EcoVadis
EcoVadis in Pakistan, a rating, not a certificate
EcoVadis medals are awarded on percentile rank, not on a fixed score. You can improve your score, score higher than last year, and still lose your medal, because the bar moves with everyone else. Understanding that before you start is the difference between a useful result and an expensive disappointment.
The short answer
EcoVadis is a sustainability rating. A company completes a questionnaire, uploads documents to support every claim, and receives a scorecard with an overall score from 0 to 100, a score for each of four themes, and a medal if it qualifies.
It is not a certification. There is no audit of your site, no certification body, and no certificate. EcoVadis describes the result as its own opinion, expressed as a rating. The correct way to describe a good result is that your company holds an EcoVadis medal or is rated by EcoVadis, naming the level. Not that you are EcoVadis certified.
The assessment is solicited, meaning it happens because you agreed to it, usually after a customer asked. Most Pakistani exporters meet EcoVadis for the first time when a European buyer makes it a condition of staying on the supplier list.
Three facts that decide your result before you start
- Medals are percentile based. Bronze is the top 35 per cent of all companies rated in the previous twelve months, not a fixed score. The threshold moves.
- Any single theme below 30 out of 100 disqualifies you from a medal no matter how strong your overall score is. One weak theme sinks the whole result.
- A claim without a document scores nothing. EcoVadis does not estimate missing data and does not fill gaps with industry averages. Missing evidence simply lowers your score.
This page is written for Pakistani manufacturers and exporters who have been asked by a customer to complete an EcoVadis assessment and want to know what actually drives the number.
Can you be EcoVadis certified?
No, and the distinction matters commercially as well as factually.
EcoVadis assesses what you can evidence on paper. It does not send an auditor to your site, it does not verify your operations in person, and it issues no certificate. What you receive is a scorecard and, if you qualify, a medal valid for twelve months.
This makes it a different instrument from ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 certification, and the two are complementary rather than competing. In fact your existing certifications feed directly into your EcoVadis result, because certificates are one of the scored indicators. A company with real ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 systems starts an EcoVadis assessment with a genuine advantage, provided the certificates are current and uploaded.
What do the four themes cover?
Every assessment scores four themes, covering 21 sub issues between them. Each theme is scored from 0 to 100, and the overall score is a weighted average, with the weights set by how material each theme is to your industry.
| Theme | Sub issues | What it tends to mean for a Pakistani exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | 9 | Energy, water, waste, emissions and product stewardship. Usually the theme with the most available evidence in manufacturing. |
| Labor and Human Rights | 7 | Working conditions, health and safety, child and forced labour, social dialogue. Overlaps heavily with SMETA preparation. |
| Ethics | 3 | Corruption, anticompetitive practice and information security. Commonly the weakest theme, and therefore the one that disqualifies. |
| Sustainable Procurement | 2 | Social and environmental practice in your own supply chain. Almost always the lowest score for a first time respondent. |
Because only four themes exist and two of them carry just three and two sub issues, a single neglected area moves your overall score a long way. Ethics and Sustainable Procurement are where we start with most clients, not Environment, because that is where the cheap points are.
How are EcoVadis medals actually awarded?
On percentile rank against every company EcoVadis rated in the previous twelve months, measured at the moment your scorecard is published. This is the part most guidance in this market gets wrong by quoting fixed score bands.
| Medal | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Platinum | Top 1 per cent of rated companies |
| Gold | Top 5 per cent |
| Silver | Top 15 per cent |
| Bronze | Top 35 per cent |
The consequence is counterintuitive and worth stating plainly: your score can rise and your medal can still fall. As more companies are assessed and the average result improves, the score required to sit in the top 35 per cent rises with it. A business that treats last year's threshold as this year's target will be caught out.
It also means a medal is a statement about your position relative to other rated companies, not an absolute statement about your sustainability. That is worth knowing before you put it in a tender document.
What stops a company getting a medal?
Three things, independent of your overall score.
A weak theme. If any single theme scores below 30 out of 100, you are not eligible for a medal regardless of how good the other three are. For most first time Pakistani respondents the theme at risk is Sustainable Procurement, because it asks what you require of your own suppliers and most sites have never documented that at all.
