A customer has asked for your EcoVadis score. Before you start gathering documents, confirm what they need: a completed assessment, a minimum score, a particular medal, or evidence that you are addressing specific gaps. That requirement gives your team a clear target.
Your next step is understanding what the rating measures. EcoVadis evaluates the quality of your sustainability management system using documented evidence. Improving your score means strengthening the practices behind that system and making sure the assessment can recognize them.
For sustainability and compliance leads, the work reaches beyond one department. HR holds employment records. Procurement manages supplier relationships. Finance and operations hold environmental data. A useful improvement plan connects those owners, their evidence, and the requirements in your questionnaire.
Start with your current scorecard, identify the gaps, and build a submission that accurately reflects how your business operates.
What does your EcoVadis score measure?
An EcoVadis sustainability rating evaluates how your company manages relevant sustainability issues. The assessment methodology is tailored to company activity, size, and location, so your questionnaire reflects the issues applicable to your business.
The four themes provide the structure. Your assessment examines environmental management, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Each theme receives a score, and the overall result combines the theme scores according to the applicable weighting. Review your own assessment rather than assuming the themes contribute equally.
EcoVadis draws on international standards, including GRI, ISO 26000, and the UN Global Compact. These references inform its approach, but completing another framework does not automatically establish every practice your EcoVadis assessment asks you to demonstrate.
Treat the rating as one view of your environmental, social, and governance management. It can inform conversations about ESG performance, while your internal program should also track the business outcomes and operational risks that matter to your company.
For planning purposes, ask two questions: what practices need improvement, and what existing practices need clearer evidence? Keep those workstreams visible so your team knows whether to implement something new or document work already underway.
How EcoVadis evaluates policies, actions, and results
EcoVadis organizes its methodology around three management pillars: policies, actions, and results. These are evaluated through seven indicators covering policies, endorsements, measures, certifications, coverage, reporting, and 360° Watch findings.
Use that structure to review your own program.
A policy records a commitment and its responsibilities. An action shows how the commitment operates. Results show what your company measures and reports. For example, an environmental policy might establish an energy reduction objective. Equipment improvements and operating procedures could demonstrate implementation. A consistent energy consumption report would help show progress.
During preparation, follow each commitment through the business. Who approved it? Who carries it out? Which employees, sites, or suppliers does it cover? What record shows implementation? Which metric tracks progress? Those questions help you build a connected account of your management system.
What is a good EcoVadis score?
A useful target starts with your customer's request. If procurement teams require a minimum score, record the exact number and the deadline. If they require a medal, confirm the medal level. If they accept an improvement plan, clarify what evidence and milestones they expect.
Keep the customer requirement separate from your internal improvement goal. Your team may need to meet a buyer's threshold this cycle while working on broader sustainability performance over time.
Avoid setting a target based only on another company's result. Assessment scope and applicable criteria differ. Instead, review your own theme scores, strengths, and improvement areas, then determine which changes you can implement and substantiate before submission.
A practical target has three parts: the required outcome, the work needed to pursue it, and the evidence available to support that work. That makes the discussion concrete for leadership and the people responsible for delivery.
EcoVadis medals, badges, and percentile rank
Medals recognize relative performance across companies assessed during the previous 12 months, across all industries. EcoVadis calculates percentile rank when it publishes the scorecard. Current levels are:
| Medal | Relative position | Required percentile |
| Platinum | Top 1% | 99th percentile or higher |
| Gold | Top 5% | 95th percentile or higher |
| Silver | Top 15% | 85th percentile or higher |
| Bronze | Top 35% | 65th percentile or higher |
An EcoVadis gold medal therefore depends on relative standing. There is no permanent numerical score that guarantees Gold, Silver, Platinum, or a bronze medal.
Additional eligibility rules apply, including a theme score of at least 30 in every theme. Activity restrictions, external findings, and certain unresolved worker grievances can also affect eligibility. Review the current rules alongside your improvement plan.
The Committed badge requires at least 45 points, subject to eligibility. EcoVadis also offers a Fast Mover badge for scores of 34–44 with an improvement of at least six points compared with a previous assessment within 18 months. Medals and badges are valid for 12 months and apply to the assessed entity.
These distinctions matter when setting expectations. Share the current rating and its scope with the customer, then agree on the requirement you are working toward.
