This guide applies to Food & Ingredient Suppliers. If you are not a food or ingredient supplier, you can view our guides for Packaging Suppliers or Growers instead.
Welcome! Your customer is working to collect sustainability data across their supply chain, and your participation helps enable more accurate, product-level insights. This article walks you through how to get started and what to expect.
Overview
What is SupplierConnect?
HowGood’s SupplierConnect platform gives you direct access to the world’s largest sustainability database for food ingredients and instantly calculates your product footprints.
Each step is designed to make it easier for you to share sustainability data securely and efficiently - while also gaining insights into your own products.
Sustainability data in the form of product footprints is instantly calculated in-platform using the basic sourcing data you provide. Sharing footprints to your customer is seamless, secure, and can be completed directly in SupplierConnect.
If you submit ingredient data in SupplierConnect, your customer will see the raw agricultural commodities behind your products (e.g., 'Wheat' rather than 'Flour', or 'Soybean' rather than 'Vegetable Oil') and the associated sourcing locations and certification documentation.
Your customer will also see the HowGood-calculated carbon and water footprints alongside our other metrics. This transparency ensures that the carbon-intensity of the base material is accurately credited in your customer’s scope 3 emissions calculations.
Key Features
Pre-populated product lists. HowGood uploads the list of products for which your customer has requested sustainability data - so you have immediate visibility into what needs to be done.
Automatic product footprint calculations. Enter basic product sourcing details, and SupplierConnect instantly calculates accurate sustainability metrics.
Shared insights. Access downloadable carbon and water footprints for each of your products.
Flexible data submission. Add as much or as little product information as you have, refining later as needed. You don’t need to pre-calculate any sustainability data.
Always secure and confidential. The data you provide stays private. Your product data is never shared with customers - they only see product footprints.
Step 1: Logging in and Setting Up Your Account
Creating your password: Once you register for SupplierConnect, you will receive an email from Anna at HowGood ([email protected]) with the subject line 'Create your SupplierConnect password.' Click the link in that email to create your SupplierConnect account if you do not already have an account.*
Adding a team member: To add a team member, you can send them a link to the registration form and they can create their own SupplierConnect account.
Viewing your products: After you log in, you’ll find the list of products your customer is requesting information for. If you don't see the list of products, please reach out to us via the in-app chat to let us know.
*Managing multiple customer requests: If you have already responded to a previous customer request in SupplierConnect and have received a request from a different customer, please register again for SupplierConnect (with your original email but with the new customer listed), and then log in to SupplierConnect with your original email and password. Once you're logged in, you should be able to see both of those Customer Requests in your SupplierConnect account.
Step 2: Adding Company-Level Information
On the Customer Products page, click the tile called Company Profile.
Under the General Profile tab, add your responses for each of the three questions:
Do you have a carbon reduction plan in place?
Have you set a target with SBTi?
Which of the following are you measuring?
Click Submit when finished.
Step 3: Adding Product-Level Information
OPTION 1: Add product data directly in SupplierConnect
Click on a product to open its details page.
A popup will appear asking you to start adding ingredient, packaging, and distribution details to calculate the footprint of this product. Click Edit Formula Details.
In the Ingredients section, click Add Ingredients. You can search for and filter your ingredient(s) by Name or Origin. Once you find you ingredient(s), click the Add button for each one. Close out of the window.
Once you have your list of ingredients, you can adjust the following information:
Sourcing Location: Where the raw ingredient is grown or harvested (e.g. the ranch where the cattle are raised).
*If you do not see your exact sourcing location, choose the broader region in which your location exists (e.g. choose EU-27 if Spain does not exist as an option) or choose the closest geographical location available. If you do not know the Sourcing Location, the HowGood defaults will automatically be populated. These default locations are based on global import/export data.
*If you are sourcing an ingredient from multiple locations (e.g. strawberries both from Spain and California) please add the ingredient multiple times and then adjust the % inclusion to reflect the difference in sourcing amount per location.
Processing Location: Where the raw ingredient is turned into the final ingredient (e.g. the location where dairy is pasteurized). In most instances, this happens very close to the Sourcing location, such as with Dairy, but there are a few exceptions, such as with Cocoa, where the processing happens across the globe. *If you do not know the Processing Location, the HowGood defaults will automatically be populated. These default locations are based on global import/export data.
Weight: *In most cases, the inclusion percentage (i.e. ingredient weight) of all the ingredients in the product will add up to 100%. However, in some instances, the final product requires more inputs than the final output. SupplierConnect allows you to account for products where the ingredient weights are greater than 100%. This is especially common for cheese, greek yogurt, pasta, and alcohol products.
Standards
After you have updated your ingredients, you can navigate to the Packaging and Distribution section and click the General tab. *Note that Manufacturing Type and Manufacturing Region are the only fields required to generate cradle-to-gate carbon metrics.
