EcoVadis in the Press - Articles and bylines

The awards program recognizes excellence in sustainability and sustainable procurement across several categories including: stakeholder engagement, supplier engagement, supplier portfolio CSR performance improvement, program leadership and regional performance. Additionally, they serve to acknowledge and celebrate companies partnering with EcoVadis that are driving progress in sustainability and igniting change across the world.

Ecovadis unveiled its 2019 Sustainable Procurement Leadership Awards winners at its annual Sustain conference this week in Paris. The awards are designed to shine the spotlight on excellence in sustainability and sustainable procurement across multiple categories including: stakeholder engagement, supplier engagement, supplier portfolio CSR performance improvement, programme leadership and regional performance.

EcoVadis, the leading provider of sustainability risk and performance ratings for global supply chains, today announced it has earned CoupaLink™ certification from Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP), a leader in business spend management (BSM). Through the CoupaLink™ partner program, EcoVadis will aid procurement and supply chain teams to not only better manage spend, contracts and categories, but also reduce risk, drive supplier performance and uncover new business opportunities with enhanced sustainable outcomes.

EcoVadis is another entity to employ technology to monitor factory conditions. It provides an online platform that enables buyers and suppliers to collaborate around performance monitoring and corrective action, said Michael Smith, senior corporate social responsibility analyst. Information culled from supplier questionnaires is combined with outside supporting documentation to create a score for each manufacturer.

EcoVadis has published a new anti-corruption study that reports how businesses manage critical ethical issues including bribery and fraud. The major takeaway: the world’s average business ethics score is 42.4, which indicates most organizations are taking a reactive, unstructured approach to fighting corruption risks.

For global manufacturers today, efforts to eliminate corruption from supply chains aren’t going much better than the fight to curb labor abuses. In our last episode, we examined the less-than-stellar record of apparel and footwear companies in ensuring factory workers’ rights. Now, a survey by EcoVadis reveals a similarly dismal report card for the battle against corruption, including bribery, fraud, conflicts of interest and money laundering. Based on an analysis of more than 20,000 companies between January, 2017 and June, 2018, the average business ethics score was just 42.2 out of 100.

Small and medium-sized businesses outscored larger companies in managing their corporate social responsibility reports — but all sizes of firms could improve CSR management and remove more risk for their companies, according to EcoVadis’ second annual study of more than 33,000 businesses around the world.

When it comes to CSR performance over the last couple of years, sustainable procurement lags behind other environmentally responsible practices such as business ethics and human rights initiatives, posing risks for industries across the board, according to a new report from sustainability rating company EcoVadis. These risks include damages to reputation and disruption of business.

Sustainable procurement — a measure of how companies are engaging with their suppliers on sustainability practices — needs "more attention," according to an analysis of 33,000 companies conducted by EcoVadis from 2015 to 2017.

Business advisory firm EcoVadis evaluated more than 33,000 companies around the world on issues such as labour and human rights practices, environmental impact and business ethics as part of its annual corporate social responsibility (CSR) index. The company found that private sector progress on tackling modern slavery came to a halt last year after an uptick in 2016, with human trafficking remaining a common risk across many global industries - from farming to construction.

Though most companies take steps to ensure they are complying with federal labor laws, they often don’t have the insight into the nth-tier suppliers they tap to source their raw materials. According to the 2017 EcoVadis Sustainable Procurement Barometer report, only 15 percent of organizations said they have complete supply chain visibility into the CSR and sustainability performance of both tier one and two suppliers, and only six percent report having full visibility into tier-three suppliers and beyond.

Companies who adopted the UN Global Compact Principles are stepping up to the challenge — mitigating corporate social responsibility (CSR) risks within their operations and moving the needle to a more sustainable future, according to a new study by EcoVadis.

In January, 2019, GlaxoSmithKline, Teva and Takeda partnered with EcoVadis to launch a Responsible Health Initiative. Their aim is to use technology and collaboration to improve the visibility, efficiency and sustainability impact of the global health supply chain. Through this initiative they will be looking to; harmonize industry standards for online CSR assessments, adopt a common platform to share CSR performance and benchmark and implement shared tools to boost supplier engagement.

What does this momentum tell us about the state of sustainability this year — and what does the current landscape specifically mean for procurement teams? Answers to these questions lie in a few critical trends assembled with the input from our team of experts here at EcoVadis.

Three leading health and pharmaceutical companies -- GlaxoSmithKline, Teva, Takeda – and EcoVadis, the leading provider of sustainability risk and performance ratings for global supply chains, today announced the launch of the Responsible Health Initiative. The mission of the new sector initiative is to use collaboration and technology to improve the visibility, efficiency and sustainability impact of the global health supply chain.

Less than 10% of companies globally are reporting key performance indicators (KPIs) on business ethics, according to EcoVadis, which provides business sustainability ratings.
The world average score for business ethics is 42.4 out of 100, indicating "most organizations are taking a reactive, unstructured approach to fighting corruption risks," EcoVadis said.
Transportation, storage and manufacturing were among the industries scoring below the global average, signifying their high risk for corruption, bribery and fraud. 

EcoVadis has published the second annual edition of its ***Global CSR Risk and Performance Index***. The report provides an updated look at the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of more than 33,000 companies, across the calendar years 2015 through 2017.

Looking at more than 33,000 companies, Global CSR Risk and Performance Index, recently released by EcoVadis, found that business ethics was the most improved area in corporate social responsibility.

Size, as it turns out, does matter, at least when it comes to success in corporate social responsibility. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—defined as those that employ fewer than 1,000 employees—generally performed better than their larger, unwieldier counterparts, according to a new report by EcoVadis, a global firm that uses a rating system

Small food and drink companies were the top-ranked group for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) record in the second annual edition of EcoVadis’ Global CSR Risk and Performance Index. The report shows one of the ways in which firms’ performances are increasingly being measured in core areas, which is why Food Manufacture’s publisher William Reed has launched Rappor. The venture was set up earlier this year to enable manufacturers to benchmark their customer service against their peers and is the subject of this Editor’s Spotlight. Read on for more details on the business.

Sustainability is a dominant topic in media, business and social conversations today, and one that communications and corporate responsibility departments in major multinational organizations have been eager to pursue. It makes sense—successful sustainability programs are not only good for our planet and people, but also are proven to drive business value. But what does 'success' look like for procurement teams contributing to organizational programs and results?