Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration for businesses and consumers alike. Companies are recognizing the importance of ensuring that their supply chains are sustainable and environmentally responsible. However, verifying the sustainability of supply chains can be a complex and challenging task. This is where companies like Worldfavor and EcoVadis come in. In this blog post, we will explore these two companies and their key selling points, as well as provide a list of similar companies in the industry.

Worldfavor

Worldfavor is a Swedish tech company that provides a platform for sustainable business management. The platform allows companies to measure, analyze, and report on sustainability performance across their entire value chain. One of Worldfavor’s key selling points is its ease of use. The platform is user-friendly and provides a comprehensive overview of a company’s sustainability performance. It also allows companies to benchmark their performance against industry peers and best practices. Worldfavor’s platform can help companies improve their sustainability performance, reduce costs, and mitigate risks associated with non-compliance or negative environmental impact.

Verifying the sustainability of supply chains with EcoVadis

EcoVadis is a global sustainability rating platform that provides businesses with an objective assessment of their sustainability performance. The company uses a comprehensive set of criteria to evaluate suppliers and potential suppliers, including environmental, social, and ethical considerations. EcoVadis scores companies on a scale of 0-100, with a score of 45 indicating basic compliance and a score of 100 indicating exceptional sustainability performance. One of EcoVadis’ key selling points is its global reach. The company operates in over 160 countries and has assessed more than 75,000 suppliers. EcoVadis’ platform can help businesses reduce risks, improve supplier performance, and enhance their reputation by demonstrating a commitment to sustainability.

Role and Responsibility of EcoVadis

EcoVadis operates at the intersection of procurement, sustainability, and risk management, providing a platform and services designed to assess the environmental, social, and ethical performance of companies. By evaluating these aspects, EcoVadis helps businesses monitor and improve their sustainability practices while fostering transparency, innovation, and performance improvements in the global supply chain.

Services Offered by EcoVadis

1. Sustainability Ratings: EcoVadis assesses companies’ sustainability performance across 21 criteria grouped into four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. Businesses receive a scorecard that highlights strengths and areas for improvement, helping them benchmark their performance against industry standards.

2. Monitoring: The platform allows for continuous monitoring of suppliers’ sustainability performance, providing updates and alerts for any significant changes or developments in their practices.

3. Collaboration Platform: EcoVadis fosters collaboration between buyers and suppliers by facilitating the sharing of scorecards and improvement plans, thereby encouraging dialogue and actions towards sustainability goals.

4. Benchmarking and Reporting: Companies can benchmark their sustainability performance against their peers and use the detailed reporting tools to communicate their progress to stakeholders, including investors, customers, and regulatory bodies.

How EcoVadis Can Be Used

• Supplier Selection and Evaluation: Companies can integrate EcoVadis ratings into their procurement processes to evaluate potential and existing suppliers’ sustainability credentials, ensuring alignment with corporate sustainability goals.
• Risk Management: By identifying suppliers with poor sustainability performance, companies can mitigate risks related to regulatory compliance, reputation, and operational disruptions.
• Performance Improvement: Suppliers can use their EcoVadis scorecards to identify areas for improvement, develop action plans, and track their progress over time.
• Stakeholder Communication: Companies can share their EcoVadis ratings with stakeholders as credible evidence of their commitment to sustainable practices, enhancing transparency and trust.

Similar organizations

There are several other companies that provide similar services to Worldfavor and EcoVadis. Some of these companies include:

• CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project): a non-profit organization that provides a global disclosure system for companies to measure, disclose, manage, and share environmental information.
• GRI (Global Reporting Initiative): an independent organization that provides a framework for sustainability reporting, helping businesses to measure and communicate their sustainability performance.
• Sustainalytics: a global provider of ESG research and ratings that helps investors and businesses make informed decisions about sustainability and corporate responsibility.
• Klappir: with Klappir Sustainability Platform, you collect and process, environmental, social and governance data across your company’s value chain to facilitate transparent sustainability accounting and reporting.
• Supply Shift: Software to drive supplier performance and provide the insights to mitigate risk and deliver your triple bottom line—protecting your business, people, and the planet.

Introducing Supply Shift

Gartner Supplier Sustainability Applications Reviews and Ratings is available to get more ideas on potential service providers. Gartner’s reviews and ratings of supplier sustainability applications cover various tools designed to evaluate suppliers’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. These applications aid organizations in assessing how well their suppliers align with their sustainability criteria, using methods like self-assessments and surveys.

Using external sustainability audit companies

External sustainability audit companies are independent third-party organizations that specialize in assessing and verifying the sustainability performance of companies and their supply chains. These companies can help procurement organizations to identify and mitigate risks associated with sustainability issues, as well as to improve sustainability performance.

One of the key benefits of using external sustainability audit companies as support to procurement organizations is their expertise. These companies have in-depth knowledge and experience in assessing sustainability performance, and can provide valuable insights and recommendations to procurement organizations. They can also help to identify best practices and areas for improvement, which can be used to enhance procurement processes and policies.

Another benefit of using external sustainability audit companies is their independence. By working with an independent third-party auditor, procurement organizations can ensure that sustainability assessments are conducted objectively and transparently. This can help to build trust and credibility with stakeholders, including customers, investors, and regulators.

Using external sustainability audit companies can also help procurement organizations to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. By working with a reputable sustainability audit company, procurement organizations can show that they are taking sustainability seriously and are willing to invest in measures to improve sustainability performance. This can enhance their reputation and help to differentiate them from competitors.

An external auditor also bring benefit to the supplier since the result can be used in relation to other companies and thereby the data and action plans (as part of supplier’s responses to RFQs) can be managed and conveyed in one format.

Summary: Verifying the sustainability of supply chains

In conclusion, companies like Worldfavor and EcoVadis are playing an increasingly important role in verifying the sustainability of supply chains. These companies provide businesses with objective assessments of their sustainability performance and help to mitigate risks associated with non-compliance or negative environmental impact. Other similar companies such as CDP, GRI, Sustainalytics, and Klappir are also making significant contributions to sustainability management and can provide businesses with valuable insights and support.

Using external sustainability audit companies as support to procurement organizations can provide numerous benefits. These companies can bring expertise, independence, and credibility to sustainability assessments, helping procurement organizations to identify and mitigate sustainability risks, as well as to improve sustainability performance. By partnering with a reputable sustainability audit company, procurement organizations can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and enhance their reputation in the eyes of stakeholders and most important, drive change.

Dr Aurora Dawn Benton provide the basic knowledge a buyer should have around sustainability in Sustainable Procurement Course by Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton

About Learn How to Source

Learn How to Source is an online platform based in Sweden, offering a range of procurement courses accessible globally. It serves as a community where procurement experts share their knowledge through online courses, designed for various experience levels from introductory to expert. Courses are concise, about 30 minutes each, and cover different aspects of procurement, tailored for different buyer roles. The courses focus on practical knowledge, presented by seasoned professionals, and include quizzes and certificates. They can be accessed from any device, emphasizing microlearning for flexibility and efficiency.

Note: Illustration to the blogpost “Verifying the sustainability of supply chains” is created by CHAT-GPT on April 13, 2024.