EcoVadis Medal Levels Explained: Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum

You've been asked for an EcoVadis medal — or you just got your result and you're not sure whether it's good, bad, or fine. Before you assume the worst: a medal is a benchmark, not a pass/fail exam. Here's exactly what the levels mean, how each one actually works, and what it really takes to reach the one your customer asked for.

How EcoVadis scoring works

EcoVadis gives you a single overall score from 0 to 100. That score is built from four themes — Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement — each scored and weighted according to your industry and size.

The number matters, but the medal is what most customers look at. Medals are awarded by percentile — how you rank against every other company EcoVadis has assessed in a recent window — not by hitting a fixed number. That distinction matters, and we'll come back to it.

The medal levels

Medals are awarded by percentile rank against every company EcoVadis assessed in the previous 12 months — not by hitting a fixed score. EcoVadis does not publish fixed score thresholds for medals, so treat the percentile as the real definition:

To be eligible for any medal you also need a minimum score of 30 in each of the four themes.

Two honest caveats:

• The bar rises over time. Because medals are percentile-based, the score needed to reach a given medal drifts upward as the assessed population improves — the same score can place differently from one year to the next. Focus on percentile and trajectory, not a fixed target number.
• There is also a "Committed" badge for companies that have started but don't yet meet the medal threshold. It's a recognition of engagement, not a medal.

What score do you actually need?

This is the question behind the search, and the answer depends entirely on who asked.

• "We need you to be on EcoVadis" / "share your scorecard." Any completed assessment satisfies this. There's no minimum. Do the assessment honestly and submit.
• "You need a medal." Bronze clears this bar. For most suppliers, Bronze or Silver in year one is a realistic, respectable target.
• "You need Silver/Gold minimum." Some large buyers set a floor in their supplier contracts. If yours did, that number is in the request or the contract — check before you assume.

Do not chase Platinum in your first assessment. It represents the top 1% of a global population that includes companies with full sustainability teams and years of verified data. Aiming for it in year one is how suppliers burn weeks and still feel like they failed.

Why your score isn't just about what you do

A recurring frustration: "We recycle, we treat our staff well — why is our score low?" EcoVadis doesn't score what you do so much as what you can show, in a specific progression:

• Policies — is it written down, dated, and appropriate to your size?
• Actions — training, audits, procedures, management systems that put the policy into practice.
• Results — actual figures: emissions, incident rates, training hours, waste diverted.

Good practice with no documentation scores like no practice at all. Often the fastest points come from writing down what you already do, not from doing anything new. That's the honest core of it — and it's why a low first score is usually a documentation gap, not a character judgment.

Before you start, the EcoVadis Readiness Check shows where those gaps are so the assessment doesn't surprise you.

How the medal is used by your customer

Your customer typically sees your medal, your overall score, and a summary scorecard with theme-level strengths and improvement areas. They use it to:

• Tick a box on their own supplier-sustainability program.
• Compare you against other suppliers in the same category.
• Decide whether to ask for a corrective action plan.

What most buyers care about more than the absolute number is the trajectory. A supplier who moves from no-medal to Bronze to Silver over three cycles reads as exactly what they want: a company that's genuinely improving. A one-time Silver that never moves says less.

How to move up a level

If you want to climb a band, focus where the points are:

1. Close documentation gaps first. If the scorecard flags a missing policy you actually follow informally, write the policy. Cheapest points on the board.
2. Add results, not just policies. Turn "we manage energy" into "we used X kWh, down Y% year on year." Even basic Scope 1 and 2 emissions figures move the Environment theme.
3. Don't neglect Sustainable Procurement. Many suppliers score zero here simply because they ignore it. A supplier code of conduct and a documented evaluation step pick up points competitors leave behind.
4. Explain your context. A 15-person firm shouldn't be judged against a 2,000-person one. Use the comment fields to note your scale and approach.

For the full playbook once you have your scorecard, see EcoVadis score improvement tips. If your result came back lower than hoped, Failed or low EcoVadis score? What it means and how to recover walks through the recovery path.

What not to do

• Don't invent numbers to look better. EcoVadis assessors verify claims against your uploaded evidence. An unsupported figure is worse than an honest "not yet tracked."
• Don't create a policy just to tick the box. A real two-page policy your team follows beats a ten-page one copied off the internet.
• Don't treat a no-medal as a rejection. It's a starting point with a clear list of what to improve.

The bottom line

The medal tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum — are percentile benchmarks, not fixed exam grades, and for most suppliers Bronze or Silver in the first year is a solid, honest result. What compounds over time isn't the first number; it's the direction it moves. Build the documentation once, keep it current, and the score follows.