Want to prove to your key stakeholders that your sustainability performance is up to scratch?
There are few better ways to do that than achieving a high score on the EcoVadis assessment. The Eco-What-Now, you ask?
Don’t worry, if you don’t recognize the name, we understand. There are so many different assessments and processes cropping up in the sustainability world these days, it would be impossible to keep track of them all.
But EcoVadis is definitely a name worth remembering, as the EcoVadis sustainability assessment is one of the most trusted and widely-used sustainability assessments worldwide. It is a digital, evidence-based evaluation of how effectively a company has embedded key sustainability principles into its operations and policies.
Companies of all sizes, across various industries, use the EcoVadis assessment to impress stakeholders, assess suppliers, and take their first sustainability steps in a structured way.
But achieving an impressive EcoVadis result isn’t exactly easy. To have any chance, it is crucial that you thoroughly understand every stage of the assessment process.
And that’s exactly what this article is for; demystifying the EcoVadis assessment process, step-by-step.
Step-by-Step: The EcoVadis assessment process explained
Step 1: Register and set up your company profile
The first, and possibly the most important step? Actually committing to the EcoVadis assessment process in the first place by registering on the EcoVadis website, and setting up your company profile.
To register, just click this EcoVadis link, fill in some simple info, and go through the usual email confirmation routine. And then boom! You’re in, and you’ll get a free preview of the platform.
From here, it’s time to fill out your company profile, which should open automatically once you’re on the platform. The information you provide through your company profile is very important, as EcoVadis uses it to customize your assessment questionnaire and your subscription offer. So make sure to be as accurate as possible here.
Legal name of your company, company size, industry, country where your headquarters are located, and the assessment scope that applies to your company. This is the kind of info we’re talking; nothing too scary, yet!
Fill it all in and send it off, and within 6 business days, EcoVadis will verify your company information, and create a customized assessment questionnaire and subscription offer tailored just for you.
They will drop you an email once it’s ready, and that’s when the fun really begins.
Step 2: Complete the questionnaire (with supporting documentation)
Okay maybe ‘fun’ wasn’t the perfect word to use there, because here is where things get real.
With your customized questionnaire ready, now you’ve got to dive in and start providing the answers (along with extensive and specific evidence!). Here’s what to expect:
- The questionnaire covers four core sustainability themes: Environment, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.
- Each section/theme includes a mix of multiple-choice questions and open-ended responses.
- Crucially, throughout each section, you will be required to provide supporting documents to back up your answers to many of the questions. EcoVadis wants to see proof of your policies and practices, right there alongside your answers. (For example, if you mention supplier audits, you’ll be expected to attach a recent audit report. If you mention that your employees receive ethics training, you might be asked to provide training records or a slide deck. If…. well, you get the drill).
Getting your documentation in order here really couldn’t be more important if you want your assessment to go well. So here are a few tips to help the process go smoothly:
- Always provide clear, dated, and official documents. (PDFs work best)
- Label everything clearly so the reviewers can understand it quickly.
- Make sure documents are in an accepted language (usually English, French, Spanish, German, or Italian)
- Don’t stress if you don’t have relevant documentation for every question that requires it. Just upload what you’ve got, and make a note where things are in progress. We know from experience that EcoVadis appreciates transparency and continuous improvement!).
On that note, it’s important to remember that the goal here isn’t perfection, it’s about honestly showing where you are today, so that you can improve moving forward.
To make that possible, once you’ve filled everything in and uploaded your documents, hit that submit button! Then all you’ve got to do is wait.
Step 3: Wait for EcoVadis to do their thing
Wait for what, exactly? Well, for EcoVadis to do quite a lot of things actually.
To determine your eventual score, the EcoVadis sustainability analysts conduct a comprehensive analysis of your supporting documents. Question by question, they carefully verify your responses and reject or accept your declarations based on the supporting documentation and methodology requirements.
The analysts conduct this review using a set of seven key management indicators — policy, actions, monitoring and measures, results, training and communication, verification, and responsibility and accountability — within each of the four core sustainability themes.
On top of this, EcoVadis also utilizes external sources where possible to provide information on each rated company. This involves a combination of:
- Their media sentiment analysis process (360° Watch): This combines artificial intelligence (AI) with analyst verification to integrate thousands of external sources, in order to identify any negative external information about your company.
- Live news monitoring: AI tools and manual review are used to scan the news for any recent incidents or controversies your company may have been involved in.
- External sustainability audits: Positive and negative findings from external sustainability audits are also considered as a supplementary source of stakeholder opinion. (In some assessments, EcoVadis may also contract an independent auditor to conduct an on-site verification on the assessed company as a complementary part of the document-based assessment).
As you can see, EcoVadis isn’t messing about with this assessment. It is holistic, and it is thorough! Which is why this step usually takes about 6-9 weeks to complete.
