The EcoVadis Supply Chain Assessment
EcoVadis is a supply chain assessment which helps companies to understand and quantify sustainability risks within their supply chain. Unlike individual questionnaires or very specific ones like CDP, EcoVadis offers a standardized approach which is able to compare the performance of companies with entirely different profiles on a rating scale from 1 (bad) to 100 (best performance). EcoVadis helps companies to manage their network both upstream and downstream, either by sharing their performance with their stakeholders or monitoring the performance of their own value chain. The participation at EcoVadis is awarded with a scorecard and a medal, that can easily be shared with multiple customers.
EcoVadis Business Sustainability Risk and Performance Index
A few weeks ago, EcoVadis has published the EcoVadis Business Sustainability Risk and Performance Index – an analysis of over 100.000 sustainability ratings amongst 62.000 companies between 2018 and 2022. Those were analyzed by EcoVadis to identify trends and the general performance. One meaningful outcome of the report can be highlighted at this point: An upward trend can be seen in the area of sustainable procurement that suggests that more and more companies are implementing practical strategies to mitigate risk and drive meaningful sustainable change throughout their extended value chains. This focus on the supply chain resulted in more first-time participants and shows an exponentially growth of the EcoVadis network, with the number of assessments increasing by 134% since 2018.
Results – Europe continues to lead the way
If we have a look at the results per region, the EcoVadis ratings from Europe rank at the top: Europe continues to significantly outperform other regions on overall scoring, with an average of 55 from 100 points with Norway at the head as Europe’s top performer.
Overall, the scoring has increased across all regions and, importantly, the share of companies with an insufficient performance level has strongly decreased since 2018 – only 2% of the companies assessed scored below 25 points. On the other hand, 12% of the companies scored above 65 points, which is a 140% increase since 2018.
Especially Europe is home to many of the leaders: 9% of European companies achieved Advanced (65+) performance in 2022 and none of the European companies have an insufficient rating (below 25). European countries are much faster at adopting sustainable business practices and taking steps to address sustainability challenges. Government spending and clear political will are driving the change: Many European countries have set sustainability goals, like Finland’s carbon neutrality target for 2035. No region is as focused on net-zero targets as Europe, where environmental considerations have been at the political table for many years.
Focus on the German market
If we have a look at the German market, you can also see a huge increase in the sustainability performance compared to 2016. In 2016 the rated companies reached round about 46 points which equals a medium sustainable performance. As in 2022, the rating results increased up to 52,8 points in average. Especially in the area of environment, German companies are performing very well with 55 points – close behind the European average of 56 points.
Companies active in the “Manufacturing Heavy” sector perform best in the EcoVadis rating in Germany. These companies scored an average of 57.2 points in their EcoVadis assessment.
DFGE has been supporting various companies in their EcoVadis assessment as official partner since 2014. In 2023 we supported over 40 national and international companies in their EcoVadis assessments. In addition, we are very proud to have been able to support five EcoVadis Platinum Medal companies this year.
If you need support with improving your EcoVadis assessment or want to participate in the rating for the first time, our experienced EcoVadis team is looking forward to supporting your company. Please contact us via or by phone on 08192-99733-20 for further information.
