What Is EcoVadis? Why Your Customers May Require It and How to Prepare

What Is EcoVadis? Why Your Customers May Require It and How to Prepare
What is EcoVadis is a question more Thai businesses are asking as international customers and business partners increasingly send notices requiring an EcoVadis assessment as a condition of remaining an approved supplier. This article explains what EcoVadis is, what it evaluates, why businesses are asked to complete EcoVadis, and how to prepare for the assessment.

What Is EcoVadis
EcoVadis is a business sustainability rating platform founded in 2007. EcoVadis has since grown into a network of more than 150,000 rated companies across more than 185 countries and over 250 spend categories. EcoVadis is widely used as a supplier sustainability screening tool, with many multinational companies requiring suppliers in their supply chain to complete the assessment as part of the procurement process.

What Does EcoVadis Assess
The EcoVadis methodology draws on international standards such as the GRI Standards, ISO 26000, and the principles of the UN Global Compact. EcoVadis assessment criteria are organized into four themes.
•     Environment, covering areas such as energy use, water, waste management, and greenhouse gas emissions
•     Labor & Human Rights, covering working conditions, health and safety, and non-discrimination
•     Ethics, covering anti-corruption practices and fair business conduct
•     Sustainable Procurement, covering how a company selects and monitors its own suppliers

The weight given to each EcoVadis theme is adjusted based on the company's industry, size, and country as declared at registration, so no two companies receive an identical questionnaire.

Why Businesses Are Asked to Complete EcoVadis
Across the clients we support, the reason a business first starts an EcoVadis assessment usually falls into one of two categories: a customer or business partner has made it a contractual requirement, or the company wants to strengthen its competitive positioning and public image.

Common examples include chemical manufacturers and importers who supply raw materials to global chemical brands that set a minimum EcoVadis score in their procurement contracts, packaging manufacturers supplying international beauty or fashion brands with a defined Supplier Code of Conduct, and OEM manufacturers supplying overseas retailers that use EcoVadis as part of annual contract renewal. Each of these reflects the same underlying trend: multinational companies managing risk across their own supply chains, a trend reinforced by regulation such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which pushes large companies to conduct deeper due diligence on their suppliers.

EcoVadis Scorecard and Medals Explained
An EcoVadis assessment produces a score out of 100. Since 2024, EcoVadis has awarded medals based on percentile rank across all rated companies rather than fixed score thresholds.
•     Platinum: top 1% of all EcoVadis rated companies
•     Gold: top 5%
•     Silver: top 15%
•     Bronze: top 35%
•     Committed Badge: a score of 45 or above that has not yet reached Bronze level

Because EcoVadis medals are percentile-based rather than fixed, the score needed for the same medal can differ from year to year depending on how other companies in the network perform.

The EcoVadis Assessment Process
The EcoVadis assessment process has four main stages.
•     Registration: providing basic company information such as legal entity name, assessment scope, headquarters location, company size, and industry
•     Questionnaire: completing a questionnaire customized to the company's industry, size, and country, with up to 55 supporting documents that can be attached
•     Expert Analysis: EcoVadis analysts review the submitted answers and documents alongside publicly available information about the company
•     Results: the scorecard is published and shared with the company and any requesting trading partners through the platform

The EcoVadis process typically takes 6 to 8 weeks from questionnaire submission to published results. The resulting scorecard is valid for 12 months from publication, so reassessment is required every year to maintain a current rating.

What Businesses Should Prepare Before Starting EcoVadis
Before answering the EcoVadis questionnaire, a business should have its core policies and documentation in place. EcoVadis places significant weight on written evidence that has actually been approved and communicated within the organization, not just practices that exist informally.
•     A signed Code of Conduct that has been communicated to employees
•     An Environmental Policy supported by energy, water, and waste data
•     A Health & Safety Policy along with workplace incident statistics
•     An Anti-Corruption Policy and evidence of related employee training
•     A Sustainable or Responsible Procurement Policy covering how the company selects and monitors its own suppliers

Common Mistakes in a First EcoVadis Assessment
•     Having a policy in practice but no formal sign-off or employee communication on record
•     Answering EcoVadis questions without attaching supporting documentation, which lowers the score even when the underlying practice is already in place
•     Overlooking that EcoVadis questions are tailored to the industry and company size declared at registration, leading to answers that miss what is actually being asked
•     Starting preparation too close to the customer deadline, when the EcoVadis process itself takes 6 to 8 weeks after submission, on top of the time needed to put policies and documentation in place beforehand


How ESG PRO Can Help With EcoVadis
ESG PRO offers end-to-end EcoVadis consulting, from a gap assessment against all four themes, to developing or strengthening the policies EcoVadis requires, to supporting questionnaire responses and document preparation, through to ongoing advisory support for improving the medal level in future EcoVadis assessment cycles. If your business has been asked by a customer to begin an EcoVadis assessment, or you are looking to improve an existing score, the ESG PRO team is ready to help.