Custom portal for requesting sustainability data from suppliers
Appfront builds portals that let organisations request sustainability data from their suppliers. One questionnaire to hundreds of suppliers, with each supplier's status shown: invited, in progress, answered or reminded. Suppliers fill in what is asked of them, such as energy use, emissions or product data, with the evidence attached. The answers are brought together in a controlled way, ready for the sustainability report and procurement.
What is a supplier sustainability data request portal?
More and more organisations need data from their suppliers for their sustainability report, for customers who ask for it, or for their own goals. This includes, for example, energy use, emissions, data on a product or material, or information on how a supplier treats people and the environment. That data sits with the supplier and has to be requested.
In practice this is done with a spreadsheet emailed to hundreds of suppliers. Some don't reply, some send back a different version, some fill in only what is easy. Someone in procurement or sustainability keeps track of who has replied, sends reminders, and merges the answers. Whether an answer is correct is hard to check. Next year it starts all over again.
We build custom solutions because data requests differ: which data you need and why, which suppliers receive which questions, what evidence you ask for, and where the answers should end up. Which data is mandatory for your report and under which standard is decided by you with your adviser or accountant; the portal requests it and checks what you record.
One request, many suppliers
One questionnaire for all suppliers, with each supplier's status and automatic reminders.
Answers with evidence
Suppliers respond with explanations and supporting documents, in an environment that is simple for them to use.
Checked and brought together
Answers checked for completeness and discrepancies, and consolidated for the report.
How we build your supplier sustainability data request portal
We start with your data request: which data you need, from which suppliers, for what purpose, and how it works today.
Which data, which suppliers, which evidence, and where the answers need to go.
Questionnaires per supplier type, and invitation and access for each supplier.
Completing with evidence, reminders, and checks for completeness and discrepancies.
Overview for the report, integrations, and the next round on the same basis.
What a supplier sustainability data request portal does in practice
The components below come up in almost every supplier data request. Which ones you need depends on your report.
Suppliers
Suppliers from procurement or ERP, with category.
Questionnaires
Questions per supplier or product type.
Inviting
Invitation and individual access for each supplier.
Status
Per supplier invited, in progress or answered, with reminders.
Validation
Completeness, discrepancies and comparison with last year.
Overview
Answers per category for the report.
Who we build a supplier sustainability data request portal for
The portal is intended for organisations that need data from many suppliers.
Large organisations
Hundreds of suppliers for the report. Status is the core.
Manufacturers
Data on products and materials. Questions per product matter most.
Suppliers of large customers
Requested by them, and requesting from their own suppliers. The evidence is what matters.
Advisers
Requests for customers. One environment per customer is the core.
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This page covers requesting sustainability data from suppliers. For the report itself, see our page on CSRD and ESG reporting. For suppliers in general, see our page on a custom supplier portal, and for CSRD, our page on CSRD software. You can read about how we work at Building software.
Why choose Appfront for your supplier sustainability data request portal?
A spreadsheet sent to hundreds of suppliers comes back in a hundred versions. We build on something better: one request, answers backed by evidence, and a check before the data reaches the report.
No more spreadsheets
Suppliers complete their answers in one environment.
Know who is missing
Status for each supplier, with reminders.
Substantiated
Answers are backed by evidence and checked.
Security and privacy for a supplier sustainability data request portal
The portal holds supplier business information that may be confidential. Each supplier sees only their own questions and answers, access is set by role, and every change is logged.
The portal runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage, daily back-ups and two-factor login.
Frequently asked questions about a supplier sustainability data request portal
Questions that sustainability and procurement teams ask before getting started.
It sends questionnaires to suppliers, gives each supplier their own environment to complete with evidence, tracks status with reminders, checks the answers, and brings them together for the sustainability report.
Whatever you need, such as energy use, emissions, product or material data, or policy information. You can ask different questions for different types of supplier, so each supplier only receives the questions that apply to them.
That depends on the rules and standards that apply to your organisation and on what you have decided is material. You decide what to request with your adviser or accountant; the portal collects what you define.
With a simple environment, only the questions that apply to them, and automatic reminders. You can see for each supplier where things stand, so procurement can follow up in a targeted way.
Yes, for completeness, for deviations from comparable suppliers and for differences from last year. Anything that stands out goes back to the supplier as a question.
Yes, provided they offer an interface or import. Suppliers come from procurement or ERP, and responses go to the software where the report is produced.
Check that first. There are platforms for supplier sustainability data, and they work well if your questions and suppliers fit them. Custom development makes sense if you have your own questions per product, if suppliers already sit in your own portal, or if the answers must feed your own systems.
Supplier sustainability data, without spreadsheets?
Tell us which data you need, from how many suppliers, and how you request it today. We will show you what the request, status and checks look like.