Manufacturing Type*: A general description of how the recipe is manufactured, similar to sales category. Please select the best option from the drop down.
Manufacturing Region*: Where your recipe is manufactured (state or country). If you would like is to use a default you can type "default" or leave the cell blank.
Requires Cooking: If the end consumer needs to cook it. If they CAN eat it as-is, answer NO.
Requires Cold Storage: If the product as it leaves the supplier manufacturing/facility needs cold storage, then this should be YES. Otherwise, it's a NO.
Standards: Any third party standards or certifications associated to the ingredient or sub-ingredient. If multiple standards or certifications apply, please separate with commas.
Unit Size (kg)
UPC
Next, you can click on the Packaging tab, click Add Packaging, and add any packaging materials you want to include. *Note that Type and Material are the only fields required.
Type*
Consumer Units
Material*
Region
Material Weight (kg/unit of packaging)
Uses
Once you have added your Ingredients and required Packaging and Distribution information, you can click Save, either as the same formula or as a new formula.
Once you are ready to share the Carbon Footprint and Blue Water Usage footprint with your customer, click Share Footprint. *Any product not shared will have a disclaimer that says 'Product Footprint Not Shared. Click "Share footprint" to send this data to your customer and complete the process.'
For more detailed guidance, check out our examples for adding detailed product data for different product categories.
OPTION 2: Add product data via bulk upload
If you have data for multiple products ready to share, bulk upload is the fastest way to get everything into SupplierConnect at once. You can upload a file in any spreadsheet format you already have — you are not required to use our template. That said, if you want a reference for which fields are required and what the data should look like, you can download our template at any point during the upload process.
On your Products page, click Bulk Upload, and select the products you want to include in this bulk upload by checking the box next to each product name. You can select all products or just a subset. Then click Bulk Upload again. This step ensures the products you're submitting data for are properly matched in our systems and that emissions calculations are associated correctly for your requesting customer.
In the upload wizard, drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click to browse for it. If you need the template, click Download Excel Template to get a file with all required columns and example rows pre-filled.
The wizard will display a preview of your file and automatically detect the header row. Review the preview to confirm it has selected the correct row. If the header row is wrong, use the selector to choose the correct one. Click Next to continue.
The wizard will attempt to automatically match your file's columns to the fields in SupplierConnect.
Your file's column names appear on the left.
The corresponding SupplierConnect fields appear on the right.
Review each mapping and use the dropdowns to correct any that look wrong.
If you uploaded our template directly, the columns will map automatically with no changes needed. Click Next to continue.
The wizard will validate your data and flag any rows or cells that need attention. This step lets you fix issues before submitting so your data imports cleanly.
You have a few options for fixing errors:
Fix inline: Click directly into any cell and type over the value to correct it.
Fix by error type: Use the right-hand panel, where errors are grouped by type, to work through issues in batches.
Export and fix externally: If you'd prefer to fix errors in your own spreadsheet, click Export file with errors highlighted at the bottom of the screen. You can then correct the file and re-upload.
Want to keep a copy of your cleaned-up data? Use the Export button at the top of the screen to download the corrected version of your file for your records.
Note: You will not be able to proceed to import while there are unresolved errors.
Once all errors are resolved, click Import to submit your data. A confirmation message will appear when your upload is complete. Your submission will be processed and the sharing status for the selected products will be updated. HowGood's Research team will follow up with you via email if anything requires additional attention.
Note: If you navigate away from the wizard mid-upload, you will need to start over. We recommend completing the upload in one session and avoiding browser back gestures or keyboard shortcuts while in the wizard.
OPTION 3: Add product data via LCA or 3rd party upload
Click Submit Emissions Data.
Select all products you would like to submit 3rd party emissions data for. Once selected, click Upload Emissions Data, and then answer all questions in the form.
HowGood's Research team will reach out to you via email once your data is uploaded and shared with your customer.
[OPTIONAL] Step 4: Adding Agricultural Practice Data in FieldScope
Some suppliers may be asked to submit additional agricultural practice data along with basic product data. You will know if you need to submit agricultural practice data if your webinar and email communications reference HowGood's FieldScope module. Reach out to us via the in-app chat if you have any questions.
Once you have saved your ingredients for a product (via Option 1), click the Cog Icon to the left of the ingredient and check if the option Submit agricultural practice data is available. If the option is grayed out, it means the ingredient is not currently supported (e.g., animal protein, dairy). If available (as demonstrated in the above image), click Submit Agricultural Practice Data. A message will prompt you to save your ingredient data first.
Fill out the requested information in tabs 1-6 of the form.
After entering the required details, click Submit. Confirm that all entered information is correct.
Once submitted, the system will show the "Ag Practice Data Received" confirmation.
For more detailed guidance, read our step-by-step guide for adding agricultural data with FieldScope