“ CREDIT ” RATINGS
ECOVADIS AND THE SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN
spend only about a $ 100,000 a month , might end up , if something went wrong , damaging your brand much more than what will happen with IBM or Accenture where you spend $ 100mn ,” Thaler claims .
“ You need to also focus on the long-tail suppliers , and that ’ s where it can become very costly – platforms like EcoVadis can monitor tens of thousands of vendors , which would be a huge effort if you had to do this with internal resources and your own auditing teams .”
“ CREDIT ” RATINGS
Thaler describes EcoVadis as essentially a credit rating agency for sustainability information , operating a global cloud platform for its 30,000 customers , which include Nestlé , Heineken , Michelin , Johnson & Johnson and L ’ Oréal .
EcoVadis collects and analyses data annually on suppliers across 150 purchasing categories and 110 countries , creating ratings and scorecards which are easy to understand for non-experts . Suppliers are judged on their sustainability performance , based on a broad definition that includes health and safety , human rights , corruption and ethics .
“ Clients use our analyses to decide which suppliers they want to work with and to identify which suppliers need to improve if they want to remain in business ,” says Thaler .
The report shows a seachange in attitude among senior management when it comes to sustainable procurement – in 2013 , a lack of board and executive support was cited by 50 % of respondents as a major obstacle to implementing such practices , but by 2017 this had fallen to 24 %.
Now , though , 57 % of respondents say the biggest hurdle is a lack of internal resources , implying that while companies are making positive noises regarding getting serious about sustainable procurement , this is not necessarily leading to action . Thaler observes a time lag for corporate policies to reach the front line , having worked with about 200 of the world ’ s top 1,000 organisations . “ They are setting up training and are undertaking change management to make sure , for example , that project managers ’ objectives aren ’ t 100 % tied to savings , but are
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