More and more companies are being asked by their customers to prove their sustainability performance through an EcoVadis score. What is driving this shift, how does an EcoVadis assessment work, and how does it interact with sustainability reporting? In this article, we take a closer look.
EcoVadis is an international ratings platform that assesses companies across four themes: the environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.
After the assessment, which takes six to eight weeks, you receive a scorecard that remains valid for twelve months. Companies that score highly enough earn a medal: bronze (top 35%), silver (top 15%), gold (top 5%) or platinum (top 1%).
For procurement teams, the EcoVadis scorecard is increasingly a standardised way to assess suppliers. For suppliers, it can replace some of the dozens of sustainability questionnaires they receive from customers each year. But the main driver is their commercial position. Indeed, it is mainly large customers – typically retailers – who make an EcoVadis assessment an explicit requirement of their procurement policies.
The rise in EcoVadis requests is no coincidence.
The EU Omnibus has eased CSRD reporting obligations for many companies, but the demand for sustainability data is not going away. The opposite is true. With fewer companies now required to report, large buyers lose an important source of information – and increasingly gather it directly from their suppliers.
At the same time, sustainability data is becoming more important under the impetus of new legislation. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires due diligence on human rights and the environment, while the Forced Labour Regulation (FLR) bars products made with forced labour from the EU market. In other words, due diligence is becoming standard practice across the entire value chain.
For companies that do not themselves fall under this legislation, sustainability therefore becomes a commercial requirement. More and more tenders, purchasing relationships and partnerships are tied to proof of sustainability performance – and EcoVadis is one of the most widely used tools for providing that proof.
In practice, we see the same situations come up again and again.
• Some companies receive an unexpected invitation from a customer to be assessed through EcoVadis. They land on an unfamiliar platform and are unsure what information is needed – and how to submit it.
• Others already hold a bronze medal, but find that large customers now expect silver or gold.
• Sometimes a score even drops at a new assessment, without the company understanding why.
That last case is less unusual than it seems. EcoVadis has significantly changed its methodology in recent years. Medals are now awarded on the basis of percentiles against all rated companies worldwide, no longer only within a company’s own sector. As a result, the bar has risen considerably.
A threshold has also been added. Any company scoring fewer than 30 points in one of the four assessment themes no longer qualifies for a medal.
External signals also play a role. Through its 360° Watch indicator, for example, EcoVadis takes account of sanctions and negative media coverage, which can affect whether a medal is awarded.
Companies that do not earn a medal may still qualify for a Committed badge (from 45 points) or a Fast Mover badge (on demonstrable progress).
EcoVadis assesses not only what you do, but also whether you can adequately substantiate it – and that is where the real challenge lies. Up-to-date policy documents, clear procedures and reliable data are essential. A sustainability report can be a valuable asset here, because it already brings together everything EcoVadis asks for in a structured way.
Just as a well-developed report provides a strong basis for an EcoVadis assessment, the reverse is equally true: the KPIs and policy information you gather for EcoVadis can often also feed your sustainability report under the CSRD or VSME.
By integrating both processes, you avoid duplicated effort and build a single, consistent approach step by step. This not only saves time and resources, your sustainability information also becomes more usable – both within your organisation and for auditors, customers, investors and other stakeholders.
Pantarein guides companies through the entire EcoVadis process.
• If you are embarking on your first assessment, we help you complete the questionnaire correctly and in full, gather the right supporting evidence, and substantiate the information you submit.
• If you already have a score, we start with a gap analysis. We map out which themes leave room for improvement, which actions could have the most impact and which steps are realistic. This translates into an action plan through which your EcoVadis score can rise over successive assessment cycles.
• If you want to strengthen your company’s environmental score, a carbon footprint analysis is often a logical first step. By calculating your CO₂ emissions (across scope 1, 2 and 3), we provide the substantiation EcoVadis expects for various environmental themes.
Or would you like to improve your current score? We would be glad to look together at where you stand today and how an EcoVadis process can fit into your broader sustainability approach.
Contact us at mail@pantarein.be to arrange a no-obligation consultation.
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