31 EcoVadis Improvement Ideas by Theme

Updated: July 5, 2026

If you have reviewed your EcoVadis scorecard and know where the gaps are, the next question is practical: which EcoVadis improvement actions should you choose first?

This guide gives you 31 EcoVadis improvement ideas organised by theme. Use it as an EcoVadis improvement checklist after you have checked your scorecard, Improvement Areas, rejected evidence, and internal priorities. The strongest actions are the ones that improve your management system and create evidence you can use in a future assessment.

For the full scorecard diagnosis process, start with How to Improve Your EcoVadis Score After Your Scorecard. Then use this checklist to choose specific EcoVadis corrective actions and evidence improvements.

How to Use This EcoVadis Improvement Checklist

This article is most useful once you know your current EcoVadis gaps. Review your scorecard first, then choose a small number of EcoVadis improvement actions that match your actual Improvement Areas and evidence weaknesses.

1. Review your scorecard. Identify the lowest theme scores and repeated Improvement Areas.
2. Choose one priority theme. Start where the scorecard shows the clearest weakness or where a customer has raised a concern.
3. Diagnose the gap. Decide whether the problem relates to Policies, Actions, Results, coverage, or evidence quality. For more detail, see the EcoVadis methodology guide.
4. Pick three to five actions. Assign an owner, deadline, and evidence output for each EcoVadis corrective action.
5. Review before reassessment. Check whether the new evidence is credible, current, relevant, in scope, and clearly matched to the questionnaire.

Governance and Ethics

Governance and Ethics actions help show that responsible business conduct is managed through clear expectations, training, and controls.

1. Establish or update your Code of Conduct. Define the ethical standards expected from employees, managers, and relevant business partners.
   Evidence output: approved Code of Conduct, review date, owner, communication record.
2. Strengthen anti-corruption controls. Document how your company prevents bribery, conflicts of interest, gifts and hospitality risks, and third-party corruption risks.
   Evidence output: anti-corruption policy, procedure, approval record, training material.
3. Run regular ethics training. Train employees on expected conduct, reporting channels, anti-corruption rules, and disciplinary consequences.
   Evidence output: training deck, attendance records, completion data, refresher schedule.

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental actions should connect your commitments to practical measures, site-level implementation, and performance data.

4. Draft or refresh your Environmental Policy. Make sure the policy is approved, dated, relevant to your activities, and specific enough to guide decisions.
   Evidence output: signed policy, review date, scope statement, objectives.
5. Reduce energy use and emissions. Identify major energy and GHG sources, then document practical reduction actions such as efficiency projects, renewable electricity, fleet improvements, or logistics changes.
   Evidence output: action plan, energy data, emissions data, project records.
6. Improve waste management. Track waste streams, reduce avoidable waste, improve segregation, and document recycling or circularity initiatives.
   Evidence output: waste procedure, waste data, supplier records, reduction actions.
7. Track and reduce water use where material. For water-relevant operations, measure consumption and identify reduction opportunities.
   Evidence output: water data, monitoring records, reduction plan, site-level evidence.

Labour and Human Rights

Labour and Human Rights actions should show how your company protects people in its operations and, where relevant, across the supply chain.

8. Draft a Labour and Human Rights Policy. Cover working conditions, health and safety, discrimination, harassment, forced labour, child labour, and freedom of association where relevant.
   Evidence output: approved policy, scope, owner, review date.
9. Strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Document how you prevent discrimination and support fair hiring, promotion, and workplace inclusion.
   Evidence output: DEI policy, hiring procedure, training record, workforce data where available.
10. Monitor fair labour practices. Check working hours, wages, contracts, grievance channels, and controls for child or forced labour risks.
    Evidence output: HR procedure, audit checklist, grievance log, corrective actions.
11. Support employee wellbeing and development. Keep records of health, safety, training, wellbeing, and professional development initiatives.
    Evidence output: training records, safety data, wellbeing programme records, employee communication.

Sustainable Procurement

Sustainable Procurement actions are especially important when EcoVadis expects you to manage supplier risks across your supply chain as well as your own operations.

