Build Credibility with EcoVadis Ratings

What is EcoVadis?

Established in 2007, EcoVadis is a leading sustainability ratings platform. It evaluates businesses on their ESG performance. So, it assesses organisations based on their sustainability maturity determined based on four themes of environment, labour & human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Companies have to respond to the EcoVadis questionnaire providing information on their policies, processes, certifications, initiatives etc. and provide documentation as proof for the same.

Why EcoVadis Sustainability Ratings Matter?

There are rising expectations from investors and customers to prove responsible operations among the companies. Earning strong EcoVadis ratings, with support from experienced EcoVadis certification consultants, helps companies strengthen sustainability practices and demonstrate responsible operations to customers and investors. EcoVadis gives companies a score between 0 to 100 based on their sustainability maturity. EcoVadis is utilised extensively by companies with large supply chains to determine the sustainability maturity of all their suppliers. Some of the companies then set score targets for their suppliers.

Benefits of Sustainability Ratings

• Transparency: Sustainability ratings help reveal and quantify a company's impact on society and the environment, and its governance practices.
• Supplier evaluation: Businesses are able to use the ratings to evaluate suppliers accurately and consistently.
• Risk management: EcoVadis helps identify risks early and thus address compliance, reputational and supply chain risks.
• Global benchmarking: EcoVadis ratings help in peer-to-peer comparisons globally and thus provide a good understanding of comparative strengths and weaknesses.

Core Principles Behind EcoVadis Assessments

EcoVadis ratings are built on four core themes: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics, Sustainable Procurement. These are aligned with international frameworks like UN Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and ISO 26000. Belonging to the category of non-financial themes, they are further broken down into 21 specific sustainability criteria. The EcoVadis ratings range from 0 to 100. These are specific to the company's industry, size and location, making them fair and comparable across diverse sectors.

Our Approach to EcoVadis Services

Oren offers a structured EcoVadis consulting framework to help businesses navigate their EcoVadis assessment process and achieve meaningful improvements in their ESG performance.

1. Gap Analysis: Our sustainability consultants, among the leading EcoVadis consultants in India, begin by identifying gaps in existing ESG practices against EcoVadis sustainability assessment requirements. Sometimes companies need a specific EcoVadis score or bronze/silver/gold/platinum medals, then the gap assessment is done in alignment with that.
2. Implementation Roadmap: Based on the gap assessment, an implementation roadmap is developed along with timelines and effort alignment.
3. Policy Updates: Our sustainability consultants update company policies to align with EcoVadis requirements or develop new policies when they are missing. EcoVadis has specific guidelines for most policies like Business Ethics Policy, Environment Policy, Human Rights Policy, Sustainable Procurement Policy to name a few. Companies can also use Oren Sustainability Hub's AI Policy Developer for this purpose.
4. Materiality Assessment: If it hasn't been conducted already, our sustainability consultants support the company in the end-to-end execution of their materiality assessment.
5. Sustainability Report and Other Documentation: EcoVadis mandates that documents are provided along with each questionnaire response as proof. Our sustainability consultants supports companies in development and validation of these documents. We also support companies in creating sustainability reports using Oren Sustainability Hub that support the documentation requirement of EcoVadis.
6. Supplier Assessment & Training: Our sustainability consultants conducts supply chain sustainability assessments using the Oren Sustainability Hub and provide training to enhance supplier sustainability practices. Suppliers are also trained on the company's supply chain sustainability programs and supplier code of conduct.
7. Train the Teams on EcoVadis Assessment: Our sustainability consultants conducts internal training programs to understand methodology, manage submissions and implement corrective action plans.
8. End-to-end EcoVadis Questionnaire Filling Support: Our sustainability consultants support in the end-to-end filling out of the EcoVadis assessment.

How Oren Strengthens Your EcoVadis Rating?

