As companies expand their supplier engagement strategies, EcoVadis has increasingly become a useful tool for companies to understand how their suppliers are managing their own sustainability programs and whether these align with the companies’ goals and expectations. In 2025, a survey conducted by the ERM Sustainability Institute found that companies ranked EcoVadis as the most useful ESG platform and third in terms of overall quality.
With more and more companies relying on EcoVadis as their tool to assess, compare, and benchmark suppliers, participating suppliers may feel that their progress has stagnated despite meticulous yearly reporting. Others may feel that it’s too complicated to navigate.
In this blog post, we’ll help break down some of the common pitfalls and mistakes we see when supporting EcoVadis clients, as well as quick wins that may help you improve your EcoVadis responses. We’ll also discuss longer-term strategies that you may want to think about in your EcoVadis and sustainability journey.
Quick overview of EcoVadis’ methodology
First, let’s quickly review the EcoVadis methodology and scoring principles.
The EcoVadis questionnaire is broken into four main themes, with 21 sustainability topics spread across these themes:
- Environment
- Labor and Human Rights
- Ethics
- Sustainable Procurement
Depending on your company size, country, and industry, the sustainability topics included in your questionnaire will differ and any potential risk factors are taken into consideration in terms of your score. For instance, product end-of-life may not be material to a software company but would be material to a manufacturing company.
EcoVadis also evaluates companies based on what they consider the three key components of an effective sustainability management system: policies, actions, and results. These three components are broken down into seven indicators and assessed on a scale of 0 (insufficient) – 100 (outstanding):
| Policies | Actions | Results | |
| 1. Policies Policies, objectives, targets, and governance. 2. Endorsements Endorsement of external sustainability initiatives and principles. |
3. Measures Actions implemented. 4. Certifications Certifications, labels, third-party audits. 5. Coverage Level of deployment throughout the company. |
6. Reporting Quality, transparency, and level of KPIs, which should cover all operational sites, be within the last two years, and be readily available to stakeholders. 7. 360° Watch Findings Public information about a company’s sustainability practices. |
Generally, actions are weighted heavier (40%), followed by results (45%) then policies (25%). EcoVadis wants to see that companies are implementing measure (action), that these measures are effective (results), and that processes are in place to ensure accountability, responsibility, and continuous improvement (policies).
What are the biggest mistakes suppliers make when responding to the EcoVadis questionnaire?
EcoVadis’ scoring methodology largely depends on document-based evidence, including both internal documentation such as policies and processes, and public-facing documentation like sustainability reports. As such, supporting documentation is one of the most common places we see mistakes committed in EcoVadis supplier responses—making it a prime target area for improvement.
Remember: it’s not enough to simply have the information requested. Submitted documents must also meet the minimum document eligibility requirements.
Below, we outline some pitfalls we often encounter when working with clients to improve their responses—and some recommended solutions.
| Common Pitfalls | Solution |
| Your document is missing your company name/letterhead. | A company logo or name should be located on all documents to demonstrate that this is a company-specific document |
| It is unclear who or what is covered under your document scope. | Indicate the scope of what the document covers such as all activities, employees, business units, operational sites, etc. For full credit, ideally the document should cover your entire company. |
| There is no year indicated in the document. | Clearly indicate the latest year the document was issued or reviewed. Depending on the document, EcoVadis provides guidance on what’s considered “recent.” |
| Your document or certificate is outdated or expired. | In general, we recommend that companies ensure that certificates are renewed/re-certified before its expiration date and other documents are reviewed/revisited regularly. There is a bit of variance depending on the type of criteria indicator. For instance, EcoVadis accepts policies that are up to 8 years since the last revision. |
| Your document doesn’t clearly address the sustainability topic. | Make sure your document is relevant to the topic at hand. For instance, you may have an environmental policy in place that generally states you will take steps to protect the environment. This could include pollution prevention, but does your policy explicitly state this? |
| Your document is “too recent” | This may seem counterintuitive, but as mentioned, EcoVadis looks at pre-existing documents. It’s important to make sure your document was not made solely for the purpose of meeting EcoVadis and having too recent of a document may raise red flags. Policies should be in place at least more than a month before your submission date. |
These are the common general mistakes we see in documents. Let’s break it down further depending on the type of document and establish best practices for each of EcoVadis’ three key components for a sustainability management system: policies, actions, and results.
