Supply chain ESG · India to EU

When your listed parent or EU buyer asks your factory for data, we run the connection.

We are the supply chain ESG cascade for India. Fifty vendors, ninety days, fixed fee. One data backbone that renders BRSR, CBAM, Higg and more, and the only India-based team whose data EU buyers accept on first submission.

Talk to us about your cascade See the platform →
✓ Two decades of European sustainability transformation ✓ B Lab Nordics member firm ✓ Collect once, comply everywhere
app.sustainscore.in / supplier / readiness
Supplier readiness
● ASSURANCE-READY
Readiness band
Ready
SustainScore
B ↑ from C
Value-chain coverage
78%
Topics scored
13/13
BRSR Core data pack✓ complete
CBAM embedded emissions1.9 tCO₂e/t
Higg FEM 4.0 evidence2 items open

Illustrative product view. One backbone, every framework.

One backbone. Every framework.
› BRSR Core › CBAM › Higg FEM 4.0 › ZDHC › CSRD / ESRS › CDP › EcoVadis › SDG360™
The pressure is already on you

Three conversations you have had this week.

Your listed parent
Procurement, Mumbai
We need your BRSR Core value-chain response by Q3, with assurance-grade numbers.
Your EU importer
Sourcing, Hamburg
CBAM definitive phase from October. Send embedded carbon data with the next shipment.
Your brand customer
Compliance, Amsterdam
Upload Higg FEM 4.0 with quarterly verified data before the next audit window.
Who are you

Three doors. Same team underneath.

Pick the role that fits. Everything beneath is the same data backbone and the same Danish-Indian delivery team.

I am a listed parent

Run my cascade

We onboard your tier-1 vendors so your BRSR Core assurance does not fail because one supplier did not respond.

Per vendor Fixed fee, billed to the parent. Volume pricing from 50.
Run my cascade →
I am a factory

Get my report signed

BRSR Core, CBAM, or Higg FEM 4.0. Pick the deadline your buyer is asking about. Ninety days, fixed fee.

Fixed fee One 90-day sprint. Paid in three milestones.
Get my report signed →
I am an EU brand or parent

Get my Indian data

Your suppliers across India's export clusters. We extract the data, your team signs off.

Custom Quoted per supplier portfolio.
Get my Indian data →
0
days to a signed, assurance-ready report. Fixed fee.
0%
value-chain coverage targeted for BRSR Core disclosure.
0
sustainability topics scored by the GreenPlan™ framework.
0+
tier-1 vendors onboarded in a single cascade engagement.
Why not the alternatives

The honest comparison.

Every prospect lands here after looking at three other kinds of provider. Here is what is actually true.

Them
Us
Big Four
Strong on listed-entity assurance. Senior day rates are high. Cannot serve small per-vendor work profitably.
We sit underneath, not alongside. Big Four practices subcontract cascade work to us.
Climate SaaS
Software platform with a free tier. No team on the ground. The form gets emailed to a vendor who never opens it.
Software where it adds leverage. Humans where it matters. Boots in the factory, not in the cloud.
Local consultant
Strong cluster knowledge. Lower price. No track record with EU buyers, no Nordic credential.
Same cluster depth, plus twenty years of European sustainability transformation and EU buyer first-submission acceptance.
The platform underneath

Collect once. Comply everywhere.

Your factory answers one set of questions. The platform renders the answer into whatever framework your buyer or regulator is asking for. A new regulation is a new renderer, not a new data-collection project.

One data backbone

GreenPlan™ + SDG360™

Energy, emissions, water, waste, labour, governance, supply chain. Captured once, validated, audit-ready.

→
BRSR Core SEBI
CBAM report XML
Higg FEM 4.0 SAC
ZDHC v3.1
CSRD / ESRS EU
SustainScore A–E
How the engine works →
Why this team

A combination no competitor can copy.

EU buyer fluency

Signed off, not argued

Two co-founders with twenty-plus years of European sustainable business transformation, based in Aarhus. B Lab Nordics member firm.