Read your EcoVadis scorecard before building the next submission
Your EcoVadis scorecard gives you more than an overall number. It identifies strengths and improvement areas across the themes, with suggested priorities for corrective action. Use that feedback as the starting point for your next cycle.
Review the feedback with the relevant business owner. For each improvement area, identify the underlying issue: a missing practice, limited implementation, incomplete reporting, or evidence that did not establish the selected answer.
Where available, compare the analysis of your answers with the submitted document and the question's help content. EcoVadis provides guidance on understanding option rejection reasons through this review.
Then create a working register. Include the improvement area, theme, owner, intended change, evidence needed, and completion date. Keep the language specific enough that someone outside the sustainability team can understand the assignment.
For example, replace “improve supplier management” with a defined task: approve supplier expectations, identify priority suppliers, conduct the agreed review, and retain the resulting records. Set priorities using the feedback, your assessment requirements, operational significance, and the time needed to implement the work.
Seven practical steps to improve your score
1. Confirm the scope and assign theme owners
Before changing policies or collecting records, confirm which entity and operations the assessment covers. Check that each claim can be supported within that scope. A group policy needs a clear connection to the entity being assessed.
Assign an accountable coordinator and an owner for each theme. Sustainability or compliance can coordinate the process, while HR, legal, operations, and procurement contribute evidence from their areas.
Make the assignments practical. Each owner should know the requested documents, the gaps requiring action, and the approval deadline. Identify who can authorize a policy change or fund implementation before that decision becomes urgent.
Use one shared tracker to connect tasks and evidence. Record the current status, next action, responsible person, and dependency. If a training record depends on launching training, show both tasks. If a metric depends on data from several sites, identify those contributors.
This gives leadership a useful view of the work: what is ready, what requires a decision, and what may need a later cycle.
2. Build an evidence register around the questionnaire
Organize supporting documents by the answers they substantiate. EcoVadis evaluates documents attached to the selected questionnaire options, so uploading a file is only part of the task. Make sure it is connected to the relevant answer.
A useful register includes the filename, owner, date, assessed entity, relevant question, and supporting section. Add a short note explaining what the document establishes.
Review files for scope, completeness, and consistency. Can the reviewer see which business issued the document? Does it cover the practice claimed? Are dates and metrics clear? Resolve contradictions between policies, procedures, and reporting before submission.
Check the current document rules. EcoVadis applies an eight-year validity period to policy and action documents and two years to KPI reporting. It requires recent, relevant evidence reflecting the management system.
The assessment has a 55-document limit. Select relevant files and follow the guidance on combined documents rather than merging unrelated records to bypass the limit.
3. Strengthen commitments and document implementation
Review whether policies reflect how your business operates. Give each commitment an owner, a defined scope, and a review process. Where targets are appropriate, make their boundaries and time horizons clear.
Then gather implementation records. Depending on the applicable question, these might include completed training records, procedures, risk reviews, or documented follow-up actions. Use the questionnaire guidance to decide which records substantiate each answer.
If a practice is missing, implement it as part of normal business operations and retain authentic evidence. EcoVadis does not accept documents created solely to satisfy its questionnaire or copied claims without reasonable evidence of implementation.
Record newly introduced practices accurately. Avoid describing a planned activity as completed or a limited rollout as company-wide.
4. Make environmental reporting consistent
Review your environmental data with the people who manage it. Define the reporting period, organizational boundary, units, and calculation approach for each metric. Give someone responsibility for resolving missing or inconsistent inputs.
For energy consumption, retain the basis for reported totals and distinguish changes in consumption from changes in business activity. For GHG emissions, document the inventory boundary and methodology so the team can explain what the figures include.
Connect metrics to action. If you have an efficiency objective, identify the project supporting it and the data used to assess progress. If results are not yet available, describe the actual implementation status and the next measurement point.
Keep disclosures consistent across your sustainability reporting. Compare numbers and boundaries before reusing information from CDP, an annual report, or another submission.
Where SBTi work is relevant, distinguish a proposed target from an approved or externally validated target. Reuse verified information while checking what each questionnaire asks you to establish. Build a shared evidence base, then review each output separately.
5. Review labor and human rights with HR
Bring HR and relevant operations owners into the review of working conditions and labor and human rights practices. Use the activated questionnaire topics to guide the discussion.