With Oren, you gain a strategic partner for EcoVadis consulting, guiding your journey toward higher EcoVadis sustainability scores and stronger sustainability credentials. Have a glimpse into our method of working to relate it to your practices:

1. Scope definition: Set clear priorities and timelines, and finalise the assessment scope.
2. Gap analysis: Review existing sustainability practices to spot weak areas.
3. Scorecard review: Compare performance against EcoVadis standards and identify gaps.
4. Corrective actions: Verify and guide policy, process, certification, initiative etc. improvements.
5. Reporting: Provide practical insights to help raise EcoVadis scores.
6. Documentation development: Development of documentation such that it is accepted by EcoVadis.
7. Industry best practices: Bring in insights based on what leaders in your industry are doing.
8. Alignment with ESG strategy: Ensure alignment of EcoVadis submission with your overarching ESG strategy.

EcoVadis & ESG Rating Framework

EcoVadis is not a framework but a sustainability rating platform that translates global ESG frameworks into practical EcoVadis sustainability assessments. It leverages leading global ESG frameworks and standards to evaluate company performance. It is based on global standards like GRI, SASB, UNGC, ISO 26000, OECD and ILO. Hence, EcoVadis serves as a practical tool for businesses to benchmark and demonstrate ESG performance using recognised frameworks.

ESG Frameworks vs EcoVadis

ESG frameworks set the guidelines, while EcoVadis applies them in practice. The latter creates a structured methodology to assess how well companies manage sustainability risks and opportunities. Companies are expected to fill out the EcoVadis questionnaire on the EcoVadis website along with documentation as proof. The EcoVadis analyst then verify the responses and provide a score between 0 to 100.

EcoVadis Rating Method

EcoVadis delivers its evaluation into a comparable score ranging from 0 to 100. It is measured across four key themes: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. The scoring makes it easier for businesses, suppliers and procurement leaders to benchmark performance, identify gaps and track progress over time. Incorrect responses to the questionnaire and documentations also get rejected by the team of EcoVadis' analysts. EcoVadis also conducts a 360 degree watch analysis on the company to assess if there is any negative or positive news about them.

How to Get EcoVadis Certification: Step by Step

Strictly speaking, EcoVadis issues a rating and scorecard rather than a certificate, but buyers across the world call it EcoVadis certification, and the process is the same either way. Here is how it works from first request to medal:

1. Registration: You register on the EcoVadis platform, usually after a customer requests your rating, and confirm your company profile (industry, size, location).
2. Questionnaire scoping: EcoVadis generates a questionnaire tailored to your profile, covering the four themes and the criteria relevant to your sector.
3. Evidence preparation: Every answer needs supporting documents: signed policies, certifications, reports and performance data. This is where most first-time submissions lose points.
4. Assessment: EcoVadis analysts verify your responses against the evidence, typically returning the scorecard within six to eight weeks.
5. Scorecard and medal: You receive your score out of 100 with theme-level breakdowns, and a medal where percentile thresholds are met.
6. Annual reassessment: Ratings are refreshed yearly, so improvement work between cycles is what moves the score.

Oren provides EcoVadis assessment support across this whole journey, and our consultants help suppliers improve EcoVadis ESG scores that customers in Europe and North America increasingly insist on. We work with companies across India, Malaysia and the GCC; for the Malaysian context, see our EcoVadis Malaysia guide.

EcoVadis Scoring & Medal Tiers

EcoVadis scoring works on a 0 to 100 scale, weighted across the four themes of Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. Your scorecard shows the overall score, theme-level scores and how you compare with your industry peers. Medals are awarded on percentile rank among companies rated in the past twelve months: Platinum for the top 1%, Gold for the top 5%, Silver for the top 15% and Bronze for the top 35%, provided each theme scores at least 30.

How to Improve Your EcoVadis Score

1. Read the scorecard properly: Identify which themes and criteria lost points, and whether the cause was a missing policy, weak evidence or absent results data.
2. Close the policy gaps: Formalise, sign and date the policies EcoVadis expects for your sector.
3. Build the evidence trail: Convert practices into documents: reports, certificates, training records and KPIs.
4. Fix the data foundation: Oren Sustainability Hub is ESG software supporting EcoVadis improvement end to end, from data collection to the sustainability report EcoVadis accepts as evidence.
5. Resubmit strategically: Time your reassessment for after the improvements are documented, not before.