So please don’t be in any doubt, that what you see during the next step, will be an honest depiction of exactly where you are as a company right now sustainability-wise.
Step 4: Receiving your scorecard
Are you feeling excited? nervous? terrified!? (Okay maybe you’re not right now, but when you reach this step for real, you’ll probably be feeling all of those emotions at once).
Because after all your hard work and patience, the day will finally have arrived. EcoVadis scorecard day.
What should you expect from your scorecard? Well first you should know how the scoring system works:
- First, each of the seven management indicators within the assessment themes is scored from 0 to 100 in increments of 25 (0, 25, 50, 75, 100), based on strict, standardized guidelines, applied by trained analysts to ensure consistency.
- These indicator scores are then weighted and combined to produce a theme score.
- Then, all theme scores are averaged, and also weighted according to your company’s industry, size, and location, to create your overall EcoVadis score.
This score will be presented to you on your EcoVadis scorecard, which will neatly summarize:
- Your overall score, shown alongside the average score for your industry. (This score also determines whether your company qualifies for an EcoVadis medal; Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum).
- Your scores across the four sustainability themes, again with industry averages for comparison.
- The weight assigned to each theme (from 1 to 4), reflecting its relative importance based on your company’s profile.
- A summary of your company’s strengths and suggested improvement areas for each theme.
Now one of the main reasons for going through the extensive EcoVadis assessment process in the first place was to impress your stakeholders, right? So no matter what score you get, the next step should be to share it far and wide.
(Because remember, the goal here isn’t to achieve perfection, it is to demonstrate that you are committed to continuous improvement. So even if you don’t achieve the score you were hoping for straight away, sharing your score will still show your stakeholders that you’re committed to the sustainability process).
Step 5: Sharing your score
But what’s the best way to share your score?
Well conveniently, EcoVadis lets you share your scorecard with customers and partners directly through the platform. Offering a super-easy, standardized way to respond to sustainability requests, demonstrate compliance, and build trust with stakeholders.
And of course you can also include your EcoVadis score/medal on your website, in your proposals, your sustainability reports, all over your marketing communications! (Just make sure to follow the platform’s branding guidelines).
Then, with your EcoVadis score out there for the world to see, you can consider the EcoVadis assessment process complete. (For now; because this is all about continuous improvement remember, so once the initial assessment process is complete, after a few short breaths, you can start getting ready for your re-assessment!).
Sticking with your initial assessment for now though, let’s discuss some simple things you can do to increase your chances of a high score.
Tips for a successful EcoVadis assessment
To achieve a high score on your EcoVadis assessment, it goes without saying that your sustainability performance needs to be genuinely impressive. But aside from this, there are a few fundamental things you can do to help your assessment go well:
- Gather documents early: Don’t be one of those companies that waits until the last minute on this. Start collecting key documents (like policies, audits, certifications) as soon as possible. The more documents you have gathered and organized beforehand, the easier the questionnaire process will be.
- Assign internal responsibility: It’s also a good idea to nominate a person or team to lead the process. Ideally, this should be a person or people with a solid understanding of your company’s sustainability efforts, and access to the right departments. (The EcoVadis process isn’t just about your sustainability team. You’re going to need information from HR, procurement, operations, compliance, and possibly others depending on the scope of your assessment).
- Be honest and accurate: This probably goes without saying, but it is absolutely imperative that you only include information in your questionnaire that you can back up with evidence. These EcoVadis analysts are sharp cookies, so honesty really is the best policy here.
- Hire an expert: As you’ve probably gathered from this article, the EcoVadis assessment is no walk in the park. It requires extensive documentation and data collection, cross-departmental input, and a clear understanding of what EcoVadis is really looking for. So if you want to truly maximize your chances of success, your best bet might just be to bring in an EcoVadis expert to guide you through the process. They can show you exactly what to include, help you avoid common pitfalls, and ensure you present your company’s sustainability efforts with clarity and confidence.
And you know it just so happens, that Dazzle can give you instant access to several such experts!
Get every step of the EcoVadis assessment process right with help from a Dazzle expert
How can we give you that access? Well, because Dazzle is a platform that offers the world’s best sustainability freelancers on-demand, that’s how!
And we have several EcoVadis experts ready and willing to guide you through every step of the EcoVadis assessment process whenever you need them. (When you’ve been through the process as many times as Dazzle’s specialists have, you know exactly what to look out for).
There’s also a guarantee of quality when you work with Dazzle, because all of our freelancers are extensively pre-screened. While the process is very flexible, as you can choose to work with our experts on a project-based, on-demand, or interim basis.
Contact us today, and we can send you several expert profiles within 48 hours, so that you can choose the perfect match for you.
Coming face to face with the EcoVadis assessment can be daunting, believe us, we know. But when you get it right, the rewards are more than worth it. And with one of Dazzle’s experts at your back, getting it right becomes much more likely.
