New Year Insights for the procurement solutions and services marketplace 2024: EcoVadis

For several years now, Spend Matters has been collecting and publishing a series of articles about procurement, supply and services trends for the year ahead from expert tech and service providers in the market.

This year we’re highlighting the customer demands, market movements and advances in procurement tech that are exciting the world of solution providers, how they expect them to shape the S2P landscape next year and how they plan to respond to them.

Our series runs from mid-December to mid-January, then our senior analysts will wrap up with their own take on the key themes that emerge.

In no order of preference, other than by the date they arrived in our inbox, today let’s hear from Julia Salant, general manager, carbon solution at EcoVadis.

Expect more pressure on interoperability as companies engage trading partners in climate action

We can expect to see unprecedented partnership and collaboration for supply chain sustainability in 2024. The need for collaboration will be particularly driven by new and evolving regulations, like California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and the SEC’s pending rule changes on climate-related disclosures, that require companies to report transparently and granularly on their full carbon footprint, including Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. The challenge is that Scope 3 accounts for the vast majority of corporate emissions, but they are the most difficult to track.

I’m hearing from boards and CEOs of major Fortune 500 companies that they are now prioritizing Scope 3 emissions because they understand the important role their businesses play if our economies are going to limit global warming per The Paris Agreement. They also recognize the need to take action along with their suppliers, with their customers and even with their competitors to build momentum and drive decarbonization. This exchange is not merely transactional, it’s a strategic imperative that is shaping the future of our global supply chains.

As a result, the coming year will put more pressure on interoperability as companies engage more of their trading partners in climate action. That is why the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) was formed, alongside the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), EcoVadis and major software players. They have done the hard work of aligning on carbon standards and developing the global protocol for the peer-to-peer exchange of such data with a standardized approach, ensuring interoperability between technology solutions.

Collaboration is the linchpin. While we offer tools and resources as a starting point to help organizations meet corporate sustainability goals and drive impact at scale, the true transformation lies in the actions taken by companies. We will see more companies moving beyond the bare minimum of simply complying with regulations and sustainability standards, to actually proving they are working to minimize unseen risk, build resilience and improve sustainability performance across their supply chains.

While technology is a powerful enabler of such peer-to-peer collaboration, no amount of AI or technology will decarbonize supply chains unless companies directly engage with their suppliers. The power to decarbonize supply chains is not an isolated effort but a collective journey that necessitates a shared commitment to sustainability. The future is collaborative, and companies must engage with their suppliers for a collective, data-driven approach to shaping a more sustainable world.

Many thanks to EcoVadis for being a part of the series. You can read about EcoVadis here in our risk analysis series. You can also read our senior analyst’s take on the key themes from the series here.

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As always, reach out to discover how Spend Matters can help with your new year commitments and wishes.