What is EcoVadis

As a society, we desperately need to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. A positive change that can be made is through the regulation of companies and corporations. It’s all well and good for companies to say that they are doing their best when it comes to sustainability, and that they are trying their hardest to ensure a clean tomorrow, but how do we hold them accountable? This is where EcoVadis steps in. 

What do EcoVadis do?

EcoVadis is a global organisation that assesses businesses sustainability. With over 130,000 companies rated on EcoVadis, they have a staggering pool of data at their disposal to rate your business against. You are scored in the 4 categories below:

  • Environment 
  • Labour & Human Rights 
  • Ethics 
  • Sustainable Procurement

Each of these categories is scored out of 100, and help to provide the overall score, also scored out of 100.

All these scores are then compared with other companies on EcoVadis, and a medal is assigned to reflect which percentile you fall in. The medals are: 

  • Bronze: top 35% 
  • Silver: Top 15% 
  • Gold: Top 5% 
  • Platinum: Top 1%

Anyone outside of these medals receives one of the following two badges: 

  • Fast Mover 
  • Committed

Every year, EcoVadis partners complete a comprehensive assessment with their updated information. This consists of completing a questionnaire that requires evidence for each point and claim made. These points will be verified by EcoVadis. This assessment is then used to provide a scorecard to a company that includes details on strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. EcoVadis makes improvements as easy as possible with clear recommendations. Other partners can request access to this information as part of their responsible supply chain practice. This would be performed by a company looking to work with your company, but first wants to confirm that you meet their sustainability standards. The benefit here is that it helps avoid a long, drawn-out process between two companies, providing the information straight away in an easy to understand format.

Techbuyer applied to EcoVadis for the first time in 2023 and we were able to achieve a silver medal for our efforts. This year, we are looking to go one better. Using the feedback received from our assessment, our sustainability team have been hard at work on making positive changes throughout the company 

What do the Medals mean?

To receive a medal, a minimum score of 30 in the 4 areas previously mentioned, while a badge requires a minimum overall score of 45.  

The medals and badges are not to be confused with a certification and does not indicate a company's products or services are sustainable. They represent positive intent and a company that is actively looking to improve their sustainability management. Engaging with a company that possesses an EcoVadis badge or medal provides peace of mind that they are giving thought to their sustainability practices. 

Is this system working?

There is one clear statistic that shows the positive impact EcoVadis is having on its members: The year-on-year improvement of their average score across the network. Taking into account the increasing number of members and this statistic becomes even more impressive. The clear goals and encouragement to work alongside other EcoVadis members appears. 

EcoVadis also state that the proportion of reassessed companies that scored below 45 dropped by half between 2018 and 2022, showing the improvements made by companies after their first assessment. 

Why is it Important?

Environmentally, the most important aspect of EcoVadis is how it encourages change across a wide range of companies big and small. It is the World's largest provider of sustainability ratings and provides clear pathways for improvement on a yearly basis.

Having a rating is important as it validates the sustainability claims that your company is making. You can see how others in your specific industry stack up against you and improve your supply chain sustainability. By filtering partners by their scorecard rating. 

Our Experience

Like everyone who gets assessed by EcoVadis, we received recommendations for improvements on our current practises. As a result of this guidance, we made the following adjustments: 

  • We created a combined supplier Relationships and Sustainable Procurement Policy 
  • Completed the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) to get a better understanding of modern slavery risk on our supply chain 
  • Improved data gathering on internal training courses 
  • Produced a series of training to advise travelling staff on identifying and reporting instance of modern slavery 

Thanks to each of the 4 sections being scored separately, we were able to see that the area we needed to work on most was Sustainable Procurement.

If you want to find out more about EcoVadis, visit their website here. You can see our Sustainability Scorecardor if you are looking for a way to improve your understanding of sustainability in the workplace, sign up to one of our IEMA Training Courses.