12. Develop a Sustainable Procurement Policy. Set expectations for suppliers on environmental, labour, human rights, ethics, and compliance topics.
    Evidence output: supplier code, procurement policy, supplier requirements, approval record.
13. Assess supplier sustainability risks. Segment suppliers by category, spend, geography, or risk, then document how you assess higher-risk suppliers.
    Evidence output: supplier risk assessment, questionnaire, scorecard, audit record.
14. Promote responsible sourcing. Build sustainability expectations into sourcing decisions, supplier onboarding, contracts, or procurement reviews.
    Evidence output: sourcing procedure, contract clauses, supplier communication, onboarding records.

Performance Management

EcoVadis rewards evidence of management over time. Targets, monitoring, and reporting help turn activities into Results evidence.

15. Set measurable sustainability targets. Choose targets that match your activated criteria, material impacts, and available data.
    Evidence output: target register, baseline data, owner, deadline.
16. Monitor and report progress. Track KPIs such as emissions, energy, water, waste, injuries, training, complaints, or supplier assessments.
    Evidence output: KPI dashboard, annual data, internal report, sustainability report.
17. Review improvement actions regularly. Use a simple monthly or quarterly review to check whether actions are progressing and whether evidence is being collected.
    Evidence output: meeting notes, action tracker, progress report, updated plan.

Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement can support your score when it shows accountability, external commitment, or credible verification.

18. Improve sustainability communication. Share relevant policies, targets, and progress with employees, customers, suppliers, or the public where appropriate.
    Evidence output: sustainability page, report, employee briefing, customer communication.
19. Join relevant sustainability initiatives. Participate in credible initiatives or industry groups when they match your risks, goals, and resources.
    Evidence output: membership proof, commitment letter, public profile, participation record.
20. Use external certifications where they fit. Certifications can support Actions evidence when they apply to the assessed scope and relevant management system.
    Evidence output: valid certificate, scope statement, site coverage, audit report where relevant.

Documentation and Evidence

Many EcoVadis weaknesses are evidence weaknesses. Good work needs to be documented in a way that assessors can credit.

21. Create a central evidence folder. Store policies, procedures, certificates, training records, KPI data, reports, and evidence notes in one controlled location.
    Evidence output: organised evidence library, owner list, review dates.
22. Check evidence quality before upload. Review scope, date, owner, relevance, specificity, and answer fit before using a document.
    Evidence output: evidence review log, page references, upload notes.
23. Prioritise multi-use documents. Within the 55-document limit, give preference to documents that support several relevant answers without becoming vague.
    Evidence output: document map, question references, evidence priority list.

EcoVadis Corrective Action Plan and Reassessment Preparation

These actions help you use the EcoVadis platform, scorecard, Corrective Action Plan, and evidence library more effectively before reassessment.

24. Understand the EcoVadis methodology. Review how Policies, Actions, Results, activated criteria, management indicators, and evidence quality influence scoring.
    Evidence output: internal briefing note, assessment preparation checklist.
25. Start with your scorecard gaps. Use your theme scores, Improvement Areas, and rejected evidence to decide which actions on this list matter most.
    Evidence output: scorecard gap map, prioritised action list.
26. Avoid common submission mistakes. Review common errors before submission or reassessment, especially weak scope, outdated evidence, and unsupported answers.
    Evidence output: pre-submission review checklist.
27. Answer the questionnaire with evidence in mind. Write comments and upload documents that make the evidence easy to assess. Use page references for long documents.
    Evidence output: question-by-question evidence map, page references.
28. Use the Corrective Action Plan. Translate EcoVadis Improvement Areas into owners, deadlines, actions, and evidence outputs. The CAP helps you manage EcoVadis corrective actions, while your next score still depends on the evidence and answers assessed during reassessment.
    Evidence output: corrective action plan, progress updates, evidence tracker.
29. Benchmark carefully. Compare your scorecard with peers where useful. Keep your improvement plan grounded in your own scorecard and activated criteria.
    Evidence output: benchmarking notes, internal priority decision.
30. Prepare for reassessment early. Review evidence several months before reassessment so there is time to fill gaps and collect missing Results data.
    Evidence output: reassessment plan, updated evidence folder, gap tracker.
31. Get focused support when priorities are unclear. External support can help when the scorecard is difficult to interpret or when several teams need to coordinate improvements.
    Evidence output: prioritised improvement plan, evidence review notes, owner list.