The question is no longer “Do you have a sustainability program?”, it’s “Can you prove it?” EcoVadis turns that proof into a common language across procurement and finance. Used well, it can speed up approvals and sharpen your competitive edge.
EcoVadis is now one of the most widely used supplier-sustainability ratings, with 159,000+ ratings across countries and industries. This means your customers, lenders, and partners likely already speak this language. Here’s what the system measures, why you’re being asked for it, and how to turn the process into a durable competitive edge.
What EcoVadis Is, and How It Scores
EcoVadis is a supplier sustainability rating system that evaluates a company’s management practices across four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. It uses 21 criteria mapped to international frameworks, including ISO 26000, GRI, and the UN Global Compact.
Companies complete a tailored online questionnaire and submit documentary evidence (policies, procedures, KPIs, and results). Trained analysts review the submission and assign a 0–100 score for each theme and overall score.
Companies are then awarded a medal based on percentile performance and minimum threshold values across themes. Medals are Platinum (top 1%), Gold (top 5%), Silver (top 15%), and Bronze (top 35%).
Why You’re Being Asked for a Rating
At its core, the growing popularity of EcoVadis stems from customer, lender, and regulatory demands for greater ESG transparency. EcoVadis supplies this transparency in a system that can be replicated and compared across companies and industries.
The EcoVadis Reach
EcoVadis reports participation from 159,000+ companies across 175+ countries and 200+ industries. As a supplier, having an EcoVadis rating can be a differentiator or a requirement for working with some of the world’s largest companies.
For example, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) requires suppliers to complete an EcoVadis assessment and demonstrate progress in ongoing sustainability improvements over time. This makes EcoVadis a formal part of onboarding and performance management to work with J&J.
Finance Link
On the finance side, banks are pricing based on sustainability. For example, ING’s Sustainability Improvement Loan ties interest rates to third-party–validated performance (including EcoVadis). Additionally, Citi partners with EcoVadis on supply-chain finance, offering tiered, preferential rates that improve as suppliers’ EcoVadis scorecards improve.
Regulatory Tailwinds
Regulatory requirements increasingly demand transparent sustainability data. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires sustainability reporting for many companies, pushing comparable data expectations through supply chains. In the U.S., California’s SB 253 (Scope 1–3 GHG disclosure) and SB 261 (biennial climate-risk reporting) were passed in 2023, requiring standardized supplier sustainability information.
If historical trends continue, we can expect similar requirements spreading across the U.S. in the coming years. EcoVadis prepares you for these changes, reducing regulatory risk and positioning your business to be a standout supplier as regulations evolve. EcoVadis bridges these evolving regulations by standardizing how companies report and verify sustainability data.
What a Strong EcoVadis Score Signals
Because the assessment weights documented policies, actions, and results, higher scores signal real management maturity rather than marketing claims. Medals provide a common shorthand that buyers recognize, with Gold and Platinum indicating top-tier performance relative to thousands of peers. At the same time, medals require a minimum score in each theme, which prevents lopsided programs.
What “Good” Looks Like in Practice
In practice, a high score tells customers you’re built for long-term success as a resilient, lower-risk partner that aligns with their sustainability goals. Studies continually show a positive correlation between high sustainability ratings and financial performance. Plus, capital markets echo this: higher ESG ratings are associated with lower costs of equity and debt across thousands of issuers.
Combined, a high EcoVadis rating makes you a desirable partner who can be onboarded and managed with less friction. Plus, it provides significant secondary benefits, such as lower operating costs, a boost to public image, and more productive employees.
Turning the EcoVadis Process into a Business Advantage
When implemented well, EcoVadis becomes a valuable business tool rather than just a compliance checkbox.
The evidence-based scoring highlights where your policies and results are strong and where operations need investment. This lets you target real risk and efficiency gaps that matter to customers and your bottom line. Because the scorecard is standardized and shareable, it also replaces a tangle of one-off supplier questionnaires. This speeds up onboarding and reduces compliance time and cost.
It also gives leaders a standard dataset to align sustainability with strategy and capital planning. This creates continuity across a business and verifiable data to use in RFPs and sustainability-linked finance discussions. Finally, EcoVadis’ benchmarking lets you set peer-aware, auditable targets and tell a sharper story about progress over time.
Each of these benefits complements larger sustainability programs (such as green building certifications, emissions tracking, and capital improvement plans), while helping you meet supplier and regulatory requirements.
Common Challenges and Missteps
Before EcoVadis can pay off, the process needs clean inputs and consistent follow-through. Here are the top four most common issues to be aware of.
1. Misunderstanding the methodology leads to missed points when evidence isn’t mapped to all 21 criteria.
2. Insufficient evidence or unclear documentation. Policies without proof of action and results rarely earn credit.
3. Lack of internal ownership or follow-through stalls corrective actions between assessments.
4. Treating the score as a static result rather than an evolving improvement benchmark leaves value on the table.
As an alternative, it’s great to view EcoVadis as an annual performance improvement cycle. This ongoing use of the system builds a strong internal understanding of the EcoVadis process and generates internal accountability. Plus, it allows for incremental improvements to be made, tracked, and reported on to external stakeholders.
How Emerald Helps You Succeed with EcoVadis
One great way to avoid these pitfalls and streamline the process is to work with a sustainability consultant like Emerald Built Environments, a Crete United Company.
As an Approved EcoVadis Training Partner, we help teams translate the methodology into a clear work plan, collect and package evidence that earns points, and review scorecards and Corrective Action Plans so you improve with each cycle. We also connect the dots to your business case, aligning your EcoVadis actions with your business requirements and financing opportunities. Plus, we can make recommendations for improvements aligned with sustainability best practices and help you develop a sustainability roadmap to link your EcoVadis results with long-term ESG goals.
And we’ve sat on both sides of the certification process, which gives us unique insights. We hold an EcoVadis Gold rating, placing us among the top 5% of performers globally. We use this to ensure our guidance meets assessor expectations while accounting for real-world constraints.
Make EcoVadis Work for You
EcoVadis isn’t another checkbox, it’s a widely recognized framework that, used well, improves operations, sharpens your story with customers, and can even lower financing costs. With expectations rising under the EU’s CSRD and California’s climate disclosure laws, the companies that turn EcoVadis into a simple annual improvement loop will move faster and win more. If you want a partner who speaks both building science and buyer scorecards, Emerald can help you turn ratings into results.
