Your tender asks you for Sustainability data. What do you do?
More construction companies are facing this question as carbon emissions and waste diversion reporting becomes standard practice across the industry. Whether it’s a line item in an RFP, or a request or expectation from project owners tracking their own sustainability commitments, your clients may start to require this data from you.
The question isn’t whether sustainability reporting will affect your business, it’s whether you’ll be ready when it does.
Reporting requirements flow down the supply chain
The construction industry is at an inflection point. Large companies in California now face mandatory carbon emissions reporting under SB 253 and SB 261. In the UK, the SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) framework now requires large companies to disclose their energy use and carbon emissions annually. As these regulations expand and as more organizations independently commit to internal sustainability targets, the pressure for this information is flowing down the supply chain.
If your clients are tracking their carbon emissions or their waste diversion rates, then they most likely need data from you too.
When your client asks for carbon emissions data
Whether it’s a line item in an RFP, a scored evaluation criterion in a tender, or your GC preparing their annual sustainability report, the request is the same: provide carbon emissions data from your scope of work.
What they may need:
- Emissions from materials you supplied
- Transportation emissions from hauling you performed
- Waste diversion rates from your activities
Why construction carbon emissions tracking is challenging
Consolidating data is time consuming
For earthworks and civil construction companies, upwards of 80% of a project’s emissions can come from materials and hauling operations. Turning paper truck ticket slips and data from spreadsheets into carbon calculations is:
- Manual: Compiling delivery tickets, fuel receipts, and trucking manifests from multiple sources
- Error-prone: Applying emissions factors via spreadsheets across hundreds or thousands of loads
- Inconsistent: Different forms of data from different projects make verification difficult
- Reactive: You can only respond to requests after spending weeks reconstructing data
However, SoilFLO can automate this reporting if you’re tracking materials and hauling in SoilFLO. No additional data entry, manual spreadsheets, or formulas required.
How SoilFLO automates carbon emissions tracking
If using SoilFLO for material tracking, you’re already collecting 95% of the data needed.
SoilFLO already captures:
- Material types and quantities or weights
- Source site and destination locations
- Company trucks vs. contracted haulers
- Project-specific attribution
Additional configuration
- Simply configure truck types (biaxial, triaxial, etc) on the hauling approval and
- Input emissions factors for material supply or disposal (or use industry defaults)
Instant reporting
- Generate carbon emissions reports by project, timeframe, or material type
- View Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions breakdowns
- Export data for client requests or corporate reporting
Audit-ready documentation
- Every calculation links to source data (delivery tickets, routes, material records)
- Consistent methodology across all projects and time periods
- Supporting documents stored in SoilFLO for verification
What this means for your business
Win more work
Projects with sustainability requirements is where the industry is heading. When an RFP asks for carbon emissions data, you can bid knowing it won’t be a lot of work to produce.
Strengthen client relationships
When your general contractor or project owner needs emissions data for their reporting, you can respond with data in minutes, not weeks.
Stay ahead of requirements
California’s SB 253 and UK’s SECR are just the beginning. Should regulations expand, and your company be required to report on sustainability metrics, you would be ready.
Ready to get ahead?
The companies positioning themselves for success aren’t waiting for mandates, they’re building carbon emissions tracking into their operations now, while it’s still a differentiator rather than a baseline expectation.
For SoilFLO users: Your materials and trucking data already contains 95% of what you need. Contact your customer success representative to activate Sustainability Reporting.
Not yet using SoilFLO? See how material tracking works for earthworks and construction companies.
Let SoilFLO do the heavy lifting for your carbon emissions tracking.
Frequently asked questions
What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol categorizes emissions into three scopes:
Scope 1 – Direct emissions:
- Company-owned trucks, vehicles, and equipment
- On-site fuel combustion
- Mobile equipment operations
Scope 2 – Indirect emissions from energy:
- Office building electricity
- Warehouse power
- Site office utilities
Scope 3 – All other Indirect emissions:
- Materials production (concrete, asphalt, aggregate manufacturing)
- Transportation by third-party carriers
- Subcontractor operations
- Waste disposal and treatment
For earthworks and construction companies, Scope 1 typically represents 30-40% of emissions, Scope 2 less than 5%, and Scope 3 approximately 55-65%.
Why doesn't SoilFLO track Scope 2 emissions?
Scope 2 emissions come from purchased electricity and utilities for your facilities (offices, warehouses, etc.). These are tracked through utility bills and facility energy management systems, not through materials and hauling operations.
SoilFLO focuses on what matters most for earthworks and construction companies: the materials and trucking activities that represent 50-70% of a typical project’s carbon footprint.
Can I use SoilFLO data with other sustainability reporting platforms?
Yes. Many SoilFLO customers use the platform as their source of truth for materials and hauling emissions, then feed this data into enterprise sustainability platforms.
SoilFLO can export data via:
- Custom CSV exports for manual integration
- SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) for automated data feeds
- Integration with platforms like SmartWaste, Watershed, and others
How far back can I generate emissions reports?
If you’re already using SoilFLO for materials tracking, you can generate emissions reports for historical data by applying emissions factors to past loads. This is particularly valuable when a client makes an unexpected request for historical project emissions data.
SoilFLO helps earthworks and civil construction companies automatically track carbon emissions and waste diversion from their materials and hauling operations—turning daily operational data into instant sustainability reports.
