Sector Initiatives act as catalyst of the EcoVadis sustainability program. The EcoVadis focus area for individual customers and for industry peer groups is the supply chain. Within the boundaries of the supply chain EcoVadis offers a full service solution including the coordination office, data mining tools, thematic workstreams and the sharing technology enabling all members to share their supplier scorecards in a shared safe space accessible to all members. The connection between a member and a supplier in the initiative is anonymized to ensure compliance with antitrust regulations.
EcoVadis works to accelerate individual members’ sustainable procurement programs and to drive impact at scale.
Sharing supplier assessment efforts reduces the workload for all stakeholders, suppliers and buyers. The data mining solution for Sector Initiatives provides the initiative with a sector view. This helps to strategize the Initiative’s roadmap based on the sustainability risks that surface from within the shared suppliers. Identified risks can be translated into corrective actions right off the members’ platform. Success can be measured and reported individually, by members, collectively as a group, by risk themes, country and other filters.
How we measure that pooling efforts pay off
The EcoVadis value proposition is to accelerate individual members’ programs and to drive impact at scale underpinned by verified data collected through the assessments.
- The technology permits industry peers to share the sustainability ratings of their partners in a pool on our platform which was built in accordance with best industry standards and thus reduces the workload for all stakeholders, suppliers and buyers.
- The data mining solution for Sector Initiatives helps to strategize the Initiative’s roadmap based on the sustainability risks that surface from within the shared partner pool.
- The created impact can be measured and reported for the Initiative, by members, by risk themes.
- The detected risks are linked to in-platform capability building and corrective actions.
Program management
EcoVadis assigns Sector Initiatives a dedicated Program Manager and has access to Subject Matter Experts as per sustainability topics
Executive sponsorship is key
- On a quarterly basis, the executive sponsors of the members meet to validate the strategic roadmap.
- Monthly membership meetings with the members’ program managers are used to plan the work.
- Every member participates in at least 1 working group as they work the plan, mostly around supplier capability building.
- EcoVadis prepares and facilitates all meetings, provides content and ensures anti-trust rules are respected.
Members benefits
Customers joining as initiative members engage suppliers in their sustainability rating and improvement journey as a peer group. Enrolling in this process offers various benefits, such as:
- Improvement in coverage of supply chain sustainability performance
- More leverage and visibility with suppliers on sustainability topics and improvements
- Proactive identification and mitigation of specific risks (e.g. animal welfare, distributors)
- Enhancement of sector reporting and analytics
- Project and community management support from EcoVadis
- Platform for sharing best practices at quarterly member meetings
- Collaborative working groups to make progress on key topics (e.g. supplier improvement and carbon reduction)
- More complete insights into the risks and pain points of the industry supply chain
- Measurable impact on the industry sector to report to the public, investors, NGOs
- Additional EcoVadis resources and access to additional capability building actions
Suppliers benefits
If you have received a sustainability assessment request on behalf of a Sector Initiative, you are considered a trading partner for at least one member of this initiative. Enrolling in this process offers various benefits, such as:
- More efficient through sharing with many customers at once: instead of replying to several standards and questionnaires, you will cover multiple customer requests simultaneously. Doing so will save you time and resources by avoiding duplication of effort.
- Open up Business opportunities open up as a respected supplier among industry leaders. Giving you greater visibility of your commitment to sustainability and efforts.
- A clear understanding of industry leaders’ commitment to go beyond compliance and drive sustainability efforts in partnership with trading partners like yourself (harmonized customers’ metrics and objectives expectations).
- Long-term customer relations strengthening: receive valuable information about your positioning in all aspects of sustainability.
- Identification of sustainability improvement opportunities: if one initiative member requests an improvement plan, all other members will recognize the outcomes.
- Accessibility of tools and best practices to address industry-specific requirements.