External findings. EcoVadis runs a separate indicator drawing on news, NGO reports, government databases and sanctions screening. Serious negative findings can make a company ineligible.
Industry exclusions. Certain sectors, including tobacco, weapons and ammunition, and coal, are excluded from medals entirely.
How is the score actually built?
Each theme is scored across seven indicators, and knowing the weights tells you where to spend your effort.
| Indicator group | Weight | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Actions, made up of measures and certificates | 40 per cent | What you actually do, and the third party certificates that prove it |
| 360 degree Watch | 21 per cent | What external sources say about you |
| Policies | 20 per cent | Formal, dated, documented policy |
| Reporting | 14 per cent | Published metrics and results |
| Endorsements | 5 per cent | External commitments and initiatives |
Two points follow from that table. Actions are worth twice what policies are worth, so writing a policy without implementing anything is the least efficient thing you can do. And your existing ISO certificates sit inside the Actions group, which is the heaviest weighted part of the score, so they are worth more here than most companies realise.
Every declaration must be supported by an uploaded document. The documents need to be formal, complete, credible, dated and machine readable. An undated policy signed by nobody earns nothing.
Does being based in Pakistan affect your score?
Yes, and nobody in this market says so.
EcoVadis applies a country risk adjustment to theme scores. A company headquartered in a country it classifies as high risk has points deducted. A company whose operations are entirely in low risk countries has points added. The adjustment is applied before you answer a single question.
| Situation | Adjustment to theme score |
|---|---|
| Headquarters in a high risk country | Minus 6 |
| Headquarters in a low or medium risk country, with operations touching a medium or high risk country | No change |
| Operations in low risk countries only | Plus 3 |
EcoVadis does not publish its country classifications, so we will not tell you which tier Pakistan sits in. What we will tell you is that the mechanism exists and that it is not in your favour, which means a Pakistani supplier has to score better on substance to reach the same medal as a European competitor. That is a reason to prepare properly rather than a reason not to bother.
Company size also adjusts the score, and here smaller firms gain. A company of 1 to 25 employees has 13.75 points added to each theme score, 26 to 99 employees 15 points, 100 to 999 employees 10 points, and a company of 1,000 or more gets no addition. The expectations are also lighter for the smallest companies.
What does EcoVadis support cost in Pakistan?
There is no fixed price. There are also two separate costs and they should not be confused: EcoVadis charges its own fee for the assessment and the platform, which is paid directly to EcoVadis and is nothing to do with us.
Axora Global quotes a consultancy fee band after a free gap analysis, once the scope, your number of sites and the maturity of your existing system are known. What moves it: how much documented policy you already hold, whether you have any published reporting at all, how many existing certifications can be credited, and how much of Sustainable Procurement has to be built from nothing.
How long does an EcoVadis assessment take?
Preparation is the long part. For a company with existing ISO systems and documented policies, four to eight weeks to assemble and improve the evidence before submission. For a company starting with little documentation, three to five months, because policies have to be written, approved, dated and then actually implemented before the actions behind them can be evidenced.
A scorecard is valid for one year, and a medal for twelve months. Reassessment happens when you choose to renew, which in practice means annually, because your customer will ask for a current result.
The mistake we see most often is submitting early to meet a customer deadline, scoring poorly, and then living with that scorecard for a year. If the deadline allows it, prepare first and submit once.
How we work on EcoVadis
The gap analysis is free. We go through the four themes against what you can actually evidence today, identify which theme is at risk of falling below 30, and tell you whether a medal is realistic in this cycle or whether the honest plan is to build for the next one.
Then the work is documentation and actions: policies that are formal, dated and approved, measures that are genuinely in place, existing certificates collected and credited, reporting that publishes something real, and a Sustainable Procurement position where most companies have none. We assemble the evidence pack and review every answer against the document behind it before submission.
We do not score you and we do not influence the rating. EcoVadis does that independently, which is the point of it.
Common questions about EcoVadis
Is EcoVadis a certification?
