Carbon balance: the majority of companies fall into the trap

60-90% is the share of a large company's carbon emissions from its supply chain. In other words, you.

In recent months, a message has been circulating in the corridors of French SMEs and ETIs: « We're too small to be involved. » Partly true. Mostly dangerous.

The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) requires large companies to publish a detailed report on their environmental and social impacts, including carbon emissions linked to their entire value chain. This is called Scope 3: emissions generated by upstream and downstream suppliers, suppliers and partners. On average, they account for between 60% and 90% of the total carbon balance of a large group. To complete this reporting, large companies have no choice: they must collect carbon data from their suppliers. All of them. Without exception. And they've already started.

A risk that does not look like a fine

The trap is that the danger to your business does not take the form of a sanction. No penalty, no control. What is involved is your place in the value chain of your strategic customers.

If you can't provide your emission data when a major payer asks you, you become a fragile link in its reporting. A supplier that does not meet this requirement is a supplier that is being replaced, or that will be excluded at the next contract renewal. The de-reference doesn't make any noise, it happens, simply. These demands are accelerating. The first companies submitted to the CSDD are required to report on fiscal years 2024 and 2025. They need your data now.

Where to start?

Many companies push the subject away because they don't know how to do it. The carbon balance is scary: one imagines a long, technical, costly approach. In fact, the first step is a step of understanding, knowing what a carbon balance covers, identifying the major sources of emissions from its business, understanding what the customer will ask for and how to respond to them.

Initiating a carbon approach is also about empowering yourself: reducing emissions, valuing your efforts with your customers, securing your business relationships. This is not another CSR project. It is a protective measure, and a lever of sustainable differentiation.

Can your company today meet the carbon requirements of its large customers?

What ACTE International recommends:

• Identify your main providers submitted to the CSDD and anticipate their data requests
• Mapping the major sources of emissions from your activity (energy, travel, purchases, waste)
• Train your teams to understand the Carbon Balance® method and know what to measure
• Accompani you to produce a first carbon balance exploitable and credible

We offer training to understand the method and take action: « Gas balance with Serre effect (GES): moving from observation to action« , next session 9-10 July 2026. For companies ready to go further, ACTE International directly supports the carbon balance.

• European Commission, CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
• ADEME, Reference Carbon Balance® — definition of scopes 1, 2 and 3
• CSRD analysis and cascade effect, Project Celsius / Wecount, 2026