Indian engineering depth

Built, not slidewared

Our Chennai co-founder brings twenty-plus years of engineering and IT delivery for global programmes. Real systems on your laptop.

On-the-ground delivery

Field, not cloud

We deliver in the factory, in the supplier's language, across India's export clusters in textiles, steel, leather, auto components and electronics.

Recent work

Three live engagements.

Textiles · Knitwear
11 weeks to verified

220-employee exporter, Higg FEM 4.0 verified on first submission. Buyer was a Nordic apparel brand.

Textiles · Dyeing
ZDHC v3.1 ready

Mid-size dyeing house, ZDHC chemical-management evidence binder produced inside 70 days.

Listed parent · tier-1 vendors
62 vendors in 90 days

Listed Chennai mid-cap. 62 tier-1 vendors onboarded for FY26 BRSR Core value-chain disclosure.

Free assessment

Find out where you stand. Twenty minutes, free.

GreenPlan scores your factory on 13 sustainability topics and tells you which deadline hits you first. No login. PDF in your inbox.

Run the free assessment
The lead service · listed parents and EU brands

Your assurance is only as clean as your weakest vendor.

SEBI's BRSR Core requires value-chain disclosure on 75 percent of purchases and 75 percent of sales. EU buyers want Higg, ZDHC and CBAM data from every Tier-1 supplier. We run the data connection between you and your vendors, vendor by vendor, in their language, on your deadline.

Book a cascade scoping call See how the engine runs it →
Who this page is for

Four readers, one delivery team.

  • A listed top-1000 parent whose FY26 BRSR Core value-chain disclosure depends on 50 to 200 vendors responding.
  • An EU brand or importer who needs Higg FEM, ZDHC, or CBAM data from a portfolio of Indian Tier-1 suppliers.
  • A Big Four or boutique audit firm who has won the listed-entity work and needs a delivery arm for the vendor cascade.
  • An industry association or state government that wants to run a sector-wide cascade as a public-good programme.
The structural gap we solve

Why no one else runs this work well.

Big Four senior day rates are high. They cannot serve small per-vendor onboarding profitably. They quietly subcontract this work or skip it. Climate-tech SaaS firms sell licences to vendors and assume the vendor will fill in the form. Forty percent of MSME founders we have met do not run a dedicated compliance email account. Local consultants can sometimes match the price but rarely the EU buyer credential, and almost never both at once. The cascade sits in a gap the market has structurally underserved.

How a cascade engagement runs

Three stages. Sixteen weeks.

Stage 1 · Weeks 1–3

Tier mapping

We map the vendors covering 75 percent of purchases by value, segment them by readiness, and agree a phased rollout with you and your auditor.

Stage 2 · Weeks 4–14

Per-vendor onboarding

Each vendor receives a 5-week sprint. Data baseline, evidence collection, response template, training. Delivered in Tamil, English or Hindi as appropriate.

Stage 3 · Weeks 14–16

Roll-up and assurance

Vendor responses roll up into your BRSR Core or buyer-portal response. We work directly with your auditor or sourcing team to close gaps before the deadline.

Pricing

A fixed fee per vendor onboarded. Billed to the parent or the brand. Volume discounts at 50 and 100 vendors.

A typical first engagement is around 60 vendors over four months, for roughly one-fifth of what an internal team of five would cost, delivered on a deadline. Higher volumes carry an outcomes-linked rebate at completion.

What each vendor gets

  • A trained owner inside their team, not just a report.
  • An SDG360 capture instance for any future buyer who asks: EcoVadis, CDP-Lite, Higg, your competitor's parent.
  • A reusable evidence binder.
  • Twelve months of post-sprint support included.

Why this works in India specifically

India is the most export-intensive supplier base for the sectors most exposed to EU buyer pressure: textiles, leather, auto components and electronics. The vendor clusters are dense, our delivery team works in the local language, and EU buyer pressure is converging on the same three frameworks: Higg, CBAM, ZDHC. One field team covers more buyer-mandated audits per engagement than a fly-in consultant ever could.

