What is the EcoVadis CSR assessment? The global standard for CSR assessments

What is the EcoVadis CSR assessment?

To succeed in your EcoVadis evaluation, it's important to understand the challenges of sustainable development, but above all to understand the EcoVadis rating system. Like any system, it has its own specific features, calculation methods and criteria, which you need to know if you want to obtain the best possible rating.

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3 key points to understand the EcoVadis assessment

• Ecovadis evaluates a CSR management system - management system, it is the means of mitigating the company's impact that are assessed, not the results. For example, Ecovadis will evaluate the fact that you have carried out a carbon impact assessment of your company, but will not judge the results. Even the "results" sub-dimensions refer to reporting.

• ‍Ecovadisbases its assessment on evidence - supporting documents are paramount, every item declared must be justified and formalized or it will not be taken into account.

• The Ecovadis medal medal awarded depends on the company's relative position to its peers, the overall final score and the sector of activity (EcoVadis has excluded certain sectors).

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What are the EcoVadis rating principles?

Ecovadis evaluates a company's performance on 4 themes (Environment, Social and Human Rights, Ethics and Responsible Purchasing). For each theme, 3 dimensions (Policies, Actions and Results) and 7 sub-themes are considered (Policies, Memberships, Measures, Certifications, Coverage, Reporting, 360).

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What themes and sub-themes does EcoVadis evaluate?

The EcoVadis Assessment covers 21 sub-themes, which are CSR criteria (e.g. energy consumption and GHG emissions, biodiversity, product end-of-life, social dialogue, corruption, etc.). It's important to understand that not all sub-themes are necessarily assessed, as this will depend on your company's sector of activity, as well as its size and location.

For example, if you're a tech start-up with fewer than 50 employees in France, you won't be assessed on the CSR criterion of Biodiversity.

EcoVadis is based on international CSR standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, ISO 26000 and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

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How is the EcoVadis score calculated?

• Step 1: Each theme is evaluated by considering the 3 dimensions and 7 sub-dimensions. A score per theme is established, taking into account the contribution of each dimension and sub-dimension.

• Step 2: An overall score is calculated by weighting the score for each theme by its relative importance for the company (business sector, size, location).

• Step 3: EcoVadis ranks the company according to the percentile to which the overall score corresponds within the business sector. Depending on the ranking, the company is awarded an EcoVadis Bronze, EcoVadis Silver, EcoVadis Gold or EcoVadis Platinum medal .

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How does the EcoVadis medal system work?

The EcoVadis medal system is based on 3 criteria:

• The overall score: between 0-100, corresponding to the quality of the company's CSR management system. Ecovadis does not award medals if the overall score is below 47 or if the score for one of the themes is below 20 (even if the overall score is above 47).
• Ranking: medals are based on your company's ranking among all companies.
• Business sector: if your company is in one of the sectors considered to be at risk (such as arms or tobacco manufacturing).

Medal criteria:

• Platinum - top 1% (overall score between 75 and 100)
• Gold - top 5% (overall score between 67 and 74)
• Silver - 25% of best results (overall score between 56 and 66)
• Bronze - best 50% (overall score between 47 and 55)

From 2024, the EcoVadis award system will become stricter:

• Platinum - top 1%
• Gold - top 5% sales
• Silver - top 15%
• Bronze - top 35