A customer has sent an ESG questionnaire: a spreadsheet by email, or an invitation to a platform you have not heard of. It asks about carbon emissions, diversity metrics, supply chain due diligence, and policies you may or may not have.
You have run the business for years without any of this. This guide is the starting point: what the customer is asking for, what to do first, and how to answer the questions you cannot answer yet.
| First question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Why is my customer asking? | Regulation. Large companies must report their supply chain's emissions and practices, and they need supplier data to do it. |
| Do I need a sustainability team or a consultant? | Not for a first response to a standard customer questionnaire. |
| What do they expect from a first-timer? | A good-faith response with accurate data where you have it and honest gaps where you do not. |
| What if I do not have a policy they ask about? | Say so. "No formal policy" is a legitimate answer. Claiming one you do not have is not. |
| What if I cannot meet the deadline? | Ask for an extension with a date, or submit a partial with a note. Do not go silent. |
The requests are simpler than the jargon
ESG questionnaires look complex because they use unfamiliar vocabulary and cover topics outside normal operations. The underlying questions are ordinary:
- How much energy do you use?
- Which policies govern how you operate?
- How do you treat your employees?
- What are you doing to reduce your environmental impact?
You have answers. They need to be found, organized, and put into the customer's format.
Customers sending these questionnaires know their supply chains include companies at every stage of ESG maturity. They do not expect a complete first response. They expect an honest one.
Why this is happening
Customer ESG requests are driven by regulation — in Europe, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires large companies to disclose sustainability data including the impact of their supply chain.
Your customer needs to report Scope 3 emissions — the footprint of what they buy. You are part of what they buy, so they need your data. That tells you what they actually want: figures and documents they can use in their own report, not a statement of commitment. The guide on responding when a customer asks for ESG data looks at what sits behind these requests in more detail.
The three-step first response
Step 1: read the whole questionnaire
Before gathering anything, read every question without answering. Note:
- Which topics it covers (environment only, or social and governance too)
- The answer format (multiple choice, text, document upload)
- The deadline
- What is mandatory and what is optional
- Which questions do not apply to your business
Most questionnaires include sections that do not apply to everyone. A service company has no manufacturing waste. A domestic supplier has no international shipping emissions. Identifying not-applicable questions early saves chasing data you do not need.
Step 2: gather what already exists
Most of the data exists somewhere in the company. The work is knowing where.
Environmental. Utility bills show energy consumption (finance or office management). Waste invoices show disposal volumes (operations or facilities). Fleet records show fuel (operations or finance). Any environmental certification (ISO 14001).
If the questionnaire wants an emissions figure rather than raw energy data, the free carbon calculator converts the bills and fuel records into Scope 1 and 2 numbers.
Social. HR records hold headcount, turnover, training. Safety logs hold incidents. Existing HR policies cover most labor practice questions. Payroll informs wage questions.
Governance. Business registration shows ownership. Any existing code of conduct or ethics policy. Quality management documentation (ISO 9001). Any supplier assessment process.
Do not create documents you do not have. If the questionnaire asks for an environmental policy and there is none, the answer is "No, we do not have a formal environmental policy." That is a legitimate first-time answer.
Want this as an interactive spreadsheet?
78 items across Environment, Social, and Governance — with status dropdowns, priority fields, owner columns, and an auto-calculated readiness score.
Step 3: complete and submit
Multiple choice. Select the honest option. If you partially meet a criterion, pick the closest and add a note if the form allows.
Numbers. Enter what you gathered. Note the method where there is space. State what is measured and what is estimated.
Text. Factual and specific. "We track employee safety through monthly incident reports reviewed by management" is a better answer than "We are committed to employee wellbeing."
Uploads. Attach existing documents. Do not write new ones for the questionnaire.
Questions you cannot answer. "Not applicable" for questions that do not apply. "Not currently tracked" for data you do not have. A blank with no explanation is the worst option.
The seven data points almost every questionnaire asks for
Whatever the format, the same core data recurs. Gather these seven and most of the questionnaire is answered before you open it:
- Annual energy — electricity (kWh), gas (kWh or m³), vehicle fuel (liters), from twelve months of bills
- Emissions — Scope 1 and 2 in metric tons CO2e, calculated from item 1; the free carbon calculator does the conversion
- Water — annual m³, if operations use meaningful amounts (manufacturing, food, washing)
- Waste — metric tons generated and the share recycled versus landfilled, from hauler invoices
- Workforce — headcount, turnover, gender split, training hours per employee
- Health and safety — recordable injuries, lost-time rate, whether and how often you train
- Policies and certifications — which written policies exist (environment, safety, ethics, labor, data protection), signed and dated, and any ISO 9001/14001/45001 or sector certificates
Most of this already exists in finance, HR, or operations. The work is collecting it once.
What you do not need yet
First questionnaires rarely require, and customers rarely expect from a small supplier:
- Your own Scope 3 emissions. They want your Scope 1 and 2; that is their Scope 3.
- Science-based targets. Not expected of small suppliers. A target you can track is worth more than a commitment you cannot.
- GRI, TCFD, or a published sustainability report. Frameworks for listed and large companies. If anyone asks which framework you follow, the VSME standard is the SME-scale reference.
- Third-party assurance. Expensive and rarely requested from small suppliers outside high-risk sectors.
If a questionnaire asks for any of these, "not currently; here is what we do have" is a complete answer.
Common first-time questions
What if I do not have the policies they ask about? Say so. "No, we do not currently have a formal environmental policy" is honest. Add that you are developing one only if that is true. Do not claim documents that do not exist.
What if my numbers look poor? You do not know what other suppliers report. A company that measures its emissions is more credible than one that claims zero impact. Customers want accurate data, including data that shows room for improvement.
What if the deadline is impossible? Contact your customer. Explain that this is your first ESG response and ask for a short extension. Most customers agree; they want the data, not silence. If no extension is possible, submit what you have with a note on what is in progress. The free time estimator gives an hours figure to base a proposed date on, and the deadline guide covers triage.
Should I hire a consultant? For a first response to a standard customer questionnaire, probably not. If the questionnaire is a high-stakes assessment (EcoVadis, where the score affects contract retention) or involves calculations you cannot do internally, outside help may be worthwhile. For most first requests your own staff can do it; the guide on responding without a sustainability team shows how.
What if I get something wrong? Honest mistakes are correctable. If you later find an answer was inaccurate, tell the customer and provide the correction. Errors do not damage relationships. Errors that are not acknowledged do.
After you submit
Record your sources. Where each figure came from and who holds it. Next year's response starts from this list.
Note the gaps. What you could not answer and what took longest to find are the improvements to make before the next request.
Save your answers. Other customers will send similar questionnaires. Saved responses mean the next one starts partly complete.
Start tracking. If last year's energy data took a search through twelve invoices, set up a monthly habit: record consumption from bills as they arrive, update the incident and training logs quarterly, review policies and calculate totals annually. Name the person who owns it, even part-time.
The longer game
The first ESG questionnaire is the hardest. Every later one benefits from the work already done.
Companies that treat the first request as a one-off repeat the scramble each time. Companies that treat it as a foundation — saved answers, documented sources, data tracked from now on — find the second request takes half the time and the fifth is routine. Building an ESG response system covers the setup.
The immediate priority is the questionnaire in front of you. You do not need to transform the company's sustainability practice to answer it. You need to state honestly where you are today. Start with what you have, acknowledge what you do not, submit by the deadline, improve from there.
Official References
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (European Commission)
- GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard
- EFRAG VSME standard