depends heavily on the industry you supply — a chemical maker, a textile mill and a logistics provider get pulled toward different schemes, regulations and audits. But underneath the sector-specific labels, the pattern is remarkably consistent. This guide maps the requirements by industry and links to a detailed guide for each, so you can see what's actually being asked of you and prepare once.
The pattern is the same in every sector
Whatever you supply, the demands tend to arrive in three overlapping streams:
- An industry sustainability scheme — a shared assessment your sector has standardised on (TfS for chemicals, Higg/Cascale for textiles, RBA for electronics, EcoVadis across many).
- Regulation — the laws that apply to your products and operations (REACH for chemicals, conflict-minerals rules for electronics, and the broader EU regulation wave reaching down supply chains).
- Direct customer questionnaires and audits — each buyer's own ESG request, layered on top.
The good news is that all three draw on the same underlying facts about your energy, emissions, waste, labour, safety and governance. The sector determines the wrapper; the evidence base is shared. That's why the sensible move is to build one reusable response system rather than answer each request from scratch — the logic behind handling multiple questionnaires without redoing the work.
By industry
Chemicals
Chemical suppliers juggle three streams at once: Together for Sustainability (TfS) (the industry's shared assessment, run on EcoVadis methodology), REACH and related substance regulation, and customer questionnaires with a heavy process-safety component. See ESG requirements for chemical suppliers for how the three fit together, and TfS: what chemical suppliers need to know for the scheme itself.
Textile & apparel
Apparel and textile suppliers are most often asked for a Higg FEM (Facility Environmental Module, now run by Cascale on the Worldly platform), plus chemical-management and labour expectations from brand customers. See ESG questionnaires for textile & apparel suppliers for what brands ask and how to prepare.
Electronics
Electronics suppliers face the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct and its SAQ/audit (VAP), plus conflict-minerals due diligence (3TG — tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold). See ESG for electronics suppliers: RBA & conflict minerals for the code, the minerals reporting, and customer audits.
Construction & building materials
Building-materials suppliers are increasingly asked for product-level environmental data — Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) — alongside standard ESG questionnaires, driven by green-building rating schemes and customer procurement. See ESG requirements for construction & building-materials suppliers.
Logistics & transport
Logistics and transport suppliers are asked, above all, about carbon — freight and transport-chain emissions — increasingly reported against standard methodologies. See ESG questionnaires for logistics & transport suppliers, and for the numbers themselves, scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions explained.
Manufacturing
Manufacturers are most commonly sent an EcoVadis assessment covering Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. See EcoVadis for manufacturing suppliers, and check where you'd stand with the free EcoVadis readiness check.
Automotive, food & retail
Several sectors route their requests through shared industry portals rather than one-off questionnaires:
- Automotive — Catena-X and IATF-linked portals: automotive ESG portals.
- Food — retailer and manufacturer sustainability portals: food-industry sustainability portals.
- Retail — retail supplier ESG platforms.
What's common across every industry
Strip away the sector labels and customers everywhere want evidence in the same categories:
- Environment — energy, emissions, water, waste.
- Labour & human rights — working conditions, no forced or child labour, fair wages.
- Health & safety — management systems, incident data (heaviest for chemicals and manufacturing).
- Ethics & governance — anti-corruption, a supplier code of conduct, whistleblowing.
- Sustainable procurement — how you assess your own upstream suppliers.
- Certificates — ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 9001, and sector-specific marks.
Assemble those once and every scheme, regulation and customer questionnaire — whatever your industry — draws on the same source.
Start with the data, not the questionnaire
The fastest way to get ahead of any industry's requirements is to get your core numbers in order before a customer asks. The free carbon calculator and VSME readiness check cover the environmental basics; from there, a reusable response system keeps every future request — in any sector — a matter of reuse, not rework.
The bottom line
ESG requirements look different across chemicals, textiles, electronics, construction, logistics and manufacturing — different schemes, different regulations, different portals. But they ask for one shared set of facts about your operations. Find your industry above, prepare that evidence base once, and let a single credible foundation answer whatever your sector sends next.
One evidence base, every industry's questionnaire.
ESG Passport centralises your environmental, safety, labour and governance evidence — so a TfS assessment, a Higg FEM, an RBA audit or a customer questionnaire all reuse the same answers, whatever sector you're in.