For years, companies have invested heavily in measuring environmental impact. Carbon accounting platforms have matured, disclosure has expanded, and Scope 3 data has become a board-level issue.
That work still matters, and expectations around primary data, traceability, and assurance are only increasing. What’s changing is what companies are expected to do with that data.
Across Q3 2026, developments in sustainability technology, regulation, standards, and corporate procurement all put more weight on using supply chain information to decide where to act. The market is moving from measurement to execution.
One of the clearest signals comes from the sustainability technology market itself. Over the past year, partnerships and acquisitions have increasingly brought together two sets of capabilities that used to sit apart.
Carbon accounting, product carbon footprints (PCFs), sustainability ratings, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data management are now being combined with supplier engagement, advisory and delivery, climate-risk modeling, and implementation support.
Q3 saw further consolidation, with acquisitions increasingly focused on closing the gap between measurement and execution. Secaro's own acquisition by ASUENE is part of this shift, bringing supply chain intelligence and decarbonization capabilities into a wider sustainability platform. Partnerships are following suit, pairing technology with specialist expertise, implementation, and supplier engagement.
The emerging model looks something like this:
Measure → identify → prioritize → engage → act → measure the outcome.
That matters because Scope 3 work goes well beyond calculating a number. It means identifying which suppliers, facilities, materials, and processes are driving the greatest exposure, where change is achievable, and how to get suppliers to act. Technology providers are increasingly positioning themselves to take on more of that work.
At the same time, decarbonization is increasingly being discussed alongside energy security, cost, water, climate adaptation, and supply chain resilience.
The World Economic Forum's 2026 Chief Sustainability Officers (CSO) Outlook found that 85% of CSOs expect adaptation to become a bigger global focus over the next three years. It also points to a deeper shift: sustainability is moving further into commercial, operational, and investment decisions.
CDP data tells a similar story. The proportion of disclosing companies with a climate transition plan has reached 32%, up 8% since 2023, and nearly half of those plans now integrate at least one environmental issue beyond climate, with water the most commonly integrated.
According to CDP's 2026 Disclosure Dividend, every dollar spent responding to environmental risk can generate a median return of up to $8, while every dollar invested in emissions reduction generates an average return of $2.40, and in some cases up to $7 over its lifetime.
For buyers, that turns supplier risk into a commercial question. A supplier’s reliance on fossil fuels, or its exposure to energy price volatility, water stress, or extreme weather, can translate directly into higher costs, production disruption, and continuity risk for the buyer. Reducing emissions can also lower energy costs, strengthen resilience, and help businesses prepare for future regulation.
After several years dominated by new frameworks and announcements, businesses are increasingly dealing with implementation. In Europe, rules covering carbon, deforestation, and packaging are pushing sustainability data deeper into procurement and operational decision-making.
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) creates a direct link between embedded carbon and the cost of importing certain carbon-intensive products.
The EU Deforestation Regulation increases the need for supply chain traceability, while packaging requirements are moving questions around recyclability, recycled content, and product design closer to implementation.
The UK is heading the same way, with its own Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism taking effect from January 1, 2027, initially covering specified goods in aluminum, cement, fertilizer, hydrogen, and iron and steel.
These requirements differ, but each one leaves businesses needing better information from their supply chains, and, increasingly, needing to act on it.
Standards are also putting more weight on credible data, implementation, and evidence of progress. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Standard, published in January 2026, sets out how to account for emissions and removals from land management and carbon-removal activities.
The clearest sign comes from the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2.0. SBTi describes the update as a shift “from ambition to real-world implementation,” with greater emphasis on embedding climate targets into core decision-making across operations, value chains, and capital allocation.
Estimated emissions and high-level targets remain useful, but companies increasingly need to understand what’s happening at supplier, product, and operational level, because that is where decisions about where to act get made.
Some companies are already going beyond asking suppliers for information and using their purchasing power, technical expertise, and supplier relationships to drive change.
In Q3, we saw examples across energy and materials.
Tesla signed a long-term power purchase agreement for the entire output of Zelestra's 140 MW Lumen Farm solar project in Texas.
Mercedes-Benz expanded its partnership with Hydro and will use aluminum containing at least 75% post-consumer recycled material in series production for its next generation of large electric vehicles.
Google agreed to purchase environmental attribute certificates associated with up to 91,000 metric tons of near-zero-emissions steel from Stegra's first year of production.
In apparel, M&S and Levi Strauss, supported by Schneider Electric, launched the Fashion Renewable Collaborative, designed to give suppliers practical support to adopt renewable electricity at scale.
The same shift is showing up in supply chain heat. Earlier this year, Secaro and ERM launched the Clean Heat Program with AstraZeneca as a founding member, focused on industrial process heat, one of the harder areas of Scope 3 decarbonization.
The program combines supply chain data and intelligence with technical expertise to help companies and suppliers identify opportunities and move projects toward implementation, working through barriers such as limited data, technical complexity, supplier engagement and financing. In September, Sanofi, UCB, and Opella joined AstraZeneca as founding members, with Schneider Electric and 3Degrees joining as partners.
In each case, buyers are taking an active part in supply chain decarbonization instead of waiting for suppliers to act alone.
Primary data, traceability, interoperability, and assurance are becoming more important, so measurement remains essential, but it’s increasingly the starting point. Acting on it means deciding where to intervene, which suppliers and sites to prioritize, what’s achievable, and how to move projects from opportunity to implementation.
That raises a different set of questions for sustainability leaders:
Can you identify which suppliers and facilities represent the greatest environmental and commercial exposure?
Can you tell the difference between a supplier that needs better data and one that needs help implementing change?
Can you see where energy dependence, water stress, extreme weather, or carbon pricing risk could disrupt your supply chain?
Can you prioritize interventions based on feasibility, cost, and potential impact, instead of engaging every supplier in the same way?
Can you show that supplier engagement is producing measurable outcomes rather than simply generating more disclosure?
If those answers are unclear, collecting more data alone is unlikely to solve the problem. The next competitive advantage will come from connecting visibility with action: using supply chain intelligence to decide where intervention matters, working with suppliers to make change achievable, and measuring the commercial and environmental outcomes that follow.