What is an EcoVadis assessment,
and how do you get your score?
EcoVadis is the world's most widely used sustainability assessment for suppliers. More and more large clients require a score before they renew a contract. Here's exactly how it works, and where the agent helps.
An assessment of your management system.
EcoVadis doesn't assess your product, but how well you've organized sustainability: your policies, your measures and your results. Analysts test the evidence you submit: policy documents, certificates, KPIs, against a sector-specific framework.
The result is a scorecard with a score from 0 to 100, a score per theme, and concrete strengths and improvement areas. The scorecard is valid for 12 months. After that you do it again, because both your performance and the EcoVadis bar keep moving.
Four themes, 21 criteria.
Which criteria count for you - and how heavily - depends on your sector, size and country. A manufacturer gets a heavier weighting on Environment than a consultancy.
Environment
Environment
How you handle energy, emissions, water, waste, raw materials and biodiversity; in your own operations as well as in your products.
- Energy & greenhouse gas emissions
- Water
- Waste & pollution
- Raw materials and circularity
- Ecodesign and product life cycle
- Biodiversity
Labour & Human Rights
Labor & Human Rights
Working conditions, health and safety, social dialogue, training, diversity and human rights within your own organisation.
- Health & safety
- Working conditions and social dialogue
- Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity
- Training and development
- Child labour, forced labour and trafficking
- Fundamental human rights
Ethics
Ethics
Integrity: anti-corruption, competition, data protection, conflicts of interest and a whistleblowing procedure that actually works.
- Corruption and bribery
- Competition
- Data protection and privacy
- Conflicts of interest and gifts
- Whistleblowing procedure
Sustainable Procurement
Sustainable Procurement
How you factor sustainability into supplier selection, monitoring and supply-chain transparency. Exactly the theme where SMEs leave the most points on the table.
- Sustainability criteria in supplier selection
- Supplier audits and monitoring
- Supplier engagement and training
- Supply-chain transparency and traceability
The P-A-R model.
Within each theme EcoVadis looks at three layers. Almost all the points mid-sized companies miss aren't about what they do, but about how well they've documented and can evidence it.
Policies
Policies
Have you written it down? Policy with a clear scope, measurable targets and someone accountable.
Actions
Measures
Are you actually doing it? Concrete measures, certifications, and how far they reach inside your organisation.
Results
Results
Can you prove it? Reported KPIs, progress across multiple years, and external signals.
This is where the time is won. The agent finds the evidence for each criterion in your documents, writes the answer with citations, and shows in the gap analysis which layer - policy, measures or results - is still missing points.
From invitation to scorecard.
The invitation
A customer - often a large corporate - asks you for an EcoVadis assessment. You get an invitation and a deadline. In practice there is a contract riding on it.
Your company profile
You enter size, sector (ISIC code) and country. This determines which questions you get and how heavily each theme counts. A manufacturer gets a different weighting on Environment than a consultancy.
The questionnaire
Depending on your profile you get between 20 and 100+ questions across the four themes. Every question asks for evidence: policy documents, certificates, KPIs, procedures.
Collecting evidence
This is where the time disappears. Chasing documents from colleagues, working out which document belongs to which question, checking whether the evidence is recent and complete enough.
Submission & analysis
EcoVadis analysts assess your file, combined with external sources (360° Watch). Evidence that doesn't meet the requirements is rejected.
Your scorecard
You receive a score from 0 to 100, a score per theme, strengths and improvement areas. Valid for 12 months - after that it starts again.
What do bronze, silver and gold mean?
Since 2024, EcoVadis medals are based on your percentile - your position relative to every assessed company - and no longer on a fixed score.
The rules
- Medals are based on your percentile against every company EcoVadis assessed in the past 12 months - not on a fixed score.
- EcoVadis deliberately does not publish the score thresholds, because they shift with every publication round.
- For every medal the same rule applies: no theme may score below 30 points.
- From a score of 45 you get the Committed badge, even without a medal.
- Medals and badges are valid for 12 months, just like the scorecard.
That's why the agent never names a hard score threshold for a medal: officially there isn't one, and it shifts with every publication round. The gap analysis focuses on what you can actually influence.
You know the process. Let the agent do the work.
See in the interactive demo how the agent reads your documents, writes your answers, exposes your gaps and shares the work out across your team.
Another question about your assessment?
Are you in the middle of an EcoVadis cycle, or stuck somewhere? Ask your question - we're happy to think along, no strings attached.
Prefer email? marianne@agentsforchange.nl
EcoVadis® is a registered trademark of EcoVadis SAS. Agents for Change is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by EcoVadis.