An application of the cascade capability

Your BRSR Core response, ready for assurance.

Pick this page if your listed parent has asked your single factory to file a BRSR Core value-chain template. If you are the parent running the cascade across many vendors, go to the Cascade page.

Book a BRSR scoping call Run the free assessment →
app.sustainscore.in / brsr-core / data-pack
BRSR Core data pack
● ASSURANCE-READY
Attributes covered
9/9
Evidence items
142 linked
Assurance basis
Limited
FY
FY26
GHG emissions intensity✓ evidenced
Water withdrawal & discharge✓ evidenced
Gender diversity & wages✓ evidenced
Waste & circularity1 doc pending

Illustrative BRSR Core data pack view.

Who this page is for
  • You are a single factory whose listed parent has sent you a BRSR Core value-chain template.
  • You sit inside the top 1000 listed entities and your own report is due in FY26 or FY27.
  • Your auditor has flagged your value-chain section as comply-or-explain risk.
The nine BRSR Core attributes

Every attribute, evidenced and mapped.

01GHG emissions intensity
02Water consumption & discharge
03Waste & circularity
04Energy & renewables
05Gender diversity
06Wages & wellbeing
07Inclusive development
08Customer fairness
09Openness of business
What you get in 90 days
  • BRSR Core data pack covering all nine attributes, each backed by a linked evidence trail.
  • Evidence binder ready for limited assurance under the SEBI framework.
  • SDG360 instance configured for your facility with monthly capture forms for the BRSR rollover next year.
  • A trained internal owner inside your team. We do not leave you dependent on us.
Pricing

Fixed fee. 90 days. Paid in three milestones.

If you are also exposed to CBAM, the combined sprint runs over 120 days at a blended fixed fee, because the data underneath is roughly 60 percent shared, off the same backbone.

FAQ
Are you a SEBI-registered ESG Rating Provider?

No, and the work we do is not ESG rating. SEBI regulates that term and we do not use it. We are a consulting and data team that helps you produce, evidence, and defend the disclosures the framework requires. Your assurance is signed by your auditor, not by us.

How are you different from EY or KPMG?

They handle your statutory assurance. We handle the value-chain data layer underneath. In practice we work alongside Big Four assurance teams on the same engagement.

How are you different from Karbonwise or Onlygood?

They sell a software licence. We deliver the methodology, the field work and the evidence binder. If you want software only, buy theirs. If you want the report signed and the system trained, work with us.

What happens after the 90 days?

You keep the SDG360 capture instance on your own infrastructure. Next year's report becomes a monthly data habit, not a fresh project. We stay reachable for the rollover.

Definitive phase · October 2026

EU importers we work with accept our reports on first submission.

Steel consignments are being held at EU ports. Default values land 30 to 80 percent higher than actual. We are based in Aarhus with twenty years of European industrial sustainability work behind us. We know what the importer's compliance team will sign off.

Book a CBAM scoping call Check if CBAM hits you →
app.sustainscore.in / cbam / shipment-2026Q4
CBAM report · steel billets
● IMPORTER-READY
Actual embedded
1.9 tCO₂e/t
EU default
3.4 tCO₂e/t
Shipment
5,000 t
Vs EU default
−44%
Scope 1 · process + combustionverified
Scope 2 · grid electricityverified
Carbon-price reconciliation✓ applied
Communication TemplateXML ready

Illustrative CBAM report. Default vs actual, certificate cost.

What actually goes wrong

Three problems. Three promises.

Problem · the buyer is blind

See everything, ask nothing

Your EU importer cannot see your emissions, so they apply the punitive default. We turn your existing bills, meters and process data into verified numbers they can read.

Problem · the data entry is brutal

You do 10 percent, we do the 90

CBAM reporting is hundreds of hours of process mapping. You share what you already have. The platform extracts, calculates and fills the rest.

