Third Partners helps companies navigate EcoVadis assessments, improve how their sustainability efforts are documented, and strengthen the programs behind their scores. These case studies show how hands-on support can protect leadership bandwidth, reduce submission risk, and help companies put their best foot forward with major customers.

For many companies, EcoVadis begins with a request from a major customer. What initially looks like another supplier questionnaire can quickly become a significant undertaking, requiring documentation and data related to environmental performance, labor and human rights, ethics, sustainable procurement, policies, procedures, and internal governance.

The stakes can also be substantial. A company’s EcoVadis performance may influence how major customers evaluate it as a supplier, making an accurate and well-supported submission important for protecting valuable business relationships.

Third Partners helps companies navigate the process, identify gaps, organize existing information, strengthen sustainability practices where needed, while verifying the work they are already doing is accurately represented.

The following examples show what that support can look like in practice.

Case Study 1: Improving EcoVadis Performance for a Professional Services Company

The Challenge

A professional services company that works extensively with Amazon was required to report sustainability and ESG information through EcoVadis.

The company had completed its first assessment independently the year before, but the submission did not effectively demonstrate its sustainability practices and resulted in a below-average rating. Amazon subsequently communicated that it wanted to see improved performance.

The company knew it needed a stronger response but faced several challenges.

Its previous approach had relied on documentation that did not adequately support the submission. Sustainability information was scattered across the organization, leadership had limited time to manage the process, and the company had not yet completed a formal carbon footprint.

Third Partners was brought in to help the company improve its EcoVadis performance and present a more accurate picture of how sustainability was being managed across the business.

The Approach

Third Partners began by identifying what information already existed, where it lived within the organization, and what was still missing.

The team worked closely with company leadership to translate EcoVadis requirements into clear, actionable requests for different departments. Rather than simply asking the client to provide more documentation, Third Partners helped determine where each data point could be found and what could reasonably be developed within the available timeframe.

The engagement included:

• Developing the company’s first carbon footprint to establish a formal baseline for greenhouse gas emissions.
• Identifying existing policies, practices, and data that could support the EcoVadis assessment.
• Addressing documentation gaps where legitimate business practices were not yet formally captured.
• Coordinating information across departments to reduce the burden on senior leadership.
• Prioritizing practical improvements that could strengthen both the immediate submission and the company’s longer-term sustainability program.

The goal was not to manufacture documentation for the sake of the assessment. It was to help the company accurately document what it was already doing, strengthen areas that needed improvement, and put its best foot forward.

The Result

The company increased its EcoVadis score and established a stronger foundation for managing and communicating sustainability information.

The engagement also helped the company demonstrate to an important customer that it was taking sustainability expectations seriously and making measurable progress.

More broadly, the work gave the organization better visibility into its own sustainability performance and created processes it could continue building on in future EcoVadis assessments.

Case Study 2: Helping a Top 100 General Contractor Prepare for EcoVadis

The Challenge

A Top 100 general contractor based in California received EcoVadis requests from major customers and had three months to complete the assessment.

The company was already doing many things well.

Strong environmental, workforce, compliance, and operational practices existed throughout the organization. The challenge was that those efforts had never been organized under one formal sustainability or ESG program.

Important information was spread across departments and systems that did not always communicate with one another. Leadership was concerned that the company could miss opportunities to receive credit for practices already in place simply because the information was not documented or presented in the way EcoVadis expected.

There was also hesitation around disclosure. Like many private U.S. companies, leadership wanted to understand how much operational information should be shared with a third-party platform and how to balance transparency with legitimate confidentiality concerns.

The Approach

Third Partners became an extension of the client’s internal team, providing hands-on support throughout the EcoVadis assessment process.

Weekly meetings brought together the right employees at the right time, while Third Partners translated the assessment requirements into practical assignments for teams across the organization.

The work included:

• Gathering sustainability and operational information from multiple departments and systems.
• Creating custom reports when existing systems did not produce data in the format needed for the assessment.
• Reviewing policies and documentation to identify gaps.
• Helping employees understand EcoVadis requirements and unfamiliar sustainability and ESG terminology.
• Guiding leadership on appropriate levels of disclosure for sensitive or confidential information.
• Organizing and preparing evidence for submission.
• Managing the assessment process to help the company receive credit for the information it provided.

Third Partners also worked inside the client’s existing technology environment whenever possible. Documents and requests were managed through tools the company already used, such as Microsoft Teams, rather than forcing employees to maintain another parallel workflow.

