# My buyer's PACT request asks for primary data share and DQR. What if I don't know my suppliers' figures?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/pact-pcf-unknown-supplier-data-worst-case

Use the worst case. PACT Methodology v3.0 says that where upstream primary data share and data quality ratings are unknown, you apply 0% primary data share and a DQR of 5. You still send the footprint. The low score shows your buyer where supplier data is missing, and your biggest suppliers' own footprints raise it.

## What PACT v3.0 asks you to report

- Primary data share (PDS): the percentage of the footprint, excluding biogenic CO2 uptake, calculated from primary data. It is exchanged with every footprint you send.
- Data quality ratings (DQR): three scores, for technological, geographical and time representativeness, each from 1 (best) to 5 (worst). PACT says you should calculate them now and must report them by the end of 2027.
- Both are weighted by each input's share of the footprint, so one big input moves the result more than many small ones.
- An input counts as primary only when both its activity data and its emission factor are primary.

## What scores 0% in practice

- A purchased material with no footprint from its supplier, calculated with a database factor.
- Grid electricity: your kWh are measured, but a grid average factor is secondary data. PACT's own worked example scores metered electricity with a secondary factor at 0%.
- Any input whose primary data share you simply do not know. PACT says apply 0% to that input.
- What does count as primary: direct combustion emissions from fuel you measure and burn on site.

## How to raise the score next time

1. Rank inputs by their share of the footprint. For most converters it is the main raw material.
2. Ask those suppliers for their product footprint and its primary data share. PACT says this is the only way upstream share rises above 0.
3. Use a supplier-specific factor for purchased electricity where you have one; PACT lists it as the best case.
4. Add a short note explaining your share. PACT encourages it, and it saves a round of buyer questions.

## What to send now

Send the footprint with the worst case applied, not a blank. Name the inputs scored 0% and when you expect supplier data. A buyer can work with an honest 6% that is rising; it cannot work with a figure that hides its gaps.

## Example: one tonne of forged flanges

- Steel bar, no mill footprint: 1,100 kg x 2.2 kg CO2e/kg (example database factor) = 2,420 kg, PDS 0%
- Furnace oil burnt in your furnace: 60 L x 2.97 kg/L = 178.2 kg, PDS 100% (direct combustion)
- Grid electricity: 300 kWh x 0.675 kg/kWh (CEA, FY 2025-26) = 202.5 kg, PDS 0% (secondary factor)
- Total 2,800.7 kg CO2e. PDS = 178.2 / 2,800.7 = 6.4%
- If the mill sends a footprint with 40% PDS: (2,420 x 0.40 + 178.2) / 2,800.7 = 40.9%

The steel factor and the mill's 40% are example values. Same footprint, but one supplier's data lifts the share from 6% to 41%.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your fuel invoices and electricity bills into measured activity data, with the factor and its source on every line: the part of the footprint you control. It does not claim PACT conformance or send data in the PACT format.

- [Supplier evidence for buyers](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [PACT Pathfinder Framework explained](https://senseible.earth/answers/pact-pathfinder-framework-explained)
- [Data quality rating, explained](https://senseible.earth/answers/data-quality-rating-dqr-explained)
- [Buyer asked for a product footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/buyer-asked-for-product-carbon-footprint-what-to-send)

Sources: [PACT Methodology v3.0, sections 4.1 and 4.2 (Partnership for Carbon Transparency)](https://docs.carbon-transparency.org/tr/methodology/3.0/pact-methodology-v3.0.pdf), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database User Guide, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/api/cdm-report-version/view-pdf/en/82)

Last reviewed 2026-11-03. PACT revises its methodology; check the current version's data quality rules and DQR start date.