Methodology
How company data becomes reliable ESG work.
Evipace does not start with generic answers or pre-written ESG language.
We start with the actual data, documents and company information relevant to the task in front of you.
From that foundation, we prepare questionnaire responses, emissions calculations, sustainability reports, evidence packages and document drafts — with traceable sources, visible assumptions and human review.
Sources · Calculations · Evidence · Review · Transparency
First principle
Our first principle: source before statement.
An ESG answer is only as reliable as the information behind it.
That is why we do not begin by asking:
“What should we write here?”
We begin with:
“What can we support based on the company's actual information?”
Those sources form the working basis for the engagement. Where relevant to the assignment, material figures and statements should be capable of being traced back to a source, calculation or confirmed piece of company information.
If information is missing, we treat it as a gap — not as an invitation to invent a plausible answer.
Source examples
- an electricity invoice
- a fuel-consumption report
- an ISO certificate
- an existing company policy
- an HR dataset
- a maintenance record
- a previous calculation
- or information confirmed by an authorised person within the company
Engagement process
How an evipace engagement works.
No two ESG assignments are exactly the same.
Preparing an EcoVadis assessment is different from calculating Scope 1 emissions. A VSME report has a different structure from a customer-specific supplier questionnaire.
But the underlying process remains consistent.
01
Understand the requirement
We first establish what the customer, platform, reporting framework or internal project actually requires.
responding to a customer ESG request
preparing a supplier questionnaire
structuring an EcoVadis assessment
preparing IntegrityNext information
calculating Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions
assessing relevant Scope 3 emissions where agreed
preparing a voluntary sustainability report
drafting supporting policies and documentation
We structure the work around the actual requirement rather than forcing every project into the same ESG package.
02
Gather source information
You provide the information already available within the company.
invoices
consumption records
spreadsheets
certificates
policies
employee information
production data
maintenance records
previous reports
existing calculations
customer requirements
screenshots or platform information
03
Structure the information
We map the available information to the relevant requirements.
what already exists
which source supports which answer
what needs to be calculated
what still requires internal confirmation
and where genuine information gaps remain
04
Prepare the work
Depending on the assignment, the output may include:
draft responses
ESG metrics
emissions calculations
evidence mapping
report content
policy drafts
structured data
or gap lists
05
Human review
Prepared deliverables are reviewed before they are returned to the client.
The review considers, among other things, consistency, plausibility, traceability and information that appears incomplete or unclear. Digital tools may support the preparation process. They do not replace this review step.
06
Company confirmation
Certain statements can only be confirmed authoritatively by the company itself.
This is particularly relevant to actual business practices, internal responsibilities, formal company policies, strategic statements and information requiring internal approval. Evipace prepares the work. The company confirms what only the company can authoritatively confirm.
Traceability
Traceability is part of the deliverable.
We do not only want to know what number eventually appears in a spreadsheet or report.
We also want to understand how that number was produced.
Not every sentence requires the same level of documentation. But for material metrics, calculations and claims, the basis should be understandable.
The result should not only look complete. It should be traceable.
Relevant working documentation may include
- underlying source data
- reporting or consumption period
- units
- calculation method
- emissions-factor source
- relevant factor version or reference year
- assumptions
- organisational or methodological boundaries
- supporting evidence
- and unresolved data gaps
Greenhouse-gas emissions
How we calculate greenhouse-gas emissions.
Greenhouse-gas calculations begin with a defined boundary and appropriate activity data.
Not with a desired final number.
Scope 1
Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources.
Scope 1 covers relevant direct greenhouse-gas emissions from sources owned or controlled by the company.
Depending on the organisation
- natural gas
- heating oil
- other fuels
- company vehicles
- certain machinery
- process emissions
- refrigerant losses
Typical calculation logic
Activity data → appropriate emissions factor → CO₂e
- reporting period
- unit
- data source
- organisational boundary
- selected factor
- and required conversions
Scope 2
Purchased or acquired energy.
Scope 2 relates to greenhouse-gas emissions associated with purchased or acquired energy.
