Carbon report and EcoVadis: how Trendy Foods is building ESG credibility and strengthening its commercial position

Company: Trendy Foods

Partner: Smart2Circle

Sector: Distribution (food and non-food)

Size: 650 employees, 3 logistics sites, 100 trucks, 1,100 active clients

Geography: Belgium and Luxembourg

Since the 1970s, Trendy Foods has been one of Belgium and Luxembourg’s most established distribution players. With 650 employees, three logistics sites and a fleet of 100 trucks delivering daily to 1,100 clients, the company runs a cross-docking model that cuts unnecessary goods movement and keeps logistics efficient. In 2023, it also opened a new headquarters built with sustainability in mind: reinforced insulation, solar panels and centralised energy management throughout.

To strengthen its credibility with stakeholders and work towards its EcoVadis certification, expected in 2026, Trendy Foods needed a solid foundation: a rigorous carbon assessment, built on a recognised methodology. That is what brought them to Smart2Circle, a Belgian ESG consultancy, who led the process using Tapio as the carbon management platform.

The stakes go beyond compliance. In a market where ESG requirements from clients and commercial partners are tightening, holding an EcoVadis certification and reliable carbon data is increasingly a condition of doing business, and a clear signal to Trendy Foods’ entire ecosystem.

How does a distribution company of this complexity measure its full carbon footprint, and turn it into a genuine ESG asset?

Here is how Trendy Foods and Smart2Circle did it.

The challenge – Building a carbon assessment solid enough to support EcoVadis

Distributing 20,000 product references across three sites and two countries is a serious logistical challenge. It is also a serious challenge for carbon accounting.

Every product category, from coffee and electronics to tobacco and alcoholic beverages, carries a different emissions profile and requires a specific emission factor. For tobacco, physical data simply was not available. From the outset, the exercise demanded rigorous methodological choices to avoid undermining the integrity of the entire assessment.

“With clients like Trendy Foods, the data complexity is real: hundreds of references, multiple sites, very different product categories. Tapio allows us to structure all of that rigorously and produce an assessment that the client understands, owns and can defend. That is a genuine advantage when you are targeting a certification like EcoVadis.”

Stéphanie Fellen, Founder and CEO, Smart2Circle

On top of the data challenge came an organisational one. No internal process existed for collecting emissions data. Procurement, logistics, facilities and marketing teams had never been brought together for this kind of exercise. Building the approach meant building the workflows, clarifying responsibilities and convincing colleagues that their data had a direct bearing on the final result.

Behind these operational challenges sat a broader strategic ambition: to produce a carbon assessment robust enough to feed the EcoVadis dossier, precise enough to guide reduction priorities, and credible enough to be defended with any stakeholder. That ambition set the standard for every step of the project.

The approach with Smart2Circle on Tapio – Mapping flows and bringing teams on board

Pour Trendy Foods, l’enjeu était de produire un bilan carbone solide.

The starting point was a thorough mapping of all flows across the three sites: purchases, transport, energy, packaging, waste, business travel and use of products sold. Where physical data was missing, monetary estimation methods filled the gaps. Smart2Circle used Tapio as the backbone of the exercise: aggregating data, applying emission factors, and producing a structured, traceable result ready to be presented to third parties.

Teams were involved at every stage, from the initial awareness session through to each department validating its own data. Amélie Vercruysse, who led the project internally, is the clearest proof of that: she has since become a recognised voice on the topic both within the company and beyond.

The approach with Smart2Circle on Tapio – Mapping flows and bringing teams on board

Pour Trendy Foods, l’enjeu était de produire un bilan carbone solide.

The starting point was a thorough mapping of all flows across the three sites: purchases, transport, energy, packaging, waste, business travel and use of products sold. Where physical data was missing, monetary estimation methods filled the gaps. Smart2Circle used Tapio as the backbone of the exercise: aggregating data, applying emission factors, and producing a structured, traceable result ready to be presented to third parties.

Teams were involved at every stage, from the initial awareness session through to each department validating its own data. Amélie Vercruysse, who led the project internally, is the clearest proof of that: she has since become a recognised voice on the topic both within the company and beyond.

“Working with Smart2Circle means having a partner who genuinely knows their subject. Their support helped us structure our ESG approach properly, and with Tapio, our carbon data is now traceable and verifiable. That gives us a solid foundation to build on, and means we can approach our EcoVadis process with confidence.”

Amélie Vercruysse, Responsable qualité, Trendy Foods

Once the carbon report was complete, the Smart2Circle and Trendy Foods teams worked together to prioritise action: fleet electrification, route optimisation, supplier engagement, energy transition. These build directly on what Trendy Foods had already started, and now have a data foundation solid enough to be measured, tracked and communicated.

Results – A credible ESG foundation and data ready for certification

The first thing the assessment delivered was clarity Trendy Foods did not have before: 91% of total emissions sit in purchased goods. That single finding changes how you approach decarbonisation. It allows the business to focus where it matters rather than spreading effort across marginal sources. For a procurement director or a CEO, that is the kind of information that shapes real decisions.

Beyond the headline figure, it is the quality of the underlying data that makes the difference. For the first time, Trendy Foods has a complete, documented and traceable Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon inventory covering all its Belgian and Luxembourg operations. Structured according to the GHG Protocol and the Bilan Carbone® methodology, that data is directly usable in an EcoVadis dossier.

Internally, the impact is just as real. Teams have been involved, trained and given ownership. There is now a shared language around emissions, a baseline for setting reduction targets and a process for tracking progress year on year. Trendy Foods is not starting from scratch at each reporting cycle: it is building on a solid foundation that will grow with its ESG ambitions.

The approach also opens up concrete commercial opportunities. With traceable carbon data and an EcoVadis dossier in progress, Trendy Foods is positioning itself as a credible and transparent partner, an increasingly non-negotiable requirement for responding to tenders, maintaining existing relationships and developing new ones. In a market where ESG expectations are only going in one direction, this is not just a response to external pressure. It is a tangible competitive advantage.