Document type: Policies
As a general rule, policies need to be comprehensive and topic-specific, as they often lay the foundation for your overall company strategies and activities. Often, policies may cover purpose, process, and scope, but may not include clear targets or endorsement of a specific initiative or set of principles. EcoVadis considers the following as best practice:
- Clear definition of responsibilities for overseeing and implementing the policy
- Executive signoff
- Clear purpose of the policy
- Process to regularly review the policy
- Date the policy was last reviewed/revised (no older than 8 years prior to submission)
- Qualitative objectives and quantitative targets (SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)
- Endorsement of sustainability and CSR initiatives or sets of principles that are external to your organization. Examples include making a public commitment letter to the Science-based Targets initiative or UN Global Compact, or stating alignment with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. These types of public commitments signal to customers that you are aligned with certain frameworks to advance specific sustainability topics.
Document type: Actions
Your document should explicitly note actions that are relevant to the specific sustainability topic. Ideally, there should be more than one action in place per topic.
In addition, you should provide evidence that your actions have been implemented. For instance, if you’ve indicated that you’ve taken action to address corruption, can you provide evidence of any anti-corruption and bribery trainings provided by your company? Has your company implemented an internal whistleblowing procedure for employees to report on potential corruption incidents?
Another element is to consider whether you have a certificate in place that validates actions on this topic. Many companies often have their GHG emissions assured by a third party on an annual basis. Third-party auditors also provide clear indication of when assurance was issued and the scope of the audit.
As EcoVadis looks at company-wide actions, ideally your actions should be in place across your organization, as opposed to just one country, facility, or business unit.
Document type: Results
Typically, companies report their results in an annual sustainability report. Best practices include:
- Data verified by a third party
- Multiple years of reporting covered (trends over time) or progress is demonstrated against any targets you have set
- Reporting in alignment with a specific sustainability standard like GRI or SASB, or disclosing within a platform like CDP.
Broader strategies for participating suppliers
A few other more strategic, long-term recommendations to keep in mind:
Leverage existing data systems
Get a sense of what data you have available or documents you already have in place. Talk to internal stakeholders. You may be surprised to find you have more information than expected.
Start monitoring data
Start developing a monitoring and tracking system to centralize information year over year. Having a system in place will allow you to streamline annual reporting efforts by knowing who owns and where to find your data, as well as ensuring comparable and consistent data year over year. Software tools such as Workiva can also help consolidate data points required across different reporting platforms, not just EcoVadis, and provide your company with confidence in having audit-ready data.
Understand your company’s material topics
Consider conducting a materiality assessment first, which helps identify topics that are deemed most important to your organization (can be impact-based, financial-based, or both aka double materiality).
If your resources are limited, consider using your EcoVadis questionnaire as an initial guide. The questionnaire is developed based on a general sense of what topics are most important to your industry. Other guides, such as SASB, provide a materiality matrix based on what is considered financially material to your industry.
Leveraging EcoVadis’ existing tools
If you’ve already completed the EcoVadis questionnaire and have been assessed, use EcoVadis tools to your advantage.
Your EcoVadis scorecard organizes key areas of improvement based on low, medium, and high priority with initial recommendations for improvement.
In addition, the document library is a great way to figure out what documents were considered eligible for submission.
Lastly, EcoVadis has a correction action module that allows you to create a roadmap for addressing low-scoring areas. Use this tool to help you prioritize what’s a quick fix, what may require more resources, and what actions you might take to engage your internal teams.
Developing a strong sustainability management program takes time and patience. Though it may be tempting to implement the advice above all at once, we encourage you to take it one step at a time and prioritize key elements as they suit your business, your capabilities, and your goals. Sustainability has no one-size-fits-all solution, and both EcoVadis and your customers want to see your organization take meaningful steps on your journey to sustainable success.
As an EcoVadis Accredited Core Partner, ADEC ESG is uniquely positioned to support suppliers as they respond to the EcoVadis questionnaire and work to improve both their reporting and their sustainability programs. Learn more about how we can support your sustainability goals, no matter where you are on your sustainability journey, including:
- Full EcoVadis questionnaire completion
- Gap analysis
- KPI and target development
- Policy development
- Document management
- Flexible, on-demand support services
This blog provides general information and does not constitute the rendering of legal, economic, business, or other professional services or advice. Consult with your advisors regarding the applicability of this content to your specific circumstances.
