Improving our sustainability performance with EcoVadis
EcoVadis is the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. The platform allows companies to voluntarily evaluate their sustainability efforts across four key themes:
- Environment
- Labour and human rights
- Ethics
- Sustainable procurement
We initially participated in EcoVadis assessments as part of our customers’ supplier assessment process. In 2021, we decided to use EcoVadis more widely as a tool for stakeholder communication, and reached bronze level that year. After earning the EcoVadis gold medal two years in a row, we’re now aiming for platinum.
In this article, Inari Laveri, Climate and Compliance Manager at Lindström, explains why we participate in EcoVadis assessments, how they work, and our key development areas.
Inari has managed our EcoVadis evaluations since 2022, and oversees our other sustainability initiatives, like the UN Global Compact, driving our overall sustainability efforts forward.
Why we participate in EcoVadis assessments
EcoVadis is well-known in the B2B world, across companies of all sizes and industries. Many of our customers use it to rate their suppliers. In fact, we started the EcoVadis evaluations because some of our valued customers requested them.
After undergoing a few EcoVadis assessments, we saw its value in communicating our sustainability efforts to all our stakeholders. We then set up an EcoVadis project team to keep us on track year-round and assigned Lindström team members to each of the four EcoVadis themes.
“We’ve found EcoVadis to be a great tool to showcase our sustainability efforts,” says Inari. “Before the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which impacts us from 2025 onwards, there hasn’t been any mandatory regulation or framework to measure our sustainability. So this is a great way to see how we’re doing.”
More and more companies are under pressure to improve their sustainability practices and transparency. And if more companies would use EcoVadis ratings as a KPI to evaluate their stakeholders, it would eliminate the need for company-specific processes and questionnaires, and simplify the vetting process.
How EcoVadis assessments work
Every year, EcoVadis sends out a detailed questionnaire that covers the four key themes. The questions vary based on the company’s industry, size, and location, but the main rule is to back up everything you claim with evidence.
When completing the questionnaire, we pull a lot of information from our annual sustainability report, and from certificates, internal policies, guidelines, and process descriptions. Our sustainability report is assured by a third party, making it our best evidence for EcoVadis. In our report, we’re transparent about both our successes and areas needing improvement.
It takes quite a lot of time to fill out the questionnaire, but the real work happens all year round between these assessments when we’re actively developing things.
Inari Laveri, Climate and Compliance Manager
Once we send back the completed questionnaire with all our evidence, EcoVadis experts analyze it and give us a scorecard and certificate within a few weeks.
“EcoVadis provides excellent feedback on what we’re doing well and where we can improve,” explains Inari. “They guide us on how to get better scores next time. Over the years, their feedback has become more detailed and transparent, offering more tools to help us develop.”
Our focus areas for development
With our environmental sustainability in excellent shape, we’re now focusing on improving policies and reporting across the other three themes: labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.
“We’ve excelled in environmental sustainability, thanks to our circular economy business model,” says Inari. “What has become more visible to us during the EcoVadis assessments is that sustainability is not only about the environment—it’s also about social responsibility and governance.”
Lindström started as a family-owned company based in Finland, with value-based management. Since we’ve grown globally, it’s become clear we need to take social and governance aspects to the next level, and develop our compliance on anti-corruption, for instance.
Inari sums it up: “We’re not a small company anymore. We’re working in a global environment and our value chains are long.”
This year, for example, we’re putting more effort into diversity, equity, and inclusion. We also recognised a gap in reporting employee training, so we’ve started using Linda Learning, our internal people management tool, to track and report training hours.
“EcoVadis certifies our entire company, not just one part,” says Inari. “This year, we’re improving how we show this comprehensive deployment. For instance, we’ve held sustainability training days for all our procurement teams worldwide. Now, sustainability is embedded throughout our entire organization, with clear targets and widespread engagement.”
Every bit of shared knowledge helps make the world a little more sustainable.
Inari Laveri, Climate and Compliance Manager
Collaboration is key on our sustainability journey
Over the years, we’ve had some great conversations with our customers and other stakeholders about EcoVadis.
Sharing our successes and challenges has been especially valuable. It’s been a great way to collaborate and build a network of sustainability professionals.
Inari Laveri, Climate and Compliance Manager
Inari especially appreciates that people working in sustainability are eager to share their knowledge. “We’ve exchanged ideas on what works and how to improve, both for EcoVadis and in sustainability overall. Every bit of shared knowledge helps make the world a little more sustainable,” she concludes.
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