Now it’s time for the assessment itself and to really dissect what this assessment entails. Stephanie is going to break it down for us. Stephanie, take it away.
Thanks, Mark. So, let’s start at the beginning — registering your organisation. This can be done on the EcoVadis platform. Because EcoVadis requests details about your industry, company size, and location, the questionnaire you receive will be quite specific to your business activities.
When registering your organisation, it’s important to consider the scope at which you would like to be assessed. You could undertake the assessment at group level, entity level, or site level.
Group level is suited to organisations with multiple entities who want one combined scorecard that covers all subsidiaries. Entity level is suited to organisations without subsidiaries — for example, a company with only one site or a group that prefers each entity to undertake individual assessments. Site level is an assessment that looks at a specific geographic site or facility of a legal entity.
It’s important to set up your assessment in line with the scope of your organisation, as the answers and documentation you provide in the questionnaire must reflect the correct scope of the organisation being assessed.
So, you’ve registered your organisation and set up your questionnaire. What’s next? It’s time to take a look at your questionnaire.
You’ll notice the questions are structured around four key sustainability pillars: environment, labour and human rights, business ethics, and sustainable procurement.
Within these four pillars, all questions focus on three main indicators: policies (including objectives and targets), actions and procedures in place to reach these objectives, and reporting to review progress towards these objectives.
Because your EcoVadis questionnaire is open for a limited period, it’s really important to review it well in advance to understand how to answer each question.
This leads me to another important step in the assessment process: gathering documentation.
EcoVadis is a documentation-based assessment. This means that for every question you respond to, you need a document as proof.
For example, EcoVadis might ask if you have a formalised policy document on the topic of child and forced labour. You might then submit your company’s modern slavery statement as proof.
You could also gather relevant materials like standard operating procedures, employee handbooks, sustainability reports, or metrics dashboards as other examples of evidence.
However, there’s one important point to consider: you can only submit a total of 55 new documents every year to the assessment. This is quite a challenge, especially for large companies, because prioritising which documents to submit is not an easy task.
It’s good to note that you get 55 new documents every assessment and can reuse documents from your previous assessment. So, choosing the right strategy around how to prioritise your documents is paramount.
The next step is answering the questionnaire itself. For every question, you need two things: a document as proof and a comment.
The comment can be used to explain the contents of the document and how it answers the question.
For instance, for one of my large clients in the chemicals industry, we recently completed the assessment and used the comments to break down key technical details in a way that made it clear how the document supported the response.
This is especially important if your policies or reports contain complex data, industry-specific terminology, or legal language.
The clearer your explanation, the easier it is for EcoVadis to evaluate your response and give you the credit you deserve.
Keep in mind that any questions without supporting documents will not count. A document is needed for every question in the assessment.
Now, the final step: submitting your assessment.
Once you’re happy with everything, go ahead and submit.
EcoVadis will take about six to eight weeks to review your assessment and provide your scorecard.
With your scorecard, you’ll receive a breakdown of your performance across the four sustainability pillars. You might even be awarded a medal.
This is a great way to showcase your achievement to customers, partners, and stakeholders.
But remember, the assessment isn’t just about getting a score — it’s also a tool to help you improve.
Along with your scorecard, you’ll receive highlights on what you’re doing well and, more importantly, where you can take action to improve your sustainability management further.
And that’s it. You’ve officially completed your EcoVadis assessment journey.
Thank you once again, Stephanie, for the introduction to EcoVadis and how it shows that your assessment is just the beginning of your sustainability journey.
Next episode, we’re going to focus on the sustainability management system. So stick with us because that’s where we’ll really look at how you set the base of your sustainability strategy.
