Ask Once, Use Many Times: A Smarter Approach to Supplier Engagement

Every supplier request costs time, on your side and theirs. Ask once, structure the answers well, and the same effort supports CSRD, EUDR, PPWR and SBTi, with better data for every one of them. That’s a return on investment and a return on impact from a single piece of work.

Your suppliers are probably hearing from you more often than you realise

One team wants carbon data, another wants packaging information and a third needs traceability details. The requests arrive at different times and in different formats, and they often ask for the same thing in slightly different ways.

The underlying challenge is the same: how do you get the information you need without asking suppliers again and again?

The answer is rarely more sophisticated technology. It starts with designing the process well:

• being clear about what you need
• spotting where requirements overlap
• engaging suppliers properly
• structuring the data so you can use it again

Why now?

Regulation keeps moving, and Dutch businesses that trade across Europe face overlapping and changing requirements. CSRD, EUDR, PPWR and SBTi all call for better supply chain information. The data points differ, but the suppliers, processes and information behind them overlap a great deal.

Treat each requirement as a separate box-ticking exercise and compliance becomes a growing cost: several questionnaires, parallel data projects, repeated outreach to the same suppliers and, often, poorer-quality data. Approach it strategically and it becomes a source of advantage.

A better approach looks across all your requirements and asks: what can we request once, structure once and use many times?

What we’ll cover

• Start with the process: how to scope a supplier data project, pin down what you need and find the overlaps between requirements.
• Ask once, not five times: how to coordinate outreach and cut duplicated or unnecessary requests.
• Bring suppliers with you: practical approaches to communication, sequencing and engagement that improve participation and data quality.
• Structure for reuse: how to organise what you collect so it serves several purposes, rather than sitting in one-off spreadsheets.
• Scale sensibly: where automation and digital tools make life easier, and when you don’t need sophisticated technology at all.
• Lessons from practice: real examples of what works, what doesn’t and where supplier data programmes tend to stall.

Launching Anthesis Intelligence in the Netherlands

This lunch is also the official Dutch launch of Anthesis Intelligence, our purpose-built digital platform for sustainability data. You’ll see how it helps you collect supplier information once, structure it for reuse and turn it into decision-ready insight across product footprints, supplier data and EUDR risk.

Want to go further? Book a free Sustainability Data Deep Dive during ROI² Week. Bring a real data challenge and work through it live with a specialist, online or in Utrecht.

What to expect

This is a practical, decision-focused session, less about individual regulations and more about setting up supplier engagement properly from the start. You’ll leave with a clear view of how to move from repeated, one-off requests to a process where you collect the right information once and put it to work across your organisation.

For: procurement and sustainability leaders

Places at our Utrecht lunch are limited, so please register early.