- electricity
- district heating
- district cooling
- purchased steam
- and other relevant forms of acquired energy
Depending on the reporting purpose and available information, a location-based calculation and, where applicable, a market-based calculation may be relevant. The appropriate treatment depends on the specific reporting or customer requirement.
Scope 3
Other indirect emissions, where they are part of the engagement.
Where Scope 3 is part of the agreed engagement, we assess relevant indirect emissions across the upstream and downstream value chain.
Potentially relevant areas
- purchased goods and services
- capital goods
- fuel- and energy-related activities
- transport and distribution
- waste
- business travel
- employee commuting
- leased assets
- use or end-of-life treatment of sold products
- and other relevant value-chain categories
Data quality
Scope 3 data is often more heterogeneous than Scope 1 and Scope 2 data. It is therefore important to distinguish between these data types.
- primary data
- supplier-specific data
- activity data
- secondary data
- spend-based approaches
- proxies
- and estimates
The weaker the underlying data, the more important it becomes to make that uncertainty visible.
Emissions factors
We do not treat emissions factors as universal constants.
An emissions factor is not a number that can be copied blindly from a table and applied to every company, year and geography.
Depending on the assignment, suitable factors may come from recognised methodological, governmental or technically credible datasets.
For material calculations, the factor itself is only part of the story. Its source and methodological context should remain identifiable as well.
Selection may take into account
- the type of emissions source
- geography
- reporting year
- activity unit
- methodological purpose
- availability of more specific data
- and the relevance and currency of the source
Estimates and gaps
How we handle estimates and missing data.
Perfect data is not always available.
That is normal in real companies.
What matters is how the limitation is handled.
When reliable primary data is available
we use it where appropriate.
When an estimate is necessary
we treat it as an estimate and document the basis used.
When a proxy is used
the reason for using it and the limitations attached to it should remain visible.
When information cannot be determined reliably
it remains an open gap.
Questionnaires and platforms
Questionnaires, EcoVadis and IntegrityNext: the answer and the evidence belong together.
For customer questionnaires and ESG platforms, completing fields is often only part of the work.
What matters just as much is the company information behind those responses.
For EcoVadis and IntegrityNext, we prepare the working basis for the company.
The final entry or submission on the external platform is made by the company itself.
This keeps responsibility clear for the company statements being submitted to the third party.
Evipace is an independent service provider and is not affiliated with EcoVadis or IntegrityNext.
Evipace may support the process by
- interpreting the requirement
- structuring the required information
- matching available documentation to relevant questions
- preparing response drafts
- identifying missing information
- and highlighting points that still require internal confirmation
Supporting evidence
How we treat supporting evidence.
A document should support the statement it is being used to evidence. It should not merely look relevant.
An ISO certificate does not automatically answer every environmental question. A policy does not automatically prove implementation. An invoice does not automatically answer a complete emissions question.
Evidence before claim.
If suitable evidence is missing, the point is treated as a gap.
We do not create fictitious, backdated or misleading evidence.
We may consider questions such as
- What does the document actually relate to?
- Which statement can it genuinely support?
- Which legal entity, site or operation does it cover?
- Which period does it apply to?
- Is it still current?
- Does it require additional context?
Policies
How policies and company documents are drafted.
Sometimes an ESG request reveals that a relevant company practice exists but has not yet been formally documented.
In those situations, evipace may prepare a draft.
The governing principle is simple: the content must reflect the company's actual practices and actual decisions.
We do not create policies by inserting generic claims about what a “good company” supposedly does.
A newly created document is also never presented as though it had existed historically.
The process is
actual company practice → structured draft → internal review → necessary corrections → explicit approval
A draft is not yet a company policy.
It only becomes a valid company document once an authorised person within the company has reviewed it, amended it where necessary and explicitly approved or adopted it.
Technology
Technology can accelerate preparation. Responsibility is not automated.
Evipace may use digital and AI-assisted tools internally to process larger volumes of information more efficiently.
They do not determine independently what is actually true within the company.
Every deliverable is reviewed by a person before it is returned to the client.
AI is an internal tool within the working process — not the source of company truth and not the product we sell.
