First steps on your EcoVadis journey: Going for Bronze

“Achieving an EcoVadis Bronze Medal reflects a strong awareness of your organisation’s social and environmental impacts and a commitment to continuous improvement.” 

As discussed in our recent blog, getting rated by EcoVadis can be an important step on your organisation’s sustainability management journey. EcoVadis experts have provided benchmarked sustainability ratings to over 130,000 companies worldwide. And with more and more stakeholders – such as customers and suppliers – requesting information on sustainability management, an EcoVadis rating can also facilitate collaboration. 

Based on a comprehensive analysis of your organisation’s sustainability management system, the EcoVadis Scorecard provides a rating on a scale of 1 to 100. Depending on the rating you receive compared to your peers, you may be eligible for one of the EcoVadis medals – A great way to demonstrate your progress in sustainability management. In this blog, we’ll discuss what it takes to achieve the EcoVadis Bronze Medal. 

The Bronze Medal: A great way to kick-start your EcoVadis journey 

Achieving Bronze often marks the first step on your company’s journey to demonstrating and improving your sustainability management credentials.  

Companies that score in the top 35% of all those rated over the past year are eligible for the EcoVadis Bronze Medal.  

In 2024, this would mean achieving a score of 58 or higher on your Scorecard. Companies that score less than 30 in any of the four EcoVadis themes (Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement) won’t be eligible for a Medal. 

Note: some companies are not eligible to receive an EcoVadis badge or medal, including those in the tobacco, arms, and coal and lignite mining sectors. 

So, what does it take to achieve EcoVadis Bronze? The assessment covers many aspects of your company’s sustainability management system, including energy consumption, employee working conditions and product end-of-life.  

Obtaining a high score means that you’ve demonstrated your commitment to implementing responsible practices across many of these factors. However, achieving Bronze doesn’t mean you have to be advanced in all areas of the assessment. In fact, room for improvement is built into the criteria. 

What do I need to do to achieve an EcoVadis Bronze Medal?  

The key characteristic of a company that’s on track to achieve the Bronze Medal is a strong awareness of its social and environmental impacts throughout its value chain.  

How you demonstrate this will depend on the industry in which you operate, as well as your size and location. These factors determine which of the assessment sub-themes (‘activated criteria’) are considered relevant for your EcoVadis assessment. 

Once the activated criteria have been established, it’s time to define roles and responsibilities to simplify the assessment process. Given that the assessment covers many different areas of your business, both internal and external, it’s important to have the right accountability frameworks in place.  

For example, some companies choose to set up an EcoVadis working group that brings together expertise from across the business. Alternatively, you may choose to appoint a dedicated sustainability manager. Both can be very helpful in streamlining the collection of documents and data. 

How do I prioritise which documents to submit to EcoVadis? 

Since you’re only allowed to submit 55 new documents for each EcoVadis assessment, it’s important to select these carefully. To simplify the decision-making process, get clarity on which activated criteria are relevant for your company.  

These are defined by EcoVadis when you register on the platform. To ensure an efficient assessment process, it’s important to focus your efforts on these areas. For example, companies that do most of their work in offices (rather than factories, for example) will have fewer evidence requirements in terms of health and safety, air pollution and biodiversity. 

It’s also important to have the right type of documentation available for each of your company’s key sub-themes. So, if Product end-of-life is one of the activated criteria in your assessment, it would be beneficial to provide a life cycle assessment (LCA) for your products.  

On the other hand, if you’re currently working on improving the end-of-life management of your products, an official policy document reflecting this journey would also constitute valid evidence. In this case, depending on the nature of your business, it may still be possible to achieve an EcoVadis Bronze Medal. 

In addition, if your activated criteria include issues related to your supply chain, such as Supplier environmental practices, standardised questionnaires can help you streamline supplier engagement.  

It’s also important to give your suppliers (and customers, if applicable) enough time to respond to your requests. Remember that not all of your supply chain partners will be aware of the EcoVadis assessment and its importance, so engagement initiatives can help to ensure a smoother information-gathering process. 

Taking the next steps on your EcoVadis journey 

Achieving an EcoVadis Bronze Medal reflects a strong awareness of your organisation’s social and environmental impacts and a commitment to continuous improvement.  

It shows that you’re taking a broad view of your organisation’s sustainability management system and are committed to concrete improvement plans. Importantly, it’s an exciting first step on your EcoVadis journey, providing a solid foundation for future assessment success and an enhanced sustainability management system.  

By building on the knowledge gained from the assessment process, you’ll be able to target lasting and impactful sustainability improvements throughout your company’s value chain. 

Want to find out what it takes to achieve an EcoVadis Silver Medal? Read more here.