Automotive companies are under growing pressure to decarbonize vehicles.
The difficult part sits much further upstream.
Steel, aluminum, glass, plastics, coatings, electronics, and battery materials all pass through energy-intensive industrial processes before they ever reach an assembly line. Much of the emissions footprint tied to automotive manufacturing is created long before a vehicle is built.
That is why Scope 3 emissions have become such a major focus across the sector.
Research from the World Economic Forum and BCG suggests that supply chain emissions account for the vast majority of emissions across the automotive value chain, with raw materials and manufacturing representing some of the largest contributors.
For many automotive companies, reducing emissions increasingly depends on transforming industrial supplier systems they do not directly control. And many of those systems rely heavily on industrial heat.
Automotive manufacturing depends on a vast industrial network of upstream suppliers. Steel production requires blast furnaces operating at extremely high temperatures. Aluminum production depends on energy-intensive refining and smelting processes. Glass, plastics, chemicals, coatings, and battery materials all rely on thermal energy during production.
Across industrial manufacturing, heat accounts for roughly three-quarters of final energy use, according to the International Energy Agency.
And much of that heat still comes from fossil fuels.
What’s more, the International Energy Agency identifies heavy industries including steel, chemicals, and materials manufacturing as some of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize because of their dependence on high-temperature heat systems.
For automotive supply chains, this creates a difficult reality. Some of the largest emissions sources sit inside supplier facilities producing the raw materials and components vehicles depend on every day.
Automotive manufacturing operates through highly interconnected supplier networks. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) may work with thousands of suppliers across multiple tiers, countries, and manufacturing environments. Production systems are tightly synchronized. Delays or operational disruptions at one supplier facility can quickly affect manufacturing further downstream.
That creates additional complexity when suppliers begin evaluating heat decarbonization projects.
Replacing furnaces, electrifying thermal systems, redesigning process heat infrastructure, or integrating alternative fuels can require substantial capital investment and operational planning. Many facilities were originally designed around fossil-fuel infrastructure intended to operate for decades.
In some cases, decarbonization projects may also require temporary shutdowns, equipment redesign, or process adjustments that suppliers are reluctant to introduce into tightly scheduled production environments.
This is one reason industrial heat transitions often move more slowly than corporate climate targets.
The challenge is rarely awareness. It is implementation inside operational manufacturing systems.
Over the past decade, automotive companies have invested heavily in supplier engagement and emissions reporting initiatives.
Suppliers are increasingly asked to disclose emissions data, set science-based targets, and demonstrate progress against decarbonization goals. Transparency across automotive supply chains has improved significantly as a result.
But visibility alone does not automatically reduce emissions.
Research from CDP shows that supply chain emissions are often many times larger than companies’ direct operational emissions, yet suppliers frequently face significant barriers when attempting to implement decarbonization projects at the facility level.
For many industrial suppliers, the barriers are operational as much as financial.
Heat decarbonization projects can involve engineering redesign, infrastructure upgrades, financing requirements, and production planning. Different facilities require different technical approaches depending on process temperatures, equipment configuration, regional infrastructure, and production constraints.
Every facility becomes its own transition challenge.
Most suppliers already understand where emissions sit. The challenge is turning decarbonization targets into operational change across highly interconnected manufacturing networks.
A low-carbon solution that works for one supplier may not work for another operating different processes, materials, or production requirements. Electrification may be viable in some facilities but unrealistic in others. Hydrogen infrastructure remains limited in many regions, while alternative fuels and process redesigns often require significant capital investment and operational planning.
Automotive supply chains add another layer of complexity.
Production systems are tightly synchronized, and suppliers are expected to maintain cost, quality, and delivery performance while transforming core manufacturing infrastructure. Even small disruptions upstream can affect production schedules further downstream.
This is where many traditional supplier decarbonization programs begin to struggle.
Emissions reporting and target-setting frameworks improve visibility, but visibility alone does not deliver industrial transition projects. Suppliers often need engineering expertise, feasibility analysis, financing support, and implementation planning before heat decarbonization projects can move forward with confidence.
Few suppliers can coordinate all of those elements independently.
That is driving a broader shift across automotive supply chain decarbonization efforts. Increasingly, the focus is moving beyond emissions disclosure toward operational implementation.
Initiatives like the Clean Heat Program, developed by Secaro in partnership with ERM, are designed to support suppliers through that transition. Suppliers receive support to understand how heat is used across facilities, identify technically viable decarbonization pathways, assess operational impacts, and build investment-ready transition plans.
The model combines supplier engagement, technical expertise, and financing support into a coordinated implementation pathway designed around the realities of industrial manufacturing environments.
Automotive companies face growing pressure to demonstrate measurable progress on supply chain emissions.
Many of the largest emissions sources sit upstream inside industrial facilities producing the materials and components modern vehicles depend on.
Steel. Aluminum. Chemicals. Glass. Battery materials.
All rely heavily on industrial heat.
Reducing those emissions will require more than supplier reporting and climate commitments. It will require practical operational pathways capable of transforming the thermal systems embedded across industrial supply chains.
For many automotive companies, meaningful Scope 3 progress will ultimately depend on what happens inside supplier manufacturing facilities long before vehicles reach the production line.