Survey: about half of Finland's largest companies expect supplier changes due to sustainability requirements

At our Firmas.lv × Jaznexus webinar on 19 October 2026, we looked at why sustainability questions keep reaching smaller suppliers. One of the clearest answers comes from Finland, from OP's annual Survey of Large Corporations, published in February 2025.

What the survey found

• Almost 90% of responding large companies feel pressure to tighten the sustainability criteria they apply to subcontractors and suppliers. That share has risen steadily since 2022, when the question was first asked.
• About half of the responding companies estimate that stricter sustainability criteria will lead them to replace some subcontractors or suppliers in the near future. This is the companies' own estimate, not a record of suppliers already replaced.
• Changes are expected especially in industrial subcontracting, service procurement and the purchase of raw materials.
• Almost 60% say reporting requirements have helped them make their own operations more sustainable.

The survey targets the 250 largest companies operating in Finland by turnover. The 2025 edition received answers from 137 companies and 207 members of their management teams. It describes Finnish large companies, not every market, but the mechanism it shows applies across the EU.

Why this reaches smaller suppliers

Large companies must understand their value chain better, including the indirect emissions of their suppliers. As OP notes, even suppliers that are not themselves in CSRD scope increasingly have to report on sustainability according to their customers' requirements. For a small or medium-sized supplier, this is no longer a reporting question only — it is a question of staying on the supplier list.

What a supplier can do

1. Know your basics: energy use, emissions from your own operations, workforce and safety figures, with the records behind them.
2. Use a common format. The EU Voluntary Standard (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560) gives smaller companies one reference structure, and limits what CSRD-reporting customers may require from partners with up to 1,000 employees.
3. Keep evidence with each answer, so the same information can be reused for the next customer, bank or tender.
4. Answer early. A supplier that can respond clearly before being asked twice is easier to keep.

How Jaznexus fits in

Jaznexus helps companies prepare a structured sustainability report and lets buyers send suppliers structured assessments with room for supporting documents, in one workspace. If you would like to see how it would look for your company, the platform is open for a first report, and you can also write to us directly.