FAQ: answered briefly
Scope, cost, deadlines.
There are four routes: you generate it yourself, you sign a power purchase agreement (PPA), you take a green tariff, or you buy certificates separately from the electricity. The first three deliver electricity and evidence together, the fourth only evidence. We do not source it, but can name contacts.
On the preparation list, and only there: it is the one list we maintain. If something is missing, that is normal and no reason to wait. The engagement and the scope can be settled beforehand.
To the documents checklistThe navigator on the home page settles it in at most three questions. It names your scope and the audit approach that fits it.
EAC is the umbrella term: Energy Attribute Certificate. It evidences time, location, technology and age for one generated megawatt hour. GoO, GEC, I-REC and REC are forms of it. Which one applies depends on the market in which you source the green electricity. We check the details for you.
ZF selects against predefined sampling criteria, not every supplier every year. Your commitment in SupplyOn, by contrast, applies to every reporting year and has to be met every year, whether or not there is an audit.
As a rule remote. Meetings run as a Teams call, wherever your site is located.
We audit in German and in English. If your records are in another language we translate them; that is not a problem. What we do need is someone on your side we can talk to in English at least.
The supplier bears the cost, not ZF. Billing is by auditor days. The order of magnitude is on the home page under “Cost indication”; those are indicative figures for orientation, not a quote. We give the cost indication for your case once we have seen your records.
Yes. We audit sites worldwide; the country does not change how we work. Which certificates qualify follows the market in which the electricity is consumed. Meetings run in German or English.
An independent public auditor () or a registered audit firm, applying ISRS 4400, ISAE 3000 (Revised) or ISSA 5000. The licence does not have to be in your country; we audit remotely for sites worldwide. Attestations from ISO or management-system certifiers are expressly not accepted by ZF.
It applies under the , that is where only the share attributable to ZF production is audited and that share is not evidenced by a dedicated meter. The share is then derived by calculation, either from revenue with ZF or from the weight of goods delivered.
Under the procedures are agreed in advance. What comes out is a factual finding, not an audit opinion. is an engagement with an opinion: the procedures are not restricted, the auditor decides what is needed as the work goes, and forms a judgement on the result.
Only for mass balance, not for simple green electricity contracts. We need it as the basis for the ZF share, either revenue or the weight of goods delivered. We are bound to professional secrecy in any case (, ), and the engagement letter says so; a separate confidentiality agreement is not needed for this.
In Germany usually between January and March for the previous year, some only in April. A few providers take longer or are restrictive about handing the statements out; ask them again in that case. We have not yet seen one refuse in the end.
Yes, at any time. You decide whom you appoint; ZF accepts only an independent public auditor or a registered audit firm. Only we offer the ZF Supply Chain Audit Approach under ISRS 4400. You can still put your questions to us.
The independent confirmation that a ZF supplier's electricity consumption is covered by renewable energy. It lowers the Product Carbon Footprint of the ZF parts and ZF's Scope 3. We match the cancelled certificates against the consumption data. The engagement runs under , or ISSA 5000; the GHG Protocol is the frame the reporting follows, not an audit standard.
Yes. The same audit under ISAE 3000 or ISRS 4400 fits suppliers of other automotive OEMs with comparable requirements. We build the engagement so one report can serve several customers, if accepted. We do not name clients without written consent (§ 43 WPO).
In principle the verified figures and cancellations can feed into your ESRS E1 disclosures and into your customers' Scope 3 reporting. How far they carry depends on the audit approach and has to be agreed beforehand. If you want to use the result for other purposes as well, choose an engagement from the start rather than .
Under the GHG Protocol, Scope 2 covers the indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, district heating and district cooling. Scope 3 covers the remaining indirect emissions of the value chain, including Category 1 for purchased goods; the supplier's Scope 2 feeds into it. Of all that we audit electricity alone, and only for the ZF case. District heating and cooling we do not audit.
