In 2024 and 2025, we had the opportunity to support Elia, a major player in the Belgian energy transmission and infrastructure sector, in addressing its continuous transition challenges. This project responds to a critical need: to accelerate sustainability efforts by strengthening visibility on the carbon footprint of upstream activities.

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Context and challenges - turning complex supply chains into actionable insights

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The infrastructure sector plays a critical role in ensuring a sustainable transition, largely due to its substantial resource consumption. To foster sustainability and comply with upcoming regulations, companies must gain a clear and granular understanding of the resources procured for infrastructure development. 

 

However, they frequently struggle to achieve a comprehensive view of these resources. Infrastructure companies often rely on a diverse and extensive supplier base and often lack direct visibility on their Tier 2 suppliers. Fragmented supply chain data and inconsistent reporting practices create major obstacles to collecting and consolidating upstream information, a prerequisite for effective Scope 3 emissions management. 

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Our approach - supporting the development of a tailored scope 3 data collection platform

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The necessity to understand upstream data is essential for identifying decarbonisation levers. To address this, an internal platform dedicated to upstream data collection was developed. This platform fully integrates with the company’s ERP system, consolidating all Scope 3-related data in a centralised, structured, and user-friendly environment.

 

At Slo, we support the development of this platform by:

 

• applying our expertise in carbon accounting and emission factors specific to infrastructure materials and activities;

• leveraging our extensive knowledge of material impacts across construction, energy transmission, and heavy industry;

• sharing our experience in supplier engagement, ensuring that primary data collection becomes a shared ambition across the supply chain;

• facilitating internal alignment between procurement, sustainability, and operational teams to embed data collection processes into daily practices.

 

Our role is not only to bring technical insights but also to facilitate the practical implementation of a more transparent and structured data collection process.

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Results and impact - building a reliable data framework for future actions

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The Scope 3 platform is already operational and has been actively used for the 2024 sustainability reporting cycle, with internal and external data progressively integrated. 

 

While continuously incorporating new features, it has laid a strong foundation for a systemic and scalable Scope 3 data strategy. Moving forward, the ambition is to further increase the data quality of the Scope 3 emissions by integrating primary data from additional assets and suppliers, a critical step toward more accurate, accountable, and actionable decarbonisation strategies.

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