A customer has invited your company to EcoVadis. Before you start collecting policies or worrying about a medal, establish what they actually need: participation, a submitted assessment, a score by a particular date, or a minimum result.
This guide explains the platform and the decisions around it. If the questionnaire is already open and you need to prepare the answers, use the EcoVadis questionnaire response guide.
| First question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Is the questionnaire the same for every supplier? | No. EcoVadis says it is tailored to the assessed company's size, industry and location. |
| Does the supplier pay? | Yes. A subscription is required to submit the Sustainability Rating questionnaire. The price depends on company size, location, plan and term. |
| Is the invitation itself the questionnaire? | No. First confirm the company and assessment scope, then work from the questionnaire generated for that scope. |
| Can one result be shared? | EcoVadis subscriptions include the ability to share the scorecard with customers and business partners. |
Platform details and links checked 13 September 2026.
What EcoVadis is
EcoVadis is a sustainability-rating platform used by buying companies to assess trading partners. For a rated supplier, the process combines a company-specific questionnaire, supporting documents, analyst review and a scorecard.
The assessment covers four themes:
- Environment
- Labor and Human Rights
- Ethics
- Sustainable Procurement
EcoVadis selects relevant criteria within those themes according to the scope being assessed. That is why a manufacturer, an office-based service business and a group with operations in several countries should not expect identical questionnaires.
What to confirm with your customer first
Do not infer the commercial consequence from the invitation email. Ask the customer:
- Is participation mandatory for this contract or supplier category?
- What date do you need the submitted assessment or published scorecard?
- Is there a minimum score or is completion the immediate requirement?
- Which legal entity, site or group should be assessed?
- Will an existing EcoVadis scorecard satisfy the request?
The customer owns those procurement decisions. EcoVadis produces the assessment; it does not set one universal pass mark for every buyer.
The assessment scope matters
Check the legal entity name, location, industry classification and company size before answering. EcoVadis uses these details to shape the questionnaire. If the scope is wrong, the questions and evidence requested may be wrong too.
EcoVadis warns that changing company size after a questionnaire has been issued can affect the questionnaire and may cause progress to be lost. Resolve obvious scope errors early and keep a downloaded copy of work already completed.
What the supplier pays
EcoVadis says a rated company must subscribe before submitting the Sustainability Rating questionnaire. Pricing is not one fixed supplier fee. It varies with:
- company size;
- company location;
- subscription plan;
- subscription term.
An invited supplier may have a free period in which to access and complete the questionnaire, but a subscription is still required at submission. Check the amount shown in your account or use the official EcoVadis plans and pricing tool. Also check the renewal terms before purchasing; EcoVadis says subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled for the next term.
What the assessment actually evaluates
The questionnaire asks about the sustainability management system your company can demonstrate. EcoVadis describes seven management indicators: Policies, Endorsements, Measures, Certifications, Coverage for large companies, Reporting and 360 Watch.
For the supplier completing the questionnaire, the important distinction is simpler:
- Policies and commitments: what the company has formally decided.
- Actions and measures: what the company actually does.
- Results and reporting: what the company measures and can show over time.
- External evidence: certifications, audits or other independent support where relevant.
A statement in a questionnaire is not a substitute for evidence. EcoVadis says questionnaire answers are credited only when the requested supporting documentation backs them up.
What counts as supporting evidence
Useful evidence may include policies, procedures, reports, employee handbooks, audit reports, training records, certificates and operational data. It should be relevant to the assessment scope, current enough for the requested period and easy for an analyst to verify.
EcoVadis accepts common document formats including PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and image files, subject to its current requirements. Machine-readable files are safer than scans, photographs, handwritten pages or password-protected documents because text must be extracted and reviewed.
One boundary matters: EcoVadis says documents created solely to satisfy its questionnaire are not accepted as evidence. Do not manufacture a policy, backdate a record or copy another company's document to fill a blank. Record the gap and improve the underlying practice instead.
How long it takes
There is no honest universal hour estimate. Your work depends on the questionnaire generated for your scope, how many people hold the information, whether usable documents already exist, and how quickly owners can confirm the answers.
The assessment also includes EcoVadis analysis after submission. If your customer has given you a scorecard deadline, check the current publication estimate in the EcoVadis Help Center and plan backwards from the date your customer actually needs.
What happens after submission
EcoVadis analysts review the questionnaire and supporting documents, then issue a scorecard. The score helps the rated company understand its performance and improvement areas; the requesting customer decides how that result affects its own supplier process.
If the result is lower than expected, separate three jobs:
- clarify the customer's actual requirement;
- review the scorecard and improvement areas;
- fix the underlying practice or evidence before reassessment.
Use the improvement areas in the scorecard as the starting point. Confirm current platform mechanics before committing to a customer deadline. If the customer mentions a medal, check the dated EcoVadis medal rules and eligibility guide, then verify the current criteria in the EcoVadis Help Center.
What to do now
If you have only received the invitation, confirm the customer requirement and assessment scope first. Then open the actual questionnaire and inventory the records you already have.
If you are ready to answer, continue with how to respond to an EcoVadis questionnaire. It covers the private working file, evidence map, review and portal submission without pretending that a separate tool can replace EcoVadis.