If you are in a leadership or legal role at a PE-backed company, ESG requests from your GP are probably landing on your desk more often. They come as formal questionnaires, data requests tied to annual reporting cycles, or pre-deal diligence packages. Whatever the format, someone in your organization is expected to own the response.

If you supply goods or services to a pharmaceutical company, something has probably landed in your inbox recently: a sustainability questionnaire, an updated RFP with new environmental requirements, or a direct request for your carbon footprint and a science-based emissions reduction target.

You've finished your first GHG inventory, so you know your Scope 1 and 2 numbers. The next question is usually what to do about them.

Most private companies getting their first ESG request don't know which metrics to track. There are hundreds of options across dozens of frameworks, and it's easy to end up either tracking too much or not tracking the right things.

The good news is that for most private companies, the list of metrics that actually matter is shorter than you think. Here's how to figure out what belongs on yours.

If you're considering hiring an ESG consultant, or you've already decided to and you're trying to figure out what you're actually signing up for, this post is for you.

A customer sends you an RFP. In the supplier sustainability section, there's a question you weren't expecting: "Do you have a science-based target?"

You don't. But now you realize you probably need one.

You look it up. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) sounds credible and legitimate. It's something you want to be able to say yes to the next time someone asks.

Setting a science-based target is easier than most companies expect. What catches companies off guard is everything that comes after.

If you're a private equity-backed company, you've probably already received some version of this request: your GP needs ESG data, a carbon footprint, or a completed questionnaire, and they need it soon.

If you've been asked for a sustainability policy by a client, investor, or your own leadership team, you're in the right place. A sustainability policy is one of those things that feels overwhelming to start but is genuinely manageable once you break it down. And once it's done, it just needs an annual update.

If you've received an RFP recently with a section on emissions, or heard from your PE backers that carbon data is now a reporting requirement, you're in good company. Carbon footprint requests have become a standard part of doing business for private companies and the volume of requests is increasing.

This post explains why it's happening, what you're actually being asked to provide, and how to get it done efficiently.