EcoVadis rating guide for UK suppliers: themes, evidence and medals

What EcoVadis assesses

EcoVadis assesses the quality of a company's sustainability management system across four themes^[1]:

• Environment
• Labor and Human Rights
• Ethics
• Sustainable Procurement

Within those themes, EcoVadis has defined 21 sustainability criteria and selects the ones relevant to each company, based on its activity and the location of its operations^[2]. A manufacturer, for example, will usually have more environmental criteria activated than an office-based business^[1].

The methodology looks at three management pillars: Policies, Actions and Results^[2]. These are broken down into seven management indicators: policies, endorsements, measures, certifications, coverage (deployment of actions), reporting and 360° Watch findings^[2]. In plain terms, EcoVadis wants to see what you have committed to, what you actually do, how widely you do it and what the results are.

Why customers ask suppliers for an EcoVadis rating

Large buyers use EcoVadis to monitor the sustainability performance of their suppliers through scorecards, rather than sending each supplier their own questionnaire^[2]. For the buyer, one rating gives a comparable view across hundreds or thousands of suppliers. For the supplier, one assessment can be shared with several customers.

The request usually arrives in one of three ways: as part of a tender or supplier onboarding, as a condition of renewing an existing contract, or as part of a customer's own reporting on its supply chain. Some customers simply want to see that you have been assessed; others set a minimum score or expect improvement year on year. It is worth asking your customer directly what they need, because that decides how much work is worth doing before you submit.

How the EcoVadis assessment works

The process, as EcoVadis describes it, follows these steps:

• Registration. The company registers on the EcoVadis platform and defines its size, industry and countries of operation. These shape the questionnaire it receives^{[1, 2]}.
• Questionnaire. The questionnaire is customised by company size, industry classification and location in countries with risks^[1]. Its length depends mainly on the number of activated criteria within the four themes^[1].
• Supporting documents. Answers are backed by uploaded documents, within a document limit set by EcoVadis^[3].
• Analysis. Expert analysts apply EcoVadis scoring guidelines to each assessment^[2].
• Scorecard. The scorecard is normally published six to eight weeks after the questionnaire is submitted^[4]. It highlights strengths and improvement areas for each theme, with a suggested priority for corrective action^[2].

Preparing evidence

The most common reason for a disappointing score is not poor practice but poor evidence. A policy that exists only in someone's head, or an action that is not documented, will not count. Before opening the questionnaire, we would gather:

• Policies for each relevant theme: environment, health and safety, labour and human rights, anti-bribery and corruption, information security and sustainable procurement, signed and dated.
• Actions that show the policies are applied: procedures, training records, supplier questionnaires, audits and whistleblowing arrangements.
• Certifications you already hold, such as management system standards, with their scope and expiry dates.
• Results: data for the past year, such as energy use, emissions, waste, accident rates and training completed.
• Reporting: any public sustainability report, Modern Slavery statement or carbon reduction plan.

EcoVadis publishes a document guide explaining which documents are valid and how to work within its document limit^[3]. Read it before you start. Make sure each document names your company, is current and clearly relates to the question it supports.

Sustainable Procurement is often the weakest theme for smaller suppliers, because it asks what you do about your own suppliers. A supplier code of conduct, a short supplier questionnaire and a record of the checks you carry out can make a real difference here.

EcoVadis medals and scores

The EcoVadis score runs from 0 to 100 and reflects the quality of the company's sustainability management system at the time of the assessment^[4]. Medals are awarded on percentile rank, comparing a company with all companies assessed by EcoVadis over the previous 12 months, across all industries worldwide^[5]. EcoVadis currently publishes these medal thresholds^[5]:

• Platinum: top 1% (99th percentile and above)
• Gold: top 5% (95th percentile and above)
• Silver: top 15% (85th percentile and above)
• Bronze: top 35% (65th percentile and above)

Medal eligibility criteria are reviewed periodically, so check the current EcoVadis page before setting a target^[4]. Medals and badges are valid for 12 months, in line with the scorecard, and apply only to the assessed entity, not to a parent, subsidiary or site^[4]. EcoVadis is clear that a medal is not a certification or an endorsement of a company's products or services^[6].

A medal is useful for marketing, but for most suppliers the score and the improvement areas on the scorecard matter more. They tell you, and your customer, what to work on before the next assessment.

Common mistakes in a first EcoVadis assessment

• Wrong company profile. Size, industry and countries set at registration decide the questions you receive, so check them carefully before you start.
• Claims without documents. Ticking a box without a supporting document that shows it.
• Generic policies. Policies downloaded from the internet that do not name your company, are not signed or do not match what you do.
• No data. Policies and actions with no results behind them, such as energy use, training completed or supplier checks carried out.
• Rushing to the deadline. Submitting before the evidence is ready, when a short delay agreed with the customer would have produced a fairer result.

After the scorecard: improving your rating

The scorecard is the most useful output of the process. Each improvement area has a suggested priority^[2], which gives you a ready-made action list for the year ahead. Share the scorecard with your customer, agree which improvements matter most to them, and plan the work so the evidence is in place well before reassessment.

Improvement usually comes from the same few places: turning informal practices into written policies, extending actions across the whole business rather than one site, starting to measure results, and putting basic checks on your own suppliers in place. None of these needs a large programme, but each needs to be documented.

Treat the rating as part of how you run the business, not a once-a-year exercise. The same policies and data support carbon reduction plans, Modern Slavery statements and customer questionnaires, so one well-organised evidence file serves all of them.

Caventis and EcoVadis

Caventis is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of EcoVadis. We help suppliers organise their policies, evidence and answers as part of wider supplier sustainability work; the assessment and scoring are carried out by EcoVadis alone.

Frequently asked questions

If a customer has asked you for an EcoVadis rating, see how we help with supplier sustainability credentials, carbon reduction plans and Modern Slavery statements.