Ask how employee policies operate in practice. Identify the records supporting relevant training, health and safety processes, grievance channels, and other applicable measures. Check which employee groups and locations are covered.
Make coverage claims precise. A policy distributed to one office may not establish deployment across the assessed organization. Where implementation varies, document the current position and assign the remaining work.
Choose useful metrics with the responsible owner. Define the reporting period and population so figures can be interpreted consistently. If your team reports training participation, identify which employees were expected to complete it and which course the number describes.
For gaps requiring a new process, include implementation time in the plan. Policy approval, communication, training, and record collection are separate tasks. Schedule them together so the submission reflects completed work.
6. Connect ethics controls to risk management
Review ethics practices with legal, compliance, and other responsible owners. Start with the applicable assessment topics and the controls your business uses to address them.
For each relevant commitment, trace the process from policy to implementation. Who receives training? How are concerns reported? Who reviews them? How are follow-up actions recorded? Retain suitable evidence while respecting confidentiality.
Include 360° Watch findings in your scorecard review. EcoVadis considers external information from sources such as NGOs, press, and trade unions, with findings potentially having positive, negative, or neutral effects on the score.
Check the finding's scope, date, and status. Where you have a factual question, gather the relevant records and use the available inquiry process. Where corrective work is needed, assign an owner and retain evidence of the response.
Keep risk management connected to operational decisions. A useful review should identify what needs attention, who can act, and how the team will know the action has been completed.
7. Turn sustainable procurement into a documented process
Review how sustainability expectations enter your supplier relationships. Give procurement an active role in evidence collection and improvement planning.
For supply chain sustainability, connect requirements to action. If a supplier code is part of onboarding, retain the relevant implementation records. If a review identifies a gap, document the follow-up and current status.
Define metrics that fit the process. For example, track reviewed suppliers against the supplier population you intended to cover. Keep the denominator clear, and avoid describing an initial review program as comprehensive until the evidence supports that scope.
Build a corrective action plan you can deliver
Convert the scorecard review into a plan with owners, deadlines, and completion evidence. EcoVadis's Corrective Action Plan feature supports improvement tracking and collaboration with trading partners, but published scorecards change only after reassessment.
Separate tasks you can complete before the next submission from longer-term operational work. Give each action a realistic sequence: approval, implementation, evidence collection, and review. Include dependencies that could affect delivery.
Agree on completion criteria at the start. A policy task might require approval and distribution. A training task might require delivery and participation records. A reporting task might require a defined metric, reviewed data, and an approved report.
Review progress with the business owners at a regular cadence. Discuss unresolved decisions and missing evidence, then update the plan. If a customer accepts progress reporting, share the agreed information and milestones.
EcoVadis Academy provides courses on sustainability management practices, with links from scorecard improvement areas to relevant learning. Use those resources where your team needs help understanding a topic or developing the process behind it.
Prepare for reassessment without repeating the scramble
Build the EcoVadis assessment process into your operating calendar. Schedule policy reviews, metric updates, and evidence collection throughout the year. Retain records when work happens, while the responsible people can explain them.
Before reassessment, check every selected answer against its evidence. Review document dates, scope, attachments, reporting periods, and claims of coverage. Ask a second reviewer to trace important answers back to the supporting section.
Confirm the current EcoVadis questionnaire and methodology guidance rather than assuming last year's response can be repeated unchanged. Preserve valid information, update what has changed, and make sure newly claimed practices have been implemented.
Allow time for analysis after submission. EcoVadis states that standard scorecard publication takes six to eight weeks after questionnaire submission. Plan around publication when a customer needs a current result by a particular date.
Once the scorecard arrives, review it with the theme owners. Record what the assessment recognized, what needs attention, and which operational changes you will pursue next.
Give your next EcoVadis submission a clear plan
Start with the customer requirement and your latest scorecard. Confirm the assessment scope, assign owners, and identify the practices and evidence that need attention.
Greenplaces supports EcoVadis scorecard review, documentation, assessment submission, responses to clarifications, and ongoing improvement planning. Its team works with yours to organize policies, KPIs, and evidence around the methodology.
Get in touch with Greenplaces to review your current position and the work needed for your next cycle. Bring your scorecard or the customer's request so the conversation starts with a concrete requirement.