If a large listed company has asked you for your emissions, energy, water or waste numbers, it is probably preparing its BRSR value chain disclosure. SEBI does not regulate you directly for this. Your customer is the one reporting, but the numbers it reports come from you.
The short answer
SEBI’s circular of 28 March 2025 lets the top 250 listed companies (by market capitalisation) disclose BRSR Core data for their value chain, that is, their suppliers and their customers or distributors. It is voluntary from FY 2025-26. If a customer discloses, it reports your figures against the same BRSR Core indicators it uses for itself, so you will be asked for them.
Which suppliers are covered
A partner is included when it individually makes up 2% or more of the listed company’s purchases or sales, by value. The listed company may instead limit its disclosure to the partners that together cover 75% of its purchases and sales, and it must say what percentage of its total sales and purchases the disclosed partners cover.
In practice this means the biggest suppliers get asked first. A small supplier that is under 2% of a buyer’s purchases may not be asked at all, though a buyer can still request data from anyone.
The timeline, in plain terms
- FY 2025-26: value chain disclosure is voluntary for the top 250 listed companies. In the first year of reporting, giving the previous year’s numbers is also voluntary.
- FY 2026-27: third-party assessment or assurance of that value chain disclosure is voluntary.
- Separate from the value chain: third-party assessment or assurance of a listed company’s own BRSR Core data is mandatory and widens each year: top 150 in FY 2023-24, top 250 in FY 2024-25, top 500 in FY 2025-26 and top 1,000 in FY 2026-27.
Because the value chain part is voluntary, not every customer will ask you yet. Those that do are usually preparing for the stage where their own data is independently checked, and your numbers are part of what gets checked.
What data buyers typically ask for
BRSR Core is organised into nine ESG attributes. For a supplier the ones that come up most are greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2, with Scope 3 usually optional), energy, water, waste, employee wellbeing and safety, gender diversity, and fairness and openness in business. The exact list a buyer sends can differ, so ask for their template before you start.
For emissions, Scope 1 is what you burn on site (diesel, LPG, furnace oil, company vehicles, refrigerant leaks). Scope 2 is the electricity you buy. Both are built from your own bills and records, multiplied by an emission factor.
What to prepare now
- Twelve months of electricity bills (kWh) for each site, for the financial year April to March.
- Fuel purchases by type: litres of diesel and petrol, kg of LPG, and so on, including generators and company vehicles.
- Refrigerant top-ups for air conditioners and chillers, with the gas type.
- Water used and waste sent out, by month if you have it.
- The source of every emission factor you use (for example the CEA grid factor for electricity), written down next to the number.
- The bills and records behind each figure, kept together, because a verifier may ask to see them.
Where EmissionMetrics fits
EmissionMetrics is built for suppliers in this position. You enter your bills and records once, the calculation follows the BRSR Core definitions, and each number keeps its evidence so you can answer your customer’s request and any follow-up. You can try a quick estimate on the home page with no signup, or start free.
This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. It reflects SEBI’s circular of 28 March 2025 (SEBI/HO/CFD/CFD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2025/42) and may change, so check SEBI’s website and your customer’s request before you rely on it. Source: SEBI circular, 28 March 2025.