Western Digital's pilot lifts primary carbon data for its biggest suppliers from 30% to 90% with Sluicebox

Western Digital found that collecting emissions data from suppliers by email was time consuming for both its sustainability team and its suppliers. The company wanted to improve response rates from the suppliers of components for its hard drives.

Western Digital worked with Sluicebox, a startup that collects carbon data on the electronics industry, to build an AI-powered email workflow. Rather than asking suppliers to navigate a form or log into a platform, Sluicebox's AI agent makes the data request, handles supplier questions and synthesizes the raw data into a product carbon footprint aligned with International Organization for Standardization rules. The pilot included suppliers for several components, including the device housing, baseplate and motor, and team members continue to review the outputs.

In the pilot, Western Digital expanded primary carbon data for its biggest suppliers from 30 to 90 percent. The time required to collect the data fell from between five and six months to four weeks, according to Mrinalini Iyer, the company's program manager for sustainability operations. Western Digital now plans to estimate gaps for non-responders, cross-check footprints against supplier disclosures and industry baselines, and flag outliers for review.

• Meet suppliers in the channel they already use, such as email, instead of asking them to learn a new form or portal.
• Keep people reviewing outputs so the data stays usable, traceable and defensible.
• Plan for non-responders by estimating gaps and flagging outliers for follow-up.