The quickest way to your suppliers' data is to ask them. A supplier on Sustained gets your ask in their Customer requests; anyone else is emailed a link and answers through a form, with no account needed.
Where to ask from
- Supply chain > Raw materials: the Ask button on a source's row, the row menu (Ask {supplier} for data, or Ask {supplier} to update on figures you already use), or Ask {supplier} for data on the source's Supplier data tab.
- Several sources at once: tick them in the list. The bar at the bottom says how many sources and suppliers you picked; Ask sends one ask to each supplier, with every source you picked from them as an item.
- Registry > Supplier engagement: Ask a supplier for data, at the top.
- Supply chain > Providers & suppliers (or Registry > Suppliers): Ask for data in a supplier's row menu.
The Ask sheet
- To: the supplier. One on Sustained receives it in their account ("Goes to their Sustained inbox. No email address needed."); choose Send to an email address instead to ask anyone else, who can answer without an account.
- For: the sources you are asking about, each with its supplier, origin and how many of your products use it.
- What each item is: shown only when an item has no category yet. Choose one for each before you send, so your supplier knows what counts as an answer.
- What they are asked for, in plain words: the product they supply, its category, per kg. A partial footprint is fine: the rest comes from your model or library data.
- Ask for evidence with each answer: your supplier is asked to attach a supporting document, such as a certificate or a report. An answer then cannot be used until a clean file is attached.
- Show them your item codes, where your items have codes: your supplier sees your code next to each item. Otherwise they see its name, GTIN and their own product code.
- For a raw material a farm sells, you can ask for farm activity data instead, which HESTIA Community Edition computes into a footprint. It is asked for that kind of farm only (a live chicken: a broiler farm; wheat: that crop). Something a farm does not sell, such as chicken breast, is asked for as a finished footprint.
- Message (optional): context for your supplier.
Click Send ask.
If your company has a logo (Settings > Company > Details), it heads the email your supplier receives, marked Powered by Sustained. See Adding your company logo. A supplier not on Sustained answers free on the form, and the email also tells them how a Sustained workspace could answer this and future requests.
After you send it
The source shows Asked, with the date it was sent, and the ask waits under Waiting on them in Registry > Supplier engagement, saying where it stands: not opened yet, Opened · no answer yet, or, for several items, how many are answered. A week after you sent it, Send a reminder sends the same ask again with a new answer-by date. An ask turns stale 14 days after it was sent, or after its last reminder, without an answer. An ask that expired unanswered offers Send again. Open it to Withdraw request if you no longer need it.
When the supplier answers, the source shows Answer ready and the answer moves to Needs you. See How do I use what a supplier sends?
If they decline, the source shows Declined with their reason, naming their organisation and never the person who declined. An ask sent to an email address reads "They declined". Ask again sends a new one.
If the email to your supplier could not be sent, you are shown a one-time link to pass on yourself.