Problem · the expertise is rare

The platform is the expert

You should not need a carbon consultant on staff to ship steel. Emission factors, precursor roll-up and the EU template are built into the engine.

Who this is for

You export to the EU one of:

  • Iron and steel
  • Aluminium
  • Cement
  • Fertilisers
  • Electricity, Hydrogen
  • Selected downstream products: screws, bolts, structures, automotive components in scope

If you sell to an EU brand whose Tier-1 supplier is in scope, you are reading the right page too. Their data ask will land on you in 2027.

The arithmetic

If your real embedded carbon is 1.9 tCO₂e per tonne of steel and the default value the EU applies in your absence is 3.4, your importer pays a CBAM certificate cost on the difference. At the prevailing EU carbon price, on a single large shipment that gap is easily a six-figure sum of avoidable cost. Your importer will pass it back on the next negotiation, or move the order to a supplier who has the data.

How the report gets built

Collected once. Rendered to CBAM.

The same data backbone behind your BRSR and Higg work produces the CBAM Communication Template. Nothing is collected twice.

01
Ingest
02
Calculate
03
Roll up
04
Reconcile
05
Render XML
06
Hand off
What you get in 90 days
  • Embedded-emissions calculation per product, per shipment, in tCO₂e/tonne, using verified plant data not defaults.
  • Quarterly CBAM report aligned with the EU Commission's transitional and definitive templates.
  • Carbon-price reconciliation showing what you have already paid in India that offsets the EU certificate cost.
  • Importer-ready data pack your EU buyer can drop straight into their CBAM declarant filing.
  • SDG360 capture instance for monthly energy and process data, so the next quarter's report takes hours not weeks.
Pricing

Fixed fee. 90 days.

A modest addition per product category beyond the first three. A further fixed fee if you want us to run the quarterly reports for the first year as a managed service.

Do you submit the CBAM report to the EU for us?

The CBAM declarant is your EU importer. We produce the importer-ready data pack and the Communication Template XML so their declarant filing goes through clean. We work directly with their compliance team.

What if I only have the EU default values today?

That is the usual starting point, and it is the expensive one. We replace defaults with verified plant data, which is almost always materially lower, and that gap is the cost you stop paying.

Does the data carry over to BRSR or Higg?

Yes. The energy and process data behind CBAM is roughly 60 percent of what BRSR Core and Higg FEM ask for. Collect once, render to each framework.

The engine underneath the wedge

One engine. Every mission.

Every page in the nav is one configuration of the same platform. BRSR, CBAM, Higg, a supplier cascade, even a public Green Schools index: all of them collapse into one pipeline. We configure it, we do not re-code it.

Talk to us about a programme
The pipeline

Capture, prove, score, roll up, rank, nudge.

Six stages. Whether the subject is a steel exporter or a school district, the data moves through the same line.

01
Capture
02
Prove
03
Score
04
Roll up
05
Rank
06
Nudge
Six building blocks

Configured, not re-coded.

BLOCK 01

Data collection

One intake captures everything once, from bills and meters to Tally exports and web forms, in the supplier's language.

BLOCK 02

Evidence capture

Every number is linked to a document, photo or feed, so it survives limited assurance and a buyer's audit.

BLOCK 03

Scoring engine

The GreenPlan™ 13-topic framework produces a SustainScore A–E and a per-topic score, weighted by sector materiality.

BLOCK 04

Hierarchy views

Roll a single facility up into a parent, a district or a whole programme. The same data reads at every level.

BLOCK 05

Leaderboard

Rank facilities, vendors or districts. Public where it motivates, private where competitors will not share.

BLOCK 06

Next nudges

The system tells each participant the single most valuable thing to fix next, not a 40-page report nobody reads.

Two configurations

Same engine. Different skin.

The fastest proof that this is one platform: here are two missions that look nothing alike, mapped to the same six blocks.

