EcoVadis

Large companies buy from thousands of suppliers distributed across the globe. Verifying that each of these suppliers meets acceptable environmental, social, and governance standards is complex, costly, and often inconsistently done. EcoVadis built the answer to this problem: an ESG rating platform that evaluates companies across four dimensions — environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement — and returns a comparable, certified scorecard that can be shared with any buyer in the supply chain. Founