EcoVadis explained – The four sustainability pillars

So, the four themes of EcoVadis form the basis of your EcoVadis questionnaire and assessment.

EcoVadis looks at your sustainability management systems across four main themes. They look at Labour and Human Rights, Environment, Ethics—which also includes information security—and Sustainable Procurement.

There’s also an overarching theme called General. This looks at what you have in place that might be applicable across all four themes.

Every company has to answer questions about these four themes, regardless of which industry you are placed under. However, different weightings are applied to those themes depending on the industry you’re in.

Exactly. So, EcoVadis does take into account and tailor the questionnaire based on your industry, your size, and also your location.

For example, a manufacturing company will have a very different EcoVadis questionnaire from a services company. For a manufacturing company, of course, the impact lies mainly within the Environmental pillar, whereas for a services company, this could be more focused on Sustainable Procurement, Ethics, or Labour and Human Rights.