This is the exact playbook behind our clients' medal upgrades; see how Hetero Drugs improved its EcoVadis rating with Oren, or read our EcoVadis whitepaper for the full methodology.

Best Practices for Achieving a High EcoVadis Score

Policy & Documentation

Develop clear and comprehensive policies for ESG practices. Ensure their proper formalisation, updating and linking to measurable actions and goals. Further, structure the evidence around policies, actions and results for the relevant sustainability theme. There should be clear communication on the coverage, grievance mechanism, governing body etc. in the policy. The documents that are credible, relevant, and directly address the EcoVadis criteria are necessary to be framed. These documents should also carry the stamp of the company and the signature of the implementation authority. This structured approach is critical for companies working with EcoVadis certification consultants to achieve higher scores and medals.

Global Standards Alignment

Align the sustainability initiatives with international frameworks such as BRSR, GRI, SASB, UNGC and ISO 26000 to achieve a high EcoVadis score. It works by demonstrating that the company's practices meet global recognised benchmarks.

Regular Monitoring & Updates

Establishing continuous improvement procedures, involving:

• Conducting gap analysis
• Creating a detailed action plan accordingly
• Implementing measurable KPIs and policies across the four pillars
• Reviewing scorecards regularly to track progress

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Achieve this through the establishment of clear and common goals and a centralised platform such as Oren Sustainability Hub for communication and knowledge sharing. Engage teams across HR, procurement, compliance and operations to ensure the following of ESG practices in every business function.

Supplier Engagement

Developing and engaging suppliers on your supply chain sustainability program helps attain a high EcoVadis score. If required, train and collaborate with suppliers to ensure sustainable practices that align with your strategy. Utilizing award-winning platforms like Oren Sustainability Hub to roll-out supplier assessment, conduct performance benchmarking on ESG parameters amongst suppliers and development of Supply Chain Sustainability report further helps increase the EcoVadis score.

Sustainability Report

Provide accurate and evidence-based data while communicating results openly. Creating a sustainability report boosts the EcoVadis rating. Using award-winning ESG softwares such as Oren Sustainability Hub for automation of data collection and streamlining reporting helps create a single source of truth for all ESG data. Also, include third-party audits and certifications.

Why Choose Oren for Your EcoVadis Services?

Partnering with Oren means gaining a trusted advisor for EcoVadis consulting in India, who simplifies the EcoVadis assessment process. Oren brings in the award-winning ESG technology platform, Oren Sustainability Hub and a team of trusted sustainability consultants who have supported hundreds of companies through their EcoVadis journey.

• Achieve excellence in the EcoVadis score: We help companies close gaps, align with EcoVadis criteria and improve across all four themes.
• Award-winning technology: Our platform, Oren Sustainability Hub help companies measure, track and improve their key ESG metrics in real-time. Companies can also create sustainability reports that can be used as documentation for the EcoVadis assessment. The platform also offers AI policy developer that creates EcoVadis aligned policies.
• End-to-end handholding: Oren's team of EcoVadis consultants in India support companies end-to-end from identifying and understanding gaps in their current practices against the requirements of EcoVadis all the way to filling out the EcoVadis assessment.
• Strategic improvement: Oren guides companies with actionable steps to enhance policies, processes and reporting. We ensure meaningful progress in sustainability practices that aligns with the companies' long-term ESG strategy and isn't just a tick-in-the-box activity for the EcoVadis assessment.
• ESG leadership: Strong EcoVadis ratings demonstrate credibility and build trust with stakeholders. So, you are at a better chance of positioning your business as a leader in responsible practices.
• Real-time EcoVadis performance benchmarking: With Oren, companies can track and compare their EcoVadis performance against industry peers. This enables continuous improvement and competitive advantage.