Yes: energy audits (), evidence for industrial electricity prices and for the German Besondere Ausgleichsregelung, VSME and CSRD/ESRS engagements, Product Carbon Footprint verification, and Strompreiskompensation testates. One engagement often serves several purposes; ask us.
Immediately. We work with the ZF Guideline daily and stay in professional contact with ZF. We know what has to be done, templates and engagement design are ready, and we can start at once.
The entities ZF names are the ones audited. Where ZF's contract is not with the manufacturing entity, the manufacturing entity is audited; we look at that case by case. SupplyOn records the entity in the SRM folder under “Green Electricity Roadmap”.
In exceptional cases yes. If the EACs were cancelled before the note could be added and the cancellation can no longer be changed, ZF accepts a signed allocation declaration (Appendix 9). Three conditions: the note was objectively impossible; the omission was not deliberate; the volume is clearly identifiable and allocated to ZF alone. Once you know the requirement, the note has to be set. For self-generated, self-consumed electricity without certificates the allocation declaration is the normal case; it is signed by the legal representatives.
No. You are our client, not ZF. We pass nothing on to ZF, neither revenue nor electricity data. You receive the report from us and upload it to SupplyOn yourself, so you decide what ZF sees. That is exactly how the engagement is built: an efficient, low-cost audit, paid for by the supplier, so that records and result stay under the supplier's control. Confidentiality is a professional duty (section 43 WPO, section 203 StGB).
The timeline on the home page shows how the two years run. During the reporting year you procure certificates and cancel them as you go; once ZF selects you, we settle engagement and scope. Audit report and the signed are due in SupplyOn by 31 May of the following year. The commitment itself has to be met every year, including the years without an audit.
Tell ZF straight away. What happens then is ZF's decision; the contact address is sustainability.supplychain@zf.com.
The records for the engagement are on the preparation list; switch to “For the engagement” at the top. Everything refers to the entity ZF selected; if the invoice is to go to a different one, tell us beforehand.
An external audit needs evidence: only what can be evidenced can be counted. The most common route is timestamped photographs of the meter readings, alternatively a reading log signed under the four-eyes principle.
That depends on the market. If the other country lies within the same market in which the electricity is consumed, it qualifies; outside of it, it does not. The yardstick is the GHG Protocol Quality Criteria. Establish market and country of cancellation for each .
No. A purchase invoice shows that you bought, not that the electricity was consumed and attributed to nobody else. Both carry certificate numbers and look alike in the registry; in first-year audits we regularly receive purchase invoices only. Cancellation happens in the registry in your name, before we audit. Without your own registry account your supplier cancels for you. Keep the cancellation statement the registry issues; that document is what we need, not the EAC itself.
You gave ZF a commitment and are obliged to meet it. The evidence can still be procured now. Start early: cancellation in the registry takes time. We do not source it ourselves and earn nothing from it, but we can name contacts. Write to us.
Your commitment sits in SupplyOn. Our SupplyOn page shows step by step where to find it.
Possibly, but not on its own. The report has to carry your entity: either it names the entity at 100 percent, or it states 100 percent for the whole group with your entity inside it. A share alone does not identify your entity. That is our professional assessment, not a rule of the ZF Guideline. Otherwise ask your group auditor: a supplementary confirmation can often extend the statement, usually faster than a separate audit. Failing that, you need your own.
Yes, because the standard and the effort follow from it. If you need the result for ZF alone, is an option; under the only after a prior assessment of the allocation. If you also need it for your own reporting or for other customers, the route is limited assurance under or ISSA 5000. If you do not know yet, we assume the wider route.
Under the the note has to assign the cancelled certificates unambiguously. The guideline gives this example; it stays in English, as that is how it goes into the registry: “Cancelled exclusively for ZF Friedrichshafen AG: EACs for the electricity used in the manufacturing process in reporting year [YYYY]; not used or claimed for any other party or purpose.” Where only a single plant is concerned, the note may name that plant instead of ZF. The exact wording does not decide it, the unambiguous assignment does.
Questions?