Industries
Carbon footprint and public procurement buying and bidding with data.
Public bodies buy goods, services and capital goods that fall within Categories 1 and 2 of their Scope 3, and more and more tenders ask for environmental information or the product footprint. Xain measures those purchases with physical factors and helps bidders respond with a figure per product, with its standard and identifier.
Key figures
<10min
of your work in Xain Insight: the purchases spreadsheet from your ERP. Results in 1–2 weeks.
Two sides of the table
Who needs what in public procurement?
The same methodology serves the buyer and the bidder.
The public body buying
Measures the Scope 3 of its purchases and can require a comparable figure.
The company bidding
Responds with a figure per product, with unit, boundary and standard.
The tender documents
Define the unit, boundary and how it is evidenced; read them early.
Public procurement has two protagonists. The public body buying has its own Scope 3, and the company bidding has to show the environmental data of what it offers. Both sides benefit from a physical, comparable and traceable calculation.
What changes for the bidder?
A tender deadline is short and the calculation requires technical documentation. Whoever arrives with the figure already done per product does not depend on gathering it in the last few days. We develop it in the article on workwear and tenders, whose ideas apply to any product.
And for the buyer?
Measuring the Scope 3 of purchases with physical factors lets you compare bids for what they offer and not for what they cost. A spend factor would assign more emissions to the more expensive bid. With the procurement Scope 3 solution you start from purchase lines and technical documentation.
Which regulation applies?
Royal Decree 214/2025 includes ministerial departments of the General State Administration and other state public sector entities among those that must calculate their footprint and publish a reduction plan. This is informational, not legal advice.
How do you start?
If you bid, with the technical documentation of your main products. If you buy, with your purchase lines and less than 10 minutes of your work.
What data do you gather to start?
- If you bid: data sheet, composition, weight and processes of your main products.
- If you buy: purchase lines and tender documents of the contracts with most weight.
- The tender, with the unit, boundary and how the figure is evidenced.
- A point of contact and the submission deadline.
Common mistakes
- Reading the tender on the last day. The unit and boundary shape the calculation.
- Replying with an average. It does not describe your product and is hard to defend.
- Forgetting the product version. If you change fabric or supplier, the figure changes.
Do you have a tender coming up? Tell us the deadline.
Frequently asked questions
What companies usually ask before getting started.
What do tender documents usually ask for?
It varies. Usually environmental information about the product and, in some cases, a carbon footprint value with its unit, boundary and the standard or way to evidence it.
Can the same figure serve several tenders?
Yes, if the unit and boundary match. A figure per product is reusable; if the tender asks for another unit or boundary, the calculation is adjusted.
Is the public body obliged to calculate its footprint?
Royal Decree 214/2025 includes ministerial departments of the General State Administration and other state public sector entities. The detail is on the regulation page.
Keep reading
Scope 3 for purchases
Measure purchased-goods Scope 3 (Categories 1 and 2) with physical factors. Xain Insight needs only the ERP spreadsheet: less than 10 minutes.
Royal Decree 214/2025
What Spain's Royal Decree 214/2025 requires: who must calculate their footprint, the five-year reduction plan, publication and the register. Source: BOE.
EmpCo and Green Claims
EmpCo is a directive, not a regulation: its new rules are not enforceable until Spanish law. Unfair-competition rules already sanction generic greenwashing.
Workwear tenders: what carbon footprint they ask for
What workwear tenders usually ask about carbon footprint, how to prepare ahead of time and why per-style data gives you an advantage when a deadline arrives.
Tell us what you want to measure
One product, a catalogue or your purchases. We reply with the next steps.
Contact Xain