May support
- document structuring
- information extraction
- classification
- comparison of requirements
- preparation of calculations
- initial text or structure drafts
Does not decide independently
- whether evidence is sufficient
- whether a business practice genuinely exists
- whether a policy has been adopted
- whether an assumption is appropriate
- or whether a final company statement has been approved
Division of responsibility
Your responsibility. Our responsibility.
Reliable ESG work requires a clear division of responsibilities.
Evipace is responsible for
- structuring the agreed ESG assignment
- organising the information provided
- preparing calculations and draft responses
- documenting relevant methods and sources
- identifying data and evidence gaps
- and reviewing prepared deliverables before return
Your company is responsible for
- the accuracy of the source data it provides
- the completeness of company information known to it
- confirming company-specific facts
- internal decisions
- formal adoption of company policies
- required internal approvals
- and final confirmation of statements that only the company itself can authoritatively make
Methodological basis
We work with the methodology relevant to the engagement.
ESG standards, reporting requirements and emissions-factor datasets continue to evolve.
Methodology therefore cannot be treated as a static checklist.
The applicable methodological basis depends on the assignment.
Announced changes are not treated as rules that are already in force.
Where a version or methodological reference materially affects the result, it should remain identifiable.
Depending on the assignment
- the GHG Protocol
- appropriate governmental or technically credible emissions-factor sources
- VSME or the relevant European voluntary sustainability reporting framework
- customer-specific requirements
- EcoVadis requirements
- IntegrityNext requirements
- and other project-specific reporting or data requirements
We distinguish between
- currently applicable requirements
- published methodological guidance
- adopted changes that are not yet effective
- and developments that remain under revision or in draft form
VSME
VSME and voluntary sustainability reporting.
For voluntary sustainability reporting, we structure the work around the European reporting framework relevant to the engagement.
The objective is not to produce the largest possible amount of ESG text.
The data foundation comes before the narrative.
That means the project can produce more than a report. It can also create a structured ESG information base that can be reused for customer requests and other ESG processes later.
The first questions are practical
- What reporting scope is appropriate?
- Which disclosures are required?
- Which company data already exists?
- Which metrics need to be calculated?
- Which information still requires confirmation or development?
Working material
How we use the documents you provide.
The documents and information you provide for an engagement are used as working material for the agreed service.
Those materials may contain sensitive internal company information.
Documents uploaded through the evipace request process are therefore not made publicly available.
Detailed rules relating to privacy, retention periods and data handling belong in the dedicated privacy documentation rather than on this methodology page.
This page intentionally does not make broader storage or retention promises beyond the working process described here.
Deliverables
What you may receive at the end of an engagement.
The exact deliverables depend on the assignment.
Not every project includes every item.
The objective is consistent: you should be able to understand the basis on which the result was prepared.
Deliverables may include
- a prepared response or report
- structured ESG data
- evidence mapping
- calculation workbooks or calculation basis
- Scope 1 and Scope 2 results
- agreed Scope 3 analysis
- emissions-factor references
- documented assumptions
- outstanding questions and gap lists
- policy or document drafts
- review-ready materials for internal approval
Boundaries
What evipace does not claim to provide.
Clear methodology also means clear boundaries.
Our role is the structured and traceable preparation of ESG work based on the company information available and confirmed for the engagement.
evipace
- does not issue ESG certifications
- does not perform statutory audits
- does not provide independent assurance or verification unless separately performed by an appropriately qualified external provider
- does not provide legal advice
- does not guarantee a particular regulatory assessment
- does not guarantee a particular EcoVadis score or medal
- does not guarantee a particular IntegrityNext status
- does not guarantee acceptance by a customer, bank, platform or other third party
- and does not present missing company practices or evidence as though they exist
Last methodologically reviewed: 21 August 2026
This date reflects the latest substantive review of this methodology, not the date of a website deployment.
Registry lastReviewed: 2026-08-21
Next step
Have a concrete ESG requirement?
Show us what you are working with.
We will review which data, documents, calculations and working steps are likely to be required and how the assignment can be structured.
Questionnaires · Emissions · Reporting · Evidence · Policies