EcoVadis vs CDP vs Sedex: Understanding Customer ESG Platforms
Three different customers have now invited you to three different platforms: EcoVadis, CDP, and Sedex. Each seems to want sustainability information, but they ask different questions in different formats with different scoring systems.
You don't have time to become an expert in every platform. You need to understand the key differences, know what each prioritizes, and decide how to allocate your limited resources.
Here's the comparison.
The Quick Overview
EcoVadis: Broad sustainability assessment covering environment, labor, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Produces a scored rating visible to all member customers. Best for: general ESG assessment used across industries.
CDP: Deep climate-focused disclosure. Detailed carbon accounting, governance, risks, strategy. Produces a letter score (A through F). Best for: comprehensive climate disclosure when carbon is the priority.
Sedex: Ethical trade focused. Labor rights, health and safety, environment, business ethics—with audit component. Best for: supply chains with social compliance priorities (retail, food, apparel).
Each serves different customer needs. Understanding what your specific customers prioritize helps you focus.
EcoVadis: The Broad Assessment
What it covers: EcoVadis assesses four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. It provides the broadest coverage of the three platforms—touching ESG comprehensively rather than deeply in any single area.
How it works: You complete a questionnaire tailored to your industry and size, upload supporting documentation, and receive a score from 0-100 plus a medal rating (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum). Assessors review your submission and publicly available information about your company.
Scoring logic: EcoVadis rewards the policy → action → results progression. Having policies documented scores points; implementing actions scores more; demonstrating measurable results scores highest. Certifications like ISO 14001 or ISO 45001 provide evidence that earns additional credit.
Visibility: Your scorecard is visible to any EcoVadis member company—including prospective customers. One assessment can serve your entire customer base that uses the platform.
Cost: Customers typically pay for supplier assessments. Suppliers respond for free, though EcoVadis offers paid tiers with additional features if you want proactive promotion of your score.
Best for suppliers who:
- Have multiple customers using EcoVadis
- Need a general ESG credential covering multiple topics
- Want efficiency: one assessment, multiple relationships served
CDP: The Climate Deep Dive
What it covers: CDP focuses on climate change (there are also water and forests programs, but climate is most common for suppliers). The questionnaire covers governance, strategy, risks, targets, emissions data, and reduction initiatives in significant detail.
How it works: Customers invite suppliers through CDP's Supply Chain program. You complete the annual questionnaire during the response window (typically April-August), and receive a letter score. The questionnaire follows GHG Protocol methodology and expects detailed emissions accounting.
Scoring logic: CDP scores on disclosure completeness and quality, moving from D (basic disclosure) through C (awareness), B (management), to A (leadership). Scores reward comprehensive data, verified emissions, science-based targets, and demonstrated reductions.
Visibility: You choose whether your response is public or visible only to requesting customers. Public responses become searchable in CDP's database.
Cost: Free for suppliers responding to customer invitations. CDP is funded by requesting companies and investors.
Best for suppliers who:
- Have customers with serious climate commitments
- Can calculate carbon emissions (or want to develop this capability)
- Need detailed climate disclosure for multiple stakeholders
- Want globally recognized climate credentials
Sedex: The Ethical Trade Focus
What it covers: Sedex focuses on ethical trade and social compliance: labor standards, health and safety, environment, and business ethics. It emerged from retail and consumer goods industries concerned with factory working conditions.
How it works: You join Sedex as a member, complete the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), and share your profile with customers. Many customers also require SMETA audits—on-site assessments conducted by accredited auditors that verify your SAQ responses.
Scoring logic: Sedex doesn't produce a single score like EcoVadis. Instead, customers see your SAQ responses and audit findings. Risk indicators flag areas of concern. The emphasis is on transparency and verification rather than comparative ranking.
Visibility: You control which customers can see your Sedex profile. Data isn't automatically visible to all members.
Cost: Membership fees apply (scaled by company size). SMETA audits are additional cost—often significant for smaller companies.
Best for suppliers who:
- Serve retail, apparel, food, or consumer goods customers
- Have customers specifically requiring Sedex/SMETA
- Need to demonstrate labor and safety compliance
- Are willing to undergo on-site audits
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Factor | EcoVadis | CDP | Sedex | |--------|----------|-----|-------| | Primary focus | Broad ESG | Climate/carbon | Ethical trade | | Output | Score 0-100 + medal | Letter A-F | Profile + audit findings | | Depth | Medium across topics | Deep on climate | Medium on social | | Time to complete | 8-20 hours | 15-30 hours | 5-15 hours (SAQ) | | Audit required | No | No | Often yes (SMETA) | | Cost to supplier | Free (basic) | Free | Membership + audit fees | | Validity | 12 months | 12 months | Ongoing with updates | | Visibility | All EcoVadis members | Configurable | Customer-specific |
Which Platform to Prioritize
If one customer is requesting one platform: Complete that platform. Don't add complexity.
If multiple customers use the same platform: That platform is highest priority. EcoVadis is most common—if three customers use EcoVadis and one uses CDP, focus on EcoVadis first.
If you have customers across multiple platforms:
Priority 1: Any platform required for contract retention or major revenue relationships.
Priority 2: Platforms serving the most customers (usually EcoVadis due to market share).
Priority 3: Platforms where you can leverage existing work. If you already track detailed emissions, CDP builds on that. If you have SMETA audits from another relationship, Sedex is already largely complete.
If no customer is specifically requiring anything: Consider EcoVadis for broad coverage and market visibility, or wait until a customer makes a specific request.
Leveraging Overlaps
The platforms ask for overlapping information in different formats. Building a master data file (covered in the article on managing multiple ESG formats) lets you respond to all three from common source data.
Environmental data appears in all three. Energy consumption, emissions, waste, certifications—calculate once, adapt to each format.
Policies are requested by all platforms. The same environmental policy, code of conduct, or supplier code uploads to each.
Employee data is common across EcoVadis and Sedex. Safety incidents, training hours, headcount—maintain centrally.
Certifications transfer across platforms. ISO 14001 is relevant for EcoVadis and CDP; ISO 45001 matters for EcoVadis and Sedex.
The underlying data is the same. Only the format and depth vary.
When You Can Reference One Platform from Another
Some customers accept alternative platforms:
"We completed EcoVadis and achieved Silver rating—would you accept our EcoVadis scorecard in lieu of your proprietary questionnaire?"
This works sometimes, particularly when customers use proprietary questionnaires but recognize major platforms. It doesn't work when a customer specifically requires a particular platform for their internal systems.
CDP and EcoVadis don't substitute for each other well—they focus on different things. A strong EcoVadis score doesn't demonstrate the climate depth CDP provides; a strong CDP score doesn't show the broad ESG coverage EcoVadis offers.
Sedex is harder to substitute because of the audit component. Customers requiring SMETA want verified information, not self-assessment from another platform.
The Practical Approach
You don't need to master all three platforms. Most suppliers complete one or two based on their customer base.
Start with whatever your customers are actively requesting. Complete that platform well—accurate data, good documentation, honest gaps acknowledged. Build your internal data management so that expanding to additional platforms later requires adaptation rather than starting over.
The platforms are means to an end: demonstrating your sustainability practices to customers. Focus on building genuine capability, and the platform responses follow.
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