That approach reduced friction and made it easier for busy executives and employees to participate without allowing the assessment to take over their day-to-day responsibilities.

The Result

By the end of the engagement, the company had brought together information that had previously been scattered across different departments, systems, and teams and organized it into a more cohesive sustainability story.

Third Partners helped the contractor document and communicate the strong management practices it already had in place, reducing the risk that those efforts would go unrecognized simply because they had never been organized around EcoVadis.

The engagement also gave leadership a clearer understanding of where the company stood, what information it could confidently disclose, and where opportunities existed to strengthen its sustainability and ESG program over time.

Just as importantly, Third Partners managed much of the coordination and submission work, allowing senior leaders to stay focused on running the business while still responding seriously to the expectations of major enterprise customers.

The Bigger Opportunity Behind EcoVadis

Most companies do not pursue EcoVadis because they suddenly decide they want another sustainability assessment. They respond because a customer asks them to. But the process can uncover opportunities that extend well beyond satisfying that request.

A company may already have strong environmental, workforce, ethics, or procurement practices but lack the documentation needed to demonstrate them. Information may be stored across different departments without a consistent process for collecting or reporting it, while policies may exist informally but have never been formalized. Preparing for EcoVadis can help bring those pieces together, leading to clearer policies, stronger internal governance, better data collection, more defined responsibilities, and a more coordinated approach to sustainability management.

The information collected can also support other areas of the business. For companies, sustainability information may strengthen RFP responses, proposals, customer conversations, and sales materials. Instead of viewing EcoVadis solely as a defensive compliance exercise, Third Partners looks for opportunities to turn the work into a broader business asset.

Why EcoVadis Requires More Than Filling Out a Survey

One of the most difficult aspects of EcoVadis is that companies cannot simply follow a public scoring rubric and know exactly how each response will affect their score. That creates risk for organizations approaching the assessment for the first time, particularly when a major customer or contract is involved.

Two companies may have similar practices but receive very different results based on how those practices are documented, supported, and communicated. A company can be doing the right things internally and still miss opportunities to receive credit if those practices are not clearly presented through the assessment.

When EcoVadis performance could influence an important customer relationship, companies need more than someone to repeat the questionnaire back to them. They need someone who can understand the organization, identify what evidence already exists, spot gaps, and help translate real business practices into a strong and supportable submission.

When Should a Company Get Professional Help With EcoVadis?

For Third Partners, two factors stand out: bandwidth and stakes.

EcoVadis assessments often land on the desk of a senior executive, sales leader, procurement professional, or another employee who is already managing a full workload. Completing the assessment requires coordinating people across the organization, gathering evidence, interpreting unfamiliar terminology, and managing a detailed submission process.

Outside support becomes especially valuable when:

• A major customer has requested or required an EcoVadis assessment
• A contract or important customer relationship may depend on the outcome
• The organization is completing EcoVadis for the first time
• Senior leadership does not have the bandwidth to manage the process internally
• The company wants to improve a previous EcoVadis result
• Sustainability practices exist but are not formally documented or centrally managed
• The organization wants to use the assessment to strengthen its broader sustainability program

EcoVadis is also not a one-time exercise. Companies reassess regularly, expectations continue to evolve, and performance is benchmarked against other organizations. The goal should not simply be to get through this year’s assessment, but to build a foundation the company can continue improving.

What Makes Third Partners’ Approach Different?

Third Partners approaches EcoVadis as a management consulting engagement, not simply a survey-completion exercise. The firm’s team has more than a decade of experience working with leadership teams to build, manage, and improve sustainability programs, allowing Third Partners to look beyond individual assessment questions and understand how the pieces fit together across the organization.

The team also provides independent guidance. Third Partners is not financially dependent on EcoVadis consulting and does not have a vested interest in the platform. Its focus is on helping the client make practical decisions that support the business.

When time allows, that means doing more than preparing documents for submission. Third Partners can help strengthen policies and procedures, improve governance, develop better systems for collecting information, and identify a continuous improvement strategy for future assessments. The result is an EcoVadis process that is easier on the internal team and more valuable to the business.

Turn Your EcoVadis Assessment Into a Stronger Business Process

Whether your company is responding to EcoVadis for the first time or trying to improve a previous result, the process does not have to consume your leadership team’s time or become another disconnected compliance project.

Third Partners can help you understand where you stand, organize the information you already have, address meaningful gaps, manage the submission process, and identify opportunities to use the work more strategically across your business.

Contact Third Partners to discuss your EcoVadis assessment and how we can help your company prepare with confidence.