SNCF drives Scope 3 reductions with Sweep & EcoVadis

Background

As France’s national railway company, SNCF carries the weight of both national transportation infrastructure and environmental responsibility.
Its activities are focused on 3 core markets: freight logistics spanning 170 countries, mass transit across five continents, and high-speed passenger transport.
With 290,000 employees – including 73,000 outside France – SNCF Group generates one third of its revenue internationally.

Outside of France, SNCF operates several well-known high-speed and other long-distance passenger rail services through its portfolio of brands and subsidiaries:
– Eurostar
– TGV Lyria
– Ouigo España
– TGV Inoui, operating services to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and Spain

With over 39,000 suppliers in its vast network, the company has positioned itself as a leader in sustainable transport, recognizing that its supply chain represents a major source of its overall emissions. SNCF’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond regulatory compliance – it’s a strategic investment in the future resilience of both its operations and customer service.

The company has set ambitious decarbonization goals and embraced a data-driven approach to achieving them.

As Yann Mazloum, Director of decarbonization and circular economy of procurement at SNCF explains,
“Decarbonizing the supply chain is a good investment for the future, both for our customers and the resilience of our supply chain”.
“Even if the railway is a green transportation mode, we need to decarbonize the supply chain because we know in the future energy and raw materials will be more expensive, so we need to work on efficiency. It’s a good investment for the future, clearly.”

Challenge

A supplier network as vast as SNCF’s presents significant challenges in managing sustainability data.

SNCF’s former carbon accounting methods relied heavily on industry averages and spend-based estimations, which provide only a superficial understanding of Scope 3 emissions.

The data management challenges themselves represented tangible business costs. SNCF’s procurement teams encountered redundant data entry processes, diverting valuable time and resources away from strategic decarbonization initiatives.

Meanwhile, suppliers’ “input fatigue” from repeatedly answering similar sustainability questionnaires across multiple platforms was a concern, as this had the potential to lessen their engagement and participation in sustainability programs.

Perhaps most critically, SNCF was unable to achieve its desired level of emissions data accuracy and granularity, in order to make informed procurement decisions. The company sought reliable supplier-specific carbon intensity values and maturity assessments to be able to effectively identify high-performing partners for collaboration, or target improvement efforts where they would have the greatest impact.

This data gap also represented complications for compliance with evolving sustainability reporting standards and frameworks such as the GHG Protocol and ESRS (CSRD).

Solution

SNCF is now on track to transform its sustainability data management, by leveraging the integrated partnership between EcoVadis and Sweep.

This strategic approach addresses carbon accounting from complementary angles, with EcoVadis providing primary supplier data and supporting supplier risk and maturity. Meanwhile Sweep manages comprehensive carbon footprint calculations across Scopes 1, 2, and 3.

The integration delivers immediate operational value through enhanced accuracy in Scope 3 calculations. By accessing actual supplier-reported carbon data from EcoVadis within Sweep’s platform, SNCF has moved beyond generic industry averages to achieve precise, granular emissions calculations. This improved visibility enables the company to identify both risks and opportunities within their supply chain with unprecedented clarity.

The solution drives tangible performance improvements through strategic supplier engagement. SNCF now uses EcoVadis’ Carbon Action Manager to engage over 3,000 key suppliers on carbon, assess their carbon maturity, and collect crucial carbon-related data, including supplier-specific carbon intensity values, SBTi information, and maturity levels.

Yann Mazloum says, “We need to have a clear, best in class overview of our suppliers. We asked our suppliers to improve their maturity level in terms of decarbonization, to be in line with SNCF’s targets.”

SNCF has strategically incorporated carbon criteria into its RFPs, with weightings ranging from 5% to 50%, demonstrating a significant commitment to prioritizing decarbonization in procurement decisions.

Operational efficiency gains from the partnership with Sweep and EcoVadis are substantial. The data integration eliminates redundant data entry, freeing SNCF’s procurement teams to focus on strategic initiatives. The integration prevents SNCF from collecting the same data in different ways many times. This streamlined approach also reduces suppliers’ reporting burden, improving engagement and participation in sustainability programs.

The integrated approach enhances SNCF’s compliance and reporting capabilities by providing the data accuracy needed to meet evolving sustainability standards. Beyond reporting, the solution transforms the entire supply chain’s efficiency and resilience by automating emissions tracking, centralizing actionable insights, and enabling faster, more informed decision-making.

This comprehensive approach positions SNCF to accelerate progress toward its ambitious carbon reduction targets while setting new standards for operational excellence in sustainable procurement. As Yann Mazloum explains, “EcoVadis provides primary data and supports supplier risk and maturity, while Sweep helps us manage the carbon footprint, tackling carbon from complementary angles.”