Private · exporter CBAM

A steel exporter facing CBAM

Capture →Energy, process and shipment data
Prove →Meter readings, invoices, lab reports
Score →Embedded tCO₂e/tonne per product
Roll up →Precursor emissions across the BOM
Rank →Private benchmark vs sector median
Nudge →The one change that cuts certificate cost
Public · Green Schools index

A state Green Schools programme

Capture →Water, solar, cool-roof, tree data
Prove →Photos, bills, geo-tagged evidence
Score →A Green Score per school
Roll up →School to block to district
Rank →A public Greenest District table
Nudge →The next action for each school

Not two projects to fund. Two configurations of one platform. The next one is just configuration.

Collect once, comply everywhere

One backbone renders every framework.

When a new regulation arrives, we build a renderer in weeks. No re-collection. No re-calculation. You are compliant for the next framework before you knew it was coming.

One data backbone

GreenPlan™ + SDG360™

Captured once, validated, audit-ready, owned by you on your own infrastructure.

→
BRSR Core SEBI
CBAM report XML
Higg FEM 4.0 SAC
ZDHC v3.1
CSRD / ESRS EU
CDP A–D
The four capabilities
Capability 1

Sustainability data platforms

The backbone that captures, validates and reports indicators across facilities, supply chains, schools, municipalities and programmes. Maps natively to SDG, ESG, GRI and SASB. Audit-ready from day one.

Capability 2

Measurement frameworks

Sector-specific scoring methodologies for industrial clusters and public programmes. Tier-based, evidence-backed, written so the people on the ground can answer them on a working day.

Capability 3

Transformation methodology

Our 90-day delivery model, born out of two decades of European sustainability transformation. Fixed scope, fixed fee, fixed end date. Adapts cleanly from a private factory to a public programme.

Capability 4

Capacity building and training

Workshops, training and on-site coaching for organisations at the start of their sustainability work. Bilingual delivery in Tamil and English, tested with factory floor teams and policy professionals alike.

What we look for in a public-sector engagement

Concrete, fundable, measurable.

  • A specific programme with a stated quantitative target.
  • A nominated point of contact inside the department or agency.
  • A scoped pilot, ideally co-funded or fully sponsored by us as a public-good demonstration.
  • A written evaluation gate at the end of the pilot.

Our standing offer to any state department working on the Sustainable Development Goals: we will fund and run a defined pilot at our cost, in return for the department's blessing and one point of contact.

Listed parents · EU brands · public sector

We are the partner who handles your Indian suppliers.

You need Scope 3, Higg FEM, BRSR Core or CBAM data from suppliers across India's export clusters. We extract the data in the supplier's language on a deadline you set. We bring the EU buyer credential most Indian providers lack.

Book a buyer briefing Read the case studies →
Three audiences, one delivery team
Indian listed parent
Your assurance team

You need clean value-chain data from 50 to 200 vendors. We run the cascade, you sign the assurance. We work alongside your Big Four auditor, not against them.

EU brand or importer
Your sourcing team

You need Higg FEM, ZDHC, CBAM or CSRD-Lite data from your Indian Tier-1 and Tier-2 factories. We get it. Our Danish founders mean your compliance team sees a familiar face.

Public sector and policy
Your programme measurement

We support state and central government programmes on the measurement, data and verification layer that turns policy targets into reported outcomes.

What we are not

We are not an ESG software vendor pretending to do services. We are not a Big Four practice that bills you to write a slide deck. We are not a SEBI-registered ESG Rating Provider, that is a different regulated activity and we do not use the word rating. We are a small consulting and data team that fixes one problem inside your supply chain on a fixed-fee, fixed-deadline contract.

How to engage us
  • 30-minute scoping call. Free, no slides, you tell us the deadline and the supplier list.
  • Written proposal in 5 working days. Fixed fee, fixed scope, named deliverables.
  • First sprint kickoff within 3 weeks of signed proposal.
  • Quarterly steering review with you and your auditor or sourcing lead.
References

Two confidential references available on request: one listed mid-cap (BRSR Core cascade) and one Northern European apparel brand (Higg FEM data extraction across six suppliers). Both reachable through our Danish founders.

