Take part in Big Deal

The goal of our Big Deal programme is to bring S Group’s partners together and jointly reduce emissions by a million tons by 2030. How to participate? Message us at vastuullisuus@sok.fi and we will contact you!

More information, questions and answers:

Our Big Deal climate programme aims to reduce climate emissions by a million tons by 2030. S Group aims to achieve carbon negativity in its own operations by the end of 2025. Watch how we are moving towards carbon negativity.

We can achieve a greater impact together, so we want to encourage and inspire our partners to reduce their emissions as well. A million tons is a big deal – it is equivalent to planting 4,3 million trees in Finland.

Any supplier or service provider who has a direct contractual relationship with S Group can participate in Big Deal. Suppliers that are further down in the value chain can contact their own customer who has a direct contractual relationship with S Group and participate in the climate programme together if they want. All S Group partners are invited to join the Big Deal programme. Welcome!
You can join the programme for free. We only require that the participants report their annual emissions to S Group. The company’s investment to reduce emissions depends on how ambitious they are and the targets which they set for themselves.
As companies, we can reduce the climate impacts of our products and services, thereby helping our customers reduce their carbon footprint. The programme shows that we have included a matter in our agenda that is important to our customers. The participating partner companies are presented on the programme site and S Group provides training and networking for the companies who have taken part. We also intend to start cooperation projects and take climate action together.
Above all, participation in Big Deal requires the will to reduce your climate impact. Participants are required to set a reduction target for emissions and to annually report on either their total emissions or the emissions allocated to us. We encourage and recommend you to set a science-based target or targets. You should join the programme as soon as possible so that we can reduce emissions fast enough. The climate programme continues until 2030, which makes it a long-term action. The partners involved are asked to report their emissions and measures annually to S Group. S Group announces the number of involved companies every year, as well as how much we have managed to reduce emissions together.

Setting a target and emission reporting

A science-based target is a good way to set a climate target/targets. The Science Based Target initiative provides companies with extensive instructions, methods and tools to set a target for reducing emissions.
You can set a target with other methods as well, but even then you should keep a sufficiently ambitious level in mind.

You should have a numeric, sufficiently precise, time-specific and adequately ambitious target for reducing emissions.
It can be either absolute or relative. Here are some example targets:

• We will reduce emissions from our own operations by 50% between the 2015 and 2030.
• We will reduce emissions in relation to our sales/production tons by 40% before 2030.

You should build the target from your own starting points. You can base your target on an energy efficiency agreement that your company is committed to, for example. By calculating how much emissions you save by using energy more efficiently, you can also define a basis for your climate target.

Depending on which stage your company’s sustainability work is, the set target can concern your company’s operation (scopes 1 and 2) or extend further to your value chain (scope 3).

Currently, reducing emissions and the related targets are already everyday matters to most companies. Therefore, we expect the participants to reduce their emissions and set targets, at least for their own operations.

It’s great that you already have a target! You can participate in the programme and update your target once you reach it.

It’s great that you have decided to set a target! You can join us once you have set it.

You can find instructions for how to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard , for example. Many businesses and partners also offer courses for companies on how to calculate climate emissions and set targets.

We encourage you to calculate the emissions yourself, and we provide help if necessary or direct you to suitable courses. At the moment, you can no longer join Big Deal without knowing what the direct and indirect (scopes 1 and 2) emissions of your operation are. However, we do not require you to have calculations for the indirect (scope 3) emissions, but you should mention when you are planning on measuring them.

Reporting to S Group

Every year, we follow the number of partners we have in the climate programme as well as the emissions.
There are two options for reporting:
1. CDP Climate Change, Supply Chain Program questionnaire
or
2. S Group’s own Big Deal questionnaire

S Group’s own questionnaire is sent once a year in autumn/end of the year, which means that the partners’ annual emissions’ data from previous year is collected at the end of the present year. This is due to the fact that we usually send our largest suppliers an invitation to report to the CDP Supply Chain programme in the spring/summer. Thus, the companies that did not participate in CDP Supply Chain programme or were not invited will receive the Big Deal reporting survey only at the end of the year - after we know who already responded via CDP. The companies’ contact person for reporting will receive a link to the reporting survey as well as instructions and the schedule for reporting.
We will organise a training seminar every year to those who received an invitation to take the CDP Supply Chain questionnaire, and support their reporting with training material, for example.
The reported data is summed up and published in March of the following year as part of S Group’s annual and sustainability reports. We also make other announcements about our progress in relation to the target every year.

All reporting data related to Big Deal are confidential. They will only be published as part of the whole value chain’s emissions data. This means that an individual business’ data will not be shared publicly.

You should report the whole company or group’s emissions in both reporting options. We hope you allocate our share based on sales, for example. We can also do this for you if you let us know what your turnover is in addition to the emissions. You should report the turnover numerically (for example, five million should be 5000000). The S Group allocation can be based on the share of S Group’s purchases in relation to the goods supplier’s or service provider’s sales in monetary value or by number of items. Allocation does not have to reach the product level or product groups’ level.
The companies that participate in the programme are responsible for the quality and validity of the data they submit to S Group. S Group recommends, but does not require, that you use an independent third party to verify the accuracy and inconsistency of the data.
It’s great that you have already reported your climate impact to CDP. If you are anyway reporting to CDP, we can send you the to the CDP Supply Chain programme. This is how we can add you as part of our value chain, allowing you to report to us at the same time. Then, you do not need to report to S Group directly via Big Deal questionnaire.