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Most collection delay is not technical. It is a request that was too vague to action, sent to someone who did not know what was being asked for. The requests below are written to be copied, edited, and sent. They share a shape that works: name the exact figure, name the unit, name the period, and say why you need it. A request that does all four usually comes back first time.
Always ask for the source document alongside the number. A figure in an email cannot be traced later. A figure plus the report it came from can.

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Your landlord or building manager

Use this when you occupy space and do not hold the meter.
Subject: Energy data request for [site], [period] Hi [name], We are calculating our carbon footprint for [period] and need the energy data for our tenancy at [address]. Could you provide:
  1. Electricity consumption in kWh for our tenancy, covering [start date] to [end date]. Sub-metered if available, otherwise our apportioned share with the basis you used.
  2. Gas consumption for the same period, in the units on your bill.
  3. Whether any of the supply is under a GreenPower or renewable contract, and what percentage.
  4. Our net lettable area in square metres, so we can sanity-check the apportionment.
A copy of the underlying bill or report would be ideal, as we need to reference the source. Thanks, [name]
If the answer is that they cannot break out your tenancy, ask for the whole-building figure and your floor area share. An apportioned number with a stated basis is perfectly acceptable.

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Your waste contractor

Subject: Waste data request, [period] Hi [name], For our carbon reporting we need our waste volumes for [start date] to [end date]. Could you send tonnages by stream, separated into general or landfill waste, commingled recycling, organics, and any other stream you collect from us? If you report bin lifts rather than weights, please send the lift counts with the bin sizes, and we will convert. Thanks, [name]
Bin lifts are common and usable. What you cannot use is a dollar total with no volumes, so ask explicitly for one or the other.

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Your travel agent or travel platform

Subject: Travel report request, [period] Hi [name], We need a travel report for [start date] to [end date] to calculate our emissions. For flights, please include origin and destination airport for each leg, cabin class, and whether the booking was one way or return. Leg-level data is much more useful to us than totals. For accommodation, nights by city. Thanks, [name]
The phrase to include is “leg level”. Agents commonly default to a spend summary, which is the least useful form.

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A supplier you buy a lot from

Use this for a supplier large enough to be material on their own.
Subject: Emissions data for [product or service] Hi [name], We are measuring our supply chain emissions and [supplier] is one of our larger suppliers. Do you publish emissions data for what you supply us? Specifically:
  1. A product carbon footprint per unit, if you have one, and the functional unit it is based on.
  2. Otherwise, your organisational footprint and total output for the period, so we can apportion.
  3. Whether either figure has been third-party verified.
If you do not have this yet, that is a useful answer too and we will use an industry average. Thanks, [name]
That last line matters. It lowers the cost of replying and gets you a definite answer instead of silence.

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Your maintenance contractor

Short, because the ask is narrow and nobody thinks to make it.
Hi [name], For our carbon reporting we need refrigerant top-up quantities for [period], across the air conditioning and refrigeration units you service for us. Could you send the quantity added in kilograms, and the refrigerant type for each, such as R410A or R134a? The service reports would be ideal. Thanks, [name]
Gas type matters as much as quantity here, because global warming potentials differ enormously between refrigerants.

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A staff commuting survey

Commuting exists in nobody’s system, so it has to be surveyed. Keep it to four questions, because completion rate matters more than detail.
  1. What is your home postcode?
  2. How do you usually travel to work? Car alone, car pooling, train, bus, tram, bicycle, walking, motorcycle.
  3. How many days a week do you usually come in?
  4. If you drive, is your vehicle petrol, diesel, hybrid, or electric?
Send it once, leave it open two weeks, and use the response rate to scale up to your headcount. A 40% response rate is plenty. Do not ask for exact distances: postcode plus mode is enough, and asking for more depresses your response rate for no accuracy gain.

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When someone does not reply

Escalate once, then estimate. A polite follow-up after a week resolves most cases. If the second attempt fails, do not let it block the assessment. Estimate from the best available proxy, record the method and the reason the actual figure was unavailable, and add the source to next year’s list. The fix for a supplier who does not report is usually a clause in the next contract, not a third email.

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