What is Ecovadis?
Since its founding in 2007, EcoVadis has grown to become the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, creating a global network of more than 130,000+ rated companies.
Ecovadis methodology
The EcoVadis rating methodology measures the quality of a company’s sustainability
management system through its policies, actions, and results. The EcoVadis sustainability rating methodology is based on the following seven foundational principles:
Evidence Based
Industry, Location and Size Matter
Diversification of Sources
Technology is a Must
Assessment by International Sustainability Experts
Traceability and Transparency
Excellence Through Continuous
Improvement
The sustainability issues are based on international sustainability standards such as the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions3, the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) standards4, the ISO 26000 standard, the CERES Roadmap and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The assessment considers a range of 21 sustainability issues that are grouped into four themes:
Environment
Energy consumption & GHGs
Water
Biodiversity
Air Pollution
Materials, Chemicals & Waste
Product Use
Product End-of-Life
Customer Health & Safety
Environmental Services & Advocacy
Labors & Human rights
Employee Health & Safety
Working Conditions
Social Dialogue
Career Management & Training
Child Labor, Forced Labor & Human Trafficking
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
External Stakeholder Human Rights
Ethics
Corruption
Anticompetitive Practices
Responsible Information Management
Sustainable procurement
Supplier Environmental Practices
Supplier Social Practices
Based on these four categories, Ecovadis assigns an overall score to a company (0-100).
The final score is obtained by calculating a weighted average of all scores obtained for each answer of the assessment, here is an example:
❗The questionnaire can vary from one company to another, depending on the industry, size and location of the company. Not all questions will be activated. For instance, a software company will not have any questions about Water or Biodiversity.
In addition, the possible answers to a same question can differ from one company to another.
Requirements for the "Environment" part of the assessment
Here are the questions / requirements companies will have to answer for the "Environment" part of the assessment / questionnaire:
For which topics does your company have a policy with qualitative objectives and quantitative targets for ?
What actions are in place regarding the reduction of energy consumption and the emissions of GHG?
What actions are in place regarding water management?
What actions are in place regarding air pollution?
What actions are in place regarding waste management?
Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions
Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions (market or location based)
Total gross Scope 3 GHG emissions
Total gross Scope 3 Downstream GHG emissions
Total gross Scope 3 Upstream GHG emissions
Total energy consumption
Total renewable energy consumption
Total water consumption
Total amount of water recycled and reused
Total weight of air pollutants
Total weight of hazardous waste
Total weight of non-hazardous waste
Total weight of waste recovered
On which topics does your company report Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
Describe your entity's GHG reduction targets
Describe your entity's GHG emissions inventory
What is the scope of the GHG emissions monitoring in your entity? (applicable to scope 1 and 2 emissions only)
Describe your entity's progress towards GHG reduction targets
Describe your entity's GHG reporting practices