For most B2B companies, sustainability used to sit with communications. It now sits in the sales cycle. Large customers ask suppliers for emissions data before they sign, public-sector buyers score it in tenders, and the rules on what a company may claim about itself have tightened. A go-to-market plan that ignores this loses deals it never knew it was in.
This is not an argument for leading with sustainability in your positioning. It is an argument for having the answers ready when the buyer asks — because they increasingly will.
Why it has moved into the sales cycle
The driver is reporting. Large companies have to report their own emissions, and for most of them the largest share sits in their supply chain — their Scope 3. The only way to report Scope 3 well is to ask suppliers. That request lands in your inbox as a supplier questionnaire, usually during procurement, and usually with a deadline.
In the UK the direction of travel is set by the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards — the UK's versions of the ISSB's global baseline, UK SRS S1 and S2. Groups with EU operations may also be reporting under CSRD. You do not need to be in scope yourself to feel the effect: your customers are, and they pass the question down.
If you sell to large companies, it is worth understanding the sustainability reporting standards your customers are working to. The climate disclosures in IFRS S2 are what shape the questions you will be sent.
Public sector: it is scored, not asked
In public procurement, sustainability is often a formal part of the bid. Central government buyers ask many suppliers for a carbon reduction plan, and social value — which can include environmental commitments — carries a weighting in the evaluation. That makes it a bid-writing problem as much as a positioning one — whatever the buyer calls the document (the RFP vs tender distinction matters less than the scoring) — and teams that find and answer public sector tenders regularly tend to build a reusable library of these answers rather than writing them from scratch each time.
Green claims are now a compliance question
The flip side is what you are allowed to say. The Competition and Markets Authority's Green Claims Code sets out how environmental claims must be accurate, clear and backed by evidence, and the CMA can now fine companies directly for breaches of consumer protection law. B2B companies are not exempt from scrutiny when their marketing reaches consumers or makes public claims.
For a GTM team, the practical rule is simple: every sustainability claim in your messaging needs a source you could show a regulator. Vague claims — "eco-friendly", "sustainable", "green" — are the ones that get challenged.
What a GTM team should have ready
- A one-page emissions summary. Your Scope 1 and 2 figures, what you know about Scope 3, and the method. Sales should be able to send it without asking anyone.
- Standard questionnaire answers. Most supplier questionnaires ask the same twenty questions. Answer them once, properly, and keep them current.
- A carbon reduction plan, if you sell to the public sector.
- An evidence file for every claim your marketing makes.
- An owner. Someone has to hold this. In smaller companies it is often a part-time role — a fractional sustainability lead who builds the inventory and the answers once, then hands a process to the team.
Should sustainability be in your positioning?
Only if it is a real difference and your buyers weigh it. For most companies it is a qualifier, not a differentiator: you need it to stay in the running, but it will rarely win the deal on its own. Positioning decisions like that are exactly what a go-to-market strategy agency should be testing with real buyers before it reaches your homepage.
The short version
Sustainability has moved from the brochure to the procurement form. Get the data, the answers and the evidence ready before a buyer asks — and treat every public claim as something you may have to prove.
Choosing a go-to-market strategy agency comes down to fit — stage, market and sales motion. Our guide covers the questions to ask, and our page on working with a London go-to-market agency covers how an engagement is scoped.