Our buyer says our steel or cement is an "emissions-intensive activity" under SBTi V2. What data will they want?

Your product's cradle-to-gate footprint. Under SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, Category A buyers must identify and quantify emissions-intensive activities such as steel, cement and aluminium on a cradle-to-gate basis (modules A1 to A3). One is significant at 5% or more of Scope 3 categories 1 to 14.

What the buyer must do (C6)

• Identify which listed activities are in its value chain. It cannot assume one is absent without checking.
• Quantify their Scope 3 emissions with the best available data, or explain the gap and close it at the next update.
• Treat an activity as significant at 5% or more of Scope 3 categories 1 to 14, adding it up across categories.
• Report tonnes and percentage for each significant one, in the next reporting cycle after validation.
• Category A buyers must later report what share of each significant activity meets the benchmark for lower carbon or net-zero aligned (C37.5).

The list in Annex A

• Commodities, cradle-to-gate: cement, steel, aluminium, ammonia, methanol, ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylene, primary plastics, and farmed commodities such as rice, wheat, rubber, leather and timber.
• Transport, well-to-wheel: light and heavy road vehicles, rail freight, ocean shipping, aviation.
• Sold products, use phase: sold fuels, fuel- and electricity-using products, products that release greenhouse gases, and services supporting fossil fuel production.

What cradle-to-gate means for you

• A1: raw materials, such as iron ore, scrap, coking coal, limestone, alumina.
• A2: transport of those materials to your plant.
• A3: your own manufacturing: fuel, power and process emissions.
• Footnote 69 notes that A1 to A3 is the basis for Environmental Product Declarations and lines up with the data CBAM asks for.

What to have ready

1. Emissions per tonne of product, cradle-to-gate, for the latest year, with the method named.
2. Your own Scope 1 and 2 per tonne, from fuel invoices and power bills.
3. Input data behind A1: scrap share or clinker ratio, and where suppliers' figures came from.
4. If you export to the EU, the CBAM emissions data you already prepare.

Example: is steel significant for the buyer?

• Buyer's Scope 3, categories 1 to 14: 50,000 t CO2e
• Purchased steel, cradle-to-gate, from supplier data: 3,100 t, which is 6.2%, so significant
• Purchased cement: 1,800 t, which is 3.6%, so not significant on its own
• The buyer reports 3,100 t and 6.2% for steel and will want your per-tonne figure each year

Example company.

What Senseible does here

Senseible builds the A3 part, your own Scope 1 and 2, from fuel invoices and power bills, and keeps purchase lines in a Scope 3 supplier evidence trail. A full cradle-to-gate figure also needs your input suppliers' data. It does not set, validate or assure SBTi targets.

• SBTi Net-Zero Standard V2: supplier impact
• SBTi V2 volume alignment targets
• Green steel certificates in Scope 3
• Scope 3 supplier evidence

Sources: SBTi, Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, Criteria (final, released June 2026, effective 1 February 2027): C6, C37.5, R15.2, Annex A and footnote 69

Last reviewed 2026-11-01.