Request PCF from your suppliers
Written by Heinz Hambrock
On average, 90% of your product-related emissions don't come from your own production*, but in previous steps of the value chain. Would you like to determine the real Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) of your products completely?
Then you need to request emission data from your supply chain directly. That's simple with Mattermaps! In Mattermaps you can request the CO2e footprints for individual components of your product directly from your suppliers or add your estimated secondary data if your suppliers don't have that information yet - easy and transparent.
Does that sound good? Scroll down for more.
*Figures may vary by industry and supply chain tier
First step in sending out a PCF request
Navigate to the Procurement tab, choose Material Categories from the options. Here you will find an overview of all the components added. To view Component details, please select the desired Material Category then component by clicking on its name.
Component Overview tab gives you an overview of all your components, including component Identifier types, values, the amount of suppliers available for that component and any emission data that may have already been recorded.
To request component-related emission values from your supplier, once you select a component, navigate to the Manage PCF tab. Here you can see the detailed information of all the suppliers that are linked to that component, any emission proof or secondary data that has already been received and PCF state.
If several suppliers are linked to the selected component, you will also find the percentage of the procurement volume of each of them. By the way: If you need to adjust the shares, click Manage Suppliers button, and you will be able to do it!
Now you have two choices:
Either you rely on primary data directly from your supply chain. Therefore you will send your suppliers a PCF request for that component.
Or, you'd like to enter secondary data to create the first benchmark with estimates or database values.
Request PCF from my suppliers
Request PCFs
There are two ways to request component-related emission values from your supplier on Mattermaps.
1) For each component independently: on the Manage PCF tab you will find a Kebab Menu on the right for each supplier already registered in Mattermaps.
Click on Kebab menu for the desired supplier, and click on Request. Then a dialog window opens. The form fields are already pre-filled with the stored component and supplier data. You only need to select your preferred standard and click send. The request is already on its way to your supplier.
After sending the request, you will also see the request under your Component tasks section in My Tasks.
2) Bulk request PCFs: navigate to the Procurement tab, choose Component-Supplier from the dropdown. Here you will have an overview of all your components and suppliers. On this table, you can filter on both material category and status. You can also search based on your supplier name, or any of the available columns.
To bulk request PCFs, choose the components you would like to request by checking the box on the left, then click on Request PCF on the upper right corner of the table.
When you click on Request PCF a dialog box will appear, you can choose the desired PCF format, then click send.
What happens to my request now
PCFs Received from Suppliers
Your request will be sent to your supplier for processing. Your supplier will send you – if available – an emission credential for the requested component. You can track all of this under My Tasks tab.
The Proof can be based on your supplier's own information or can be certified by an independent third party for additional security. In the overview of the received proofs you can see the status and the validity of the received verifiable proofs. You can also export the proofs shared by your suppliers within the task itself.
Incoming proof set as the default data
You can decide at any time whether secondary data or received PCF is used to for the components emissions that go into your products.
In the Available Secondary Data tab for each component you can check if there is secondary data a to available for a specific component or add secondary data in this section.
Please note that once you or your procurement colleague accepts an incoming proof from your supplier, incoming proof from suppliers is automatically set as the default data. If you would like to keep on using the secondary data, go to that specific component, click on the Kebab Menu (three dots to the right), choose the link or unlink the secondary data option.
From this kebab menu, for each component you can also decide which data set would you like to use, the one coming in from your supplier or the secondary data set. Under the "Active Emission Data", select either PCF or Secondary Data.
How to send a site specific PCF request?
How to send a site specific PCF request?
Mattermaps allows you to request a PCF from the same supplier but for different manufacturing locations or sites. Here's how you can do it:
Manage Suppliers for Each Component:
Choose the desired component. Navigate to the "Manage Suppliers" button at the top of the component page.
Link Component to Supplier:
Click on "Link Existing Supplier" and choose the desired location for the supplier.
Repeat the Process for Different Locations:
Select the same supplier, but choose a different location each time.
This can be done in bulk as well. To do that, please check this guide.
Once completed:
Component Overview, Manage PCF tab: You will see the same supplier listed in multiple rows, each representing a different location.
Send PCF Requests: For each row, you can now send a distinct PCF request for specific sites.
Task Tracking: Each request generates a separate task for easy tracking. Within the task, suppliers will see the location details, helping them identify which location to provide the PCF for.
You can bulk request those PCFs as well, from the Component-Supplier tab.