No. EcoVadis is a sustainability rating, and the result is a scorecard with an overall score from 0 to 100, four theme scores, and a medal if you qualify. There is no site audit and no certificate. The accurate phrasing is that your company holds an EcoVadis medal at a named level, or is rated by EcoVadis. Describing yourself as EcoVadis certified is wrong and a knowledgeable buyer will notice.
What score do I need for a Bronze medal?
There is no fixed score. Medals are awarded on percentile rank against all companies rated in the previous twelve months, measured when your scorecard is published. Bronze is the top 35 per cent, Silver the top 15 per cent, Gold the top 5 per cent and Platinum the top 1 per cent. This means the score needed moves over time, and your score can improve while your medal falls.
Can I score well and still miss out on a medal?
Yes. If any single theme scores below 30 out of 100 you are ineligible for a medal whatever your overall score. Serious external findings can also make a company ineligible, and some industries including tobacco, weapons and ammunition, and coal are excluded entirely. For most first time Pakistani respondents the theme at risk is Sustainable Procurement.
What are the four themes?
Environment with nine sub issues, Labor and Human Rights with seven, Ethics with three, and Sustainable Procurement with two, giving 21 sub issues in total. Each is scored from 0 to 100 and the overall score is a weighted average, with weights set by how material each theme is to your industry. Because Ethics and Sustainable Procurement carry few sub issues each, neglecting either moves your overall score a long way.
Does our ISO certification help our EcoVadis score?
Yes, and more than most companies expect. Certificates sit inside the Actions indicator group, which carries 40 per cent of the weight and is the heaviest weighted part of the score. Current ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 9001 certificates, uploaded and in date, are directly credited. This is one of the strongest arguments for treating certification and EcoVadis as one programme rather than two.
Does being a Pakistani company affect the score?
Yes. EcoVadis applies a country risk adjustment to theme scores before any question is answered: minus 6 where the headquarters is in a country it classes as high risk, no change where operations touch a medium or high risk country, and plus 3 where operations are entirely in low risk countries. EcoVadis does not publish its country classifications, so we will not claim to know which tier Pakistan sits in, only that the mechanism exists and is unlikely to work in your favour.
Do smaller companies score worse?
No, the adjustment runs the other way. A size factor is added to each theme score: 13.75 points for 1 to 25 employees, 15 points for 26 to 99, 10 points for 100 to 999, and nothing for 1,000 or more. Expectations are also lighter for the smallest companies, which are not expected to hold external endorsements. A small Pakistani exporter is less disadvantaged than it assumes.
What happens if we cannot evidence something?
It scores nothing. EcoVadis does not estimate missing data and does not substitute industry averages, so a gap simply lowers your score. Every declaration must be supported by an uploaded document that is formal, complete, credible, dated and machine readable. A policy with no date and no approval earns nothing, which is why the preparation work is mostly about evidence rather than about answering questions.
How long is a scorecard valid?
A scorecard is valid for one year and a medal for twelve months. Reassessment happens when you choose to renew, which in practice is annual because customers ask for a current result. The common and avoidable mistake is submitting early to hit a customer deadline, scoring badly, and then carrying that scorecard for a full year. Where the deadline allows, prepare properly and submit once.
What does it cost?
There is no fixed price, and there are two separate costs. EcoVadis charges its own fee for the assessment and platform, paid directly to them. For the preparation work, Axora Global quotes a consultancy fee band after a free gap analysis, because the fee varies with scope, organisation size and the number of sites. We do not mark up the EcoVadis fee.
How does EcoVadis compare with a SMETA audit?
They answer different questions and buyers often ask for both. EcoVadis is a desk based rating of what you can evidence across environment, labour, ethics and procurement, and produces a score and a medal. A SMETA audit is an on site social audit against the ETI Base Code, carried out by an approved audit company, and produces an audit report and a corrective action plan rather than any certificate. The labour and health and safety preparation overlaps substantially, so doing them together is cheaper than doing them a year apart.
Find out whether a medal is realistic before you submit
Send us the request your customer sent you. The gap analysis is free, it covers all four themes, and it tells you which one is at risk of falling below 30 while there is still time to fix it.