GRI reporting: A guide for sustainability managers
November 17, 2022
“EcoVadis is more than just a rating. It’s a tool for driving continuous improvement and embedding sustainability into the core of your business.”
With growing stakeholder scrutiny around environmental transparency, organisations increasingly seek ways to demonstrate their sustainability credentials. EcoVadis is recognised as one of the most trusted rating systems in the industry – with more than 143,000 companies rated worldwide.
However, navigating the submission process can be challenging, especially for those new to the system. To help bring clarity to your EcoVadis journey, we’re sharing insights from two of our Platinum-rated clients: Tosca and CIRFOOD.
Discover best practices for EcoVadis success
The EcoVadis assessment provides organisations with a comprehensive evaluation of their sustainability initiatives, as well as a clear action plan for further improvement.
But if you’ve never undertaken an EcoVadis assessment before, the process can seem daunting: how many questions will you have to answer? What information will you need to prepare? How can you optimise your score?
To answer these questions, and more, we recently held a webinar with Tosca and CIRFOOD to explore how the EcoVadis process worked for them.
Below you can read more about key takeaways from our recent EcoVadis webinar and common challenges in the assessment process.
About our Platinum-clients
First, a little background on our clients. Tosca is a leading provider of reusable packaging solutions, focusing on the development of innovative and eco-friendly containers designed specifically for perishable goods. By prioritising sustainability, they help retailers, growers and suppliers minimise waste and improve efficiency throughout their supply chains.
CIRFOOD is an Italian cooperative specialising in food service and catering, dedicated to providing high-quality, sustainable meals to schools, hospitals and businesses. By promoting healthy eating habits and sustainable practices, CIRFOOD actively contributes to the well-being of the communities it serves, ensuring a positive impact on both health and the environment. Here’s what these companies have learned from the EcoVadis rating process.
Common challenges in the assessment process
The EcoVadis assessment is a rigorous process that requires the involvement of many stakeholders across the organisation.
It’s therefore no surprise that preparing for an assessment can be a lengthy process, often requiring a dedicated project team.
Indeed, from data collection to stakeholder alignment and policy development, both Tosca and CIRFOOD faced their fair share of challenges along the way. But what enabled the teams to persevere was a clear focus on their strategic foundations as well as their commitment to ongoing improvement.
Strategic alignment: The first step on your EcoVadis journey
Often, the biggest obstacle to embarking on your EcoVadis journey is getting key decision-makers on board. Securing management buy-in is critical, and demonstrating the commercial benefits can greatly facilitate this process.
It’s therefore important to have all the facts so that you can educate key stakeholders on the value of an EcoVadis rating.
For example, the EcoVadis assessment can be used as a valuable customer engagement tool. This was the case for Tosca, which had received several requests from customers for information about its environmental impact and mitigation measures. An EcoVadis rating allowed it to demonstrate its environmental credentials and improve collaboration.
How can EcoVadis facilitate your sustainability strategy?
In addition, the EcoVadis assessment can be an important milestone in your organisation’s sustainability journey. Therefore, when CIRFOOD was working to embed sustainability into the company’s DNA, the EcoVadis rating was presented as a key proof point to measure progress.
This showed the relevance of the rating to the company’s wider sustainability strategy, which made it easier to gain management support. However, both companies also emphasised the importance of involving the wider organisation in the assessment process.
Enabling cross-functional collaboration
Fundamentally, the success of your EcoVadis assessment depends on how well you communicate your goals throughout the organisation – especially when it comes to working with different departments. For example, data collection is a critical preparatory stage, and this depends on smooth cross-functional collaboration.
Both CIRFOOD and Tosca emphasised the importance of building on the strategic alignment already established with management to facilitate this process. This can include drafting policies and setting up organisation-wide training sessions to ensure that all stakeholders feel part of the journey.
The importance of finding the right expert partner was also highlighted by both companies. Whether it’s ensuring that policies and procedures are aligned with the EcoVadis criteria, or helping to build a bespoke sustainability management framework, expert support can be a key catalyst on your EcoVadis journey.
By helping CIRFOOD and Tosca to navigate the complexities of the assessment process, Nexio Projects enabled both companies to achieve an EcoVadis Platinum rating, placing them in the top 1% of all EcoVadis-rated companies. However, as the webinar highlighted, an outstanding score is only the beginning.
The next steps on your EcoVadis journey
While a Platinum rating is certainly a cause for celebration, it’s no excuse for complacency. Indeed, our clients emphasised the importance of looking at EcoVadis as more than just a rating. In fact, it’s most valuable when used as a strategic compass to help drive continuous improvement and embed sustainability at the core of your business.
By maintaining and building on the strategic alignment built during the initial assessment process, you can continue to make sustainability even more fundamental to your strategy and work your way up on the sustainability maturity curve.
Get the full story in our on-demand webinar about Tosca and CIRFOOD’s EcoVadis journey, featuring our CEO Marc Roodhuyzen de Vries with Karin Witton, Global Sustainability Director at Tosca, and Stefano Teatini, CEO and CPO of CIRFOOD. Find the recording here.
