On September 20th 2017, around 180 suppliers and buyers using the EcoVadis platform met in Düsseldorf for the EcoVadis CSR day. The aim of the event was to bring together buyers and suppliers and for them to exchange best practice business cases on how to further improve their sustainability efforts. As the exclusive partner in Germany, the DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy supported the event by running workshops on how to make the most out of an EcoVadis assessment.
CSR Day: morning sessions
In the morning, companies had the opportunity to share their experiences through presentations, panel discussions and a question and answer session. Presenting a best-practice business case, Bekaert’s Chief Procurement Officer explained why sustainability across the supply chain is important, and also called for more industry collaboration in this direction.
This was followed by a presentation by the Director of Sustainable Development of Toyota Material Handling Europe who elaborated on how sustainability was implemented within their company, focusing on the material aspects, such as energy for example. Companies should indeed prioritise their actions plan based on what is more important for them.
During further presentations, Henkel’s Global Head of Sustainable Purchasing described how supplier CSR ratings are used in their procurement process and Together for Sustainability’s General Manager emphasised the importance of industry collaboration for sustainable supply chain management. One of the objectives is to reduce the audit burden for suppliers by sharing sustainability assessments and audits results.
But not only big companies were featured that morning: in a panel discussion, the COO of Van Bavel and the Group CSR Strategy Advisor of ADM Promotions described how SMEs can integrate sustainability into their corporate strategy, giving further ideas to suppliers on how to set up a sustainability management system relevant to their own business.
CSR Day: active workshops, including by DFGE
In the afternoon, companies had the opportunity to actively participate in workshops. Two were held by DFGE and focused on how to leverage EcoVadis assessments with other sustainability standards. The aim of the DFGE’s “Sustainability Intelligence Concept” is to provide an integrated approach towards sustainability management, so companies are able to save time and resources when trying to comply with various standards.
In addition, Scholtz and Friends ran a workshop in German, EcoVadis shared some insights on how their scoring methodology works and presented details on upcoming CSR-related EU legislation and what the implications are for companies. Indeed, the European Directive 2014/95/EU is now coming into force in various countries, including Germany.
DFGE can help you with EcoVadis
Thanks to the interactive format of the event, the participating companies, EcoVadis as well as the DFGE gained important insights on how the use of EcoVadis can be optimised. As EcoVadis partner, we provide the interface between the suppliers and EcoVadis. We look forward to working with the participants on improving their EcoVadis score as well as expanding our working relationship with EcoVadis in the future.
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