The Scope 3 software market has grown up. Most large industrial companies today use some form of digital solution to calculate, manage, or report their Scope 3 emissions. Vendor claims have become more comprehensive, dashboards more polished, and product language more ambitious.
And yet, if you look closely, something feels unresolved.
Supplier engagement is still inconsistent. Internal alignment remains difficult. Many teams still question whether their tooling actually helps them move from reporting to reduction.
The Scope 3 Tools Review 2025–2026, (https://www.scope3peergroup.com/s/Scope-3-Strategy-Days-London-2026-Main-Deck.pdf, pages 122 - 142) based on input from 234 respondents across buyers, suppliers, and solution providers provides a useful lens into that tension. What makes the review interesting is not who ranks highest in mentions, but how clearly it reflects where the real friction points remain.
The market lives in the “messy middle”
One of the clearest signals in the report is the maturity distribution on the buyer side. Around 66% of practitioners describe their Scope 3 maturity as intermediate, while only 15% consider themselves advanced. (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 126)
This matters more than it might seem at first glance.
Intermediate maturity typically means that a baseline footprint exists, some supplier-specific data is available, and initial decarbonization initiatives have begun. But operating models are still forming, responsibilities are still shifting, and data flows are rarely stable. Governance structures are evolving in parallel with the program itself.
In other words, most organizations are neither starting from scratch nor operating in a fully optimized, data-rich environment. They are building while running.
Tools that assume perfectly structured data, clear ownership, and standardized supplier processes may look strong in advanced scenarios, but they can struggle in this “messy middle.” For the majority of companies, adaptability and pragmatic decision support are often more valuable than theoretical precision.
Adoption is high. Searching continues.
Another notable data point: 43% of buyers report that they are actively searching for a Scope 3 tool — either while already using one or before adopting one (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p.127)
That suggests something important about the current phase of the market. Adoption alone is no longer a reliable indicator of satisfaction or progress. Many companies have invested in a system, yet still feel the need to explore alternatives.
This is typical of maturing software categories. The first wave of adoption often focuses on solving the most visible problem — in this case, reporting and baseline transparency. The second wave is more demanding. It asks whether the system actually reduces effort, improves decision quality, and supports implementation at scale.
Scope 3 tooling is clearly entering that second phase.
From reporting to steering
When buyers were asked which advanced capabilities they value most, the top responses were not about aesthetics or additional disclosure layers. The most sought-after feature was Automated Data Collection & Validation (61%), followed by proactive decarbonization roadmaps and predictive forecasting or scenario analysis (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, 128).
This shift is telling.
The market’s central question is no longer “Can we report our Scope 3 emissions?” It is increasingly “Can we steer them?” Companies want to understand where to focus, which suppliers to prioritize, and how to translate targets into operational action. They are looking for systems that help them simulate trade-offs and allocate resources — not just systems that produce compliant reports.
This reflects a broader evolution: from disclosure to decision support.
Why tools get rejected
The reasons buyers cite for not selecting a vendor are equally pragmatic. The most common dealbreakers are price or total cost (54%) and missing must-have features (52%). Other concerns include weak analytics, excessive supplier effort, and heavy implementation timelines. (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 131)
These are not abstract objections. They point to concrete implementation realities.
If supplier onboarding is too burdensome, participation drops. If integration with existing systems is complex, internal resistance grows. If pricing models do not scale with supplier inclusion, ambitious rollouts become financially difficult.
The review’s insights for solution providers reinforce this dynamic, emphasizing the need to move beyond reporting and toward becoming genuine action enablers (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 138). In practice, that means designing for real-world constraints: imperfect data, limited supplier capacity, and cross-functional complexity.
Supplier experience as structural bottleneck
The supplier perspective in the review is particularly revealing. Suppliers rate their experience with spreadsheets and custom portals at 2.7 out of 5, while Scope 3 and ESG tools score slightly higher at 3.5 out of 5 (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 135). The improvement is noticeable, but the overall satisfaction level remains moderate.
More importantly, suppliers articulate their needs with clarity. They ask customers and tool providers not to request publicly available data, to be selective in what they require, and to enable data reuse across multiple customers (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 135).
These requests are less about functionality and more about friction. When decarbonization becomes repetitive administrative work, even well-intentioned programs lose momentum. Supplier usability is not a secondary design consideration; it is central to whether Scope 3 initiatives scale beyond pilot phases.
No tool replaces governance
The review also contains a recurring warning from practitioners: be clear about the problem you are trying to solve before engaging with any solution provider. Several respondents highlight that tools remain dependent on internal data readiness and supplier engagement. (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 132)
This is a useful reminder in a market often driven by feature comparisons. Digital solutions can structure processes and enable insight, but they cannot compensate for unclear ownership, weak cross-functional alignment, or unrealistic expectations about data quality.
Scope 3 tooling is an enabler of change, not the origin of it.
A brief note on ctrl+s in the review
In the open question asking which digital solutions practitioners are currently using or piloting, ctrl+s appears among the most frequently mentioned tools (ranked second by mentions) (Scope 3 Strategy Days London 2026 Main Deck, p. 130).
Rather than treating this as a ranking exercise, it is more interesting to interpret it as a market signal. Alongside established reporting and rating platforms, tools that focus on supplier engagement and operational decarbonization are increasingly referenced. That suggests a shift in attention from annual reporting cycles toward systems designed to translate targets into supplier-level action.
What this means for 2026
If the Scope 3 Tools Review points to one overarching theme, it is this: the category is moving from measurement maturity to execution maturity.
Most companies have crossed the threshold of baseline transparency. The next phase is about reducing friction — between data and decision, between targets and suppliers, and between sustainability ambition and procurement reality.
In that context, the decisive question is no longer who offers the most comprehensive dashboard. It is who designs for the operational realities of supply chain decarbonization: imperfect data, heterogeneous suppliers, and evolving governance structures.
Progress, in that sense, is not simply a function of more data. It is a function of how effectively systems help organizations act on what they already know.
This article draws on insights from the Scope 3 Tools Review 2025–2026 by the Scope 3 Peer Group. The findings were presented by Oliver Hurrey at the Scope 3 Strategy Day and Workshop 2026 in London. If you would like to explore the full slide deck and form your own perspective, you can download it directly from the Scope 3 Peer Group’s website: https://www.scope3peergroup.com/resources or directly via https://www.scope3peergroup.com/s/Scope-3-Strategy-Days-London-2026-Main-Deck.pdf
