EcoVadis is a voluntary reporting platform that evaluates businesses : environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. A high score from EcoVadis can create a competitive advantage, help you avoid reputational and legal risk, and prevent the loss of customers and investors.
As the public grows increasingly savvy (and skeptical) about the sustainability claims made by businesses, third-party verification has gained traction. One leading ESG ratings provider, EcoVadis, has now assessed more than 130,000 companies across 220 industries and 180 countries. An EcoVadis rating gives customers, investors, and other stakeholders insight into an organization’s ESG performance. It can also build business value for reporting companies by boosting their credibility.?
In this article, we’ll discuss what to expect when reporting to EcoVadis and steps you can take to ace your assessment.?
How Does EcoVadis Disclosure and Scoring Work??
The voluntary process involves four key steps?
Founded in Paris in 2007, EcoVadis focuses on promoting supply chain transparency and helping companies improve their sustainability performance. In 2023, , due in large part to demand from larger companies for supply chain transparency. EcoVadis disclosure is voluntary and involves four key steps:?
- Registration and Questionnaire
You’ll start the process by signing up on the EcoVadis platform, where you provide information about your business, industry, and location. You’ll then receive a customized questionnaire based on your industry and size. You’ll be asked to give supporting documentation for your answers, including copies of policies, procedures, and reports. It’s important to note that much of your assessment will be based on the documentation you provide.?
- Expert Analysis
After receiving your responses, EcoVadis will review your data and documentation. As part of its , EcoVadis analysts review more than 100,000 external sources — ?including media, governments, trade unions, NGOs, and business networks — for information about your company. This step differentiates EcoVadis from other disclosure bodies and can negatively impact your score.?
- Scoring
Once the evaluation is complete, EcoVadis issues a scorecard with a rating between 0-100 and a detailed overview of your performance across key categories (described below). This scorecard is shared with both you and the customer who requested the disclosure. Companies can also earn bronze, silver, gold, and platinum medals based on their performance.?
- Continuous Improvement
As part of your score, you’ll receive detailed feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. EcoVadis encourages companies to leverage their assessments to improve their environmental and human rights performance, and you’ll have the chance to request reassessment to improve your score.?
What Does EcoVadis Evaluate?
Companies are assessed on sustainability, human rights, labor, and ethics?
EcoVadis evaluates businesses : environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Providing accurate, complete, and reliable documentation for each category is crucial for achieving a strong score. Here’s a closer look at each category:
Environment
This category examines your ecological footprint and sustainability initiatives, focusing on scope 1-3 carbon emissions, energy use, water and biodiversity impacts, and waste and pollution management.?
Emissions data is closely scrutinized, so companies need to ensure it’s complete, reliable, and aligned with industry best practices. You’ll need clear documentation of your methodology for measuring and reporting carbon emissions.?
Labor and Human Rights
This category assesses your labor practices and policies, including health, safety, and working conditions for employees, as well as human rights risks such as child labor and human trafficking. It also includes diversity initiatives.?
Demonstrating proactive monitoring and remediation efforts, such as supplier audits or grievance mechanisms, can improve your score in this category.?
Ethics
EcoVadis will evaluate the integrity of your business practices, including anti-corruption measures, prevention of anticompetitive behavior, and data privacy and cybersecurity practices.?
To score well in this category, you need evidence of active implementation and enforcement of policies, not just a documented Code of Conduct. You should provide examples of regular audits, employee training, and monitoring initiatives.?
Sustainable Procurement
This category assesses how you integrate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles into your procurement practices, with a focus on the social and environmental impacts of your supply chain, lifecycle analysis of your products and services, and supplier management practices.?
For a strong score, plan on highlighting the specific initiatives or mechanisms you use to engage your suppliers and monitor their performance, such as sharing carbon accounting software with suppliers and requiring them to attend trainings or adhere to sustainability codes.?
Steps for Successful EcoVadis Reporting
Focus on documentation, transparency, and measurable results
Your EcoVadis assessment will be tailored to your business and industry, and, unlike CDP reporting, you won’t have access to the questions until you’re in the platform. However, you can prepare by making sure you have the right information ahead of time. There are a few steps you can take to set the stage for successful reporting:?
- Pay attention to your documentation.?
EcoVadis will closely scrutinize the supplementary documentation you submit. You need to provide the exact data they ask for, and ensure it’s current and official. If you provide outdated information that’s not on company letterhead, for example, you may get docked.?
- Be transparent.?
Much of the EcoVadis assessment is about transparency. It’s more harmful to omit data they request than to provide information that may reveal missteps or slow progress. As noted previously, emissions data is critical, and you need to be able to share how you arrived at your calculations.?
- Prioritize progress over plans.?
Your ability to show measurable results and provide verified data is more valuable than sharing your plans, strategies, and policies. Metrics and audited reports are key to successful reporting.?
Leveraging Carbon Accounting to Ace Your EcoVadis Assessment
Look for software that offers full visibility and ownership of your data
One of the best ways to prepare for EcoVadis reporting is by implementing an automated carbon accounting system. Your emissions data heavily influences your overall score, so you should feel confident in the numbers you share — and be able to back up your calculations. Your carbon accounting software should offer:
Transparency?
Because documentation is critical for EcoVadis, it’s important to have full visibility into your calculations. Software that allows you to easily trace data and understand methodology will give you a leg up. You should be able to see and share the accounting frameworks, formulas, emission factors, and other components that were used to arrive at your footprint.?
Ownership?
You need to be able to defend your data. If you can’t explain how you arrived at a calculation or why numbers have changed from one year to the next, you may find yourself in trouble. By maintaining control over methodology decisions (like which emissions factor was applied), you’ll be better equipped to stand behind your disclosure. You should have access to data logs that show when information is added, modified, or deleted, and who made the change. Look for a platform that provides full ownership and control over your data and decision-making.?
Flexibility
Look for technology that is easily adaptable to your specific business needs. It should offer the right level of data granularity and organization to support analysis and reporting through a variety of frameworks. It’s worth noting that companies already generating reports for bodies like CSRD and CDP will likely be able to report to EcoVadis with relative ease.
Scalability
Climate disclosure is a journey, and you want to make sure your software will scale with you as your data matures and your reporting becomes more sophisticated. By starting on the right foot, you’ll help future-proof your organization in the face of ever-evolving regulations and stakeholder demands.?
Using Your EcoVadis Rating to Build Business Value
Credible carbon data is essential for managing risk and opportunity?
Managing ESG risk and opportunity has become an essential component of protecting and building business value. A high score from a ratings provider like EcoVadis can create a competitive advantage, help you avoid reputational and legal risk, and prevent the loss of customers and investors.?
Credible, transparent carbon data is the basic building block that will allow you to disclose with confidence — and help make your business more resilient in the face of the physical and transition risks posed by climate change.?