Aarhus · Chennai

Three founders. Twenty years each. One narrow wedge.

SustainScore is a three-founder team based in Aarhus and Chennai. Two of us bring twenty-plus years of leadership and sustainable business transformation across European industry. The third brings twenty-plus years of engineering and IT delivery for global programmes. We focus on Indian industrial suppliers and their global buyers.

Book an intro call See the platform →
What we do, in one sentence

We run the supply chain ESG cascade between Indian factories and their global buyers.

That sentence says cascade, not consulting. It says factories and global buyers, not stakeholders. Sustainability is a market-access question for our customers and our work is what keeps the next purchase order moving.

Founders
SS
Director · Aarhus

Suba Sivakumar

Twenty-plus years of leadership and sustainable business transformation across European industry. Runs methodology and EU customer relationships.

SB
Director & co-founder · Aarhus

Siva Balasubramanian

Twenty-plus years of leadership and sustainable business transformation across European industry. B Leader. Runs strategy and buyer-side positioning.

AM
Director & co-founder · Chennai

Arul Mani

Twenty-plus years of engineering and IT delivery for global programmes. Runs delivery in India.

Memberships and accreditations
  • B Lab Nordics, member firm.
  • International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), member.
  • B Leader accreditation in-house.
  • Trilingual delivery: English, Tamil, Danish.
Five rules we will not break
  • Fixed fee or we will not start. No time-and-materials.
  • Fixed end date or we will not start. 90 days, with two checkpoints.
  • One signed deliverable. Not a slide deck.
  • Working data system on your laptop at handover, not on ours.
  • Your team owns the next quarter. We train, we leave, we are reachable.
Where we are

Aarhus office and Chennai office. Field teams travel to India's industrial export clusters when sprints are live. Offices are by appointment.

Free · 20 minutes · no login

Where does your factory actually stand?

GreenPlan scores your operations on 13 sustainability topics aligned with science-based targets, and tells you which deadline (BRSR, CBAM, Higg, buyer code) hits you first. PDF emailed to you. No sales call unless you ask.

Start the assessment See a sample report →
What you put in

20 minutes of inputs

  • Basic facility data: sector, size, location, primary buyer markets.
  • 13 short modules covering energy, water, waste, GHG, labour, gender, governance, supply chain.
  • Roughly 80 questions, mostly yes/no or pick-one.
What you get out

A report you can act on

  • A score out of 100 on each of the 13 topics.
  • An overall readiness band: Foundation, Building, Ready, Leading.
  • A buyer-deadline map: which framework you will be asked about first.
  • A two-page priority action list. PDF in your inbox within 2 minutes.
What you do not get

No strings

  • A sales call, unless you tick the box asking for one.
  • A score that we publish anywhere. Your data stays yours.
  • Spam. We email once with the report and once with a follow-up two weeks later.
Two offices · one team

Tell us the deadline. We will tell you what it costs.

Scoping calls are 30 minutes, free, no slides. If we are not the right fit we will say so on the call and refer you on.

Book a scoping call Or email us directly →
Three ways in
Fastest

Book a scoping call

30 minutes, on Calendly. Pick a slot in IST or CET. Two of us will join depending on your geography.

Written

Email us

hello@sustainscore.in. Typically a reply within one working day. Tell us the deadline, the sector, and the rough size of your facility.

Referred

Through a contact

If you found us through a referring auditor, an existing customer, or a sector association, mention them in your first line and we will route you internally.

Offices
Aarhus

Denmark office

Aarhus. Full address shared on enquiry. By appointment.

Chennai

India office

Chennai. Full address shared on enquiry. By appointment.

Field

India's industrial clusters

Our field teams travel to India's export clusters in textiles, steel, leather, auto components and electronics when sprints are live.

Press and partnerships

Press, speaking, podcast: press@sustainscore.in. Partnerships and channel referrals: partners@sustainscore.in. Recruiting: careers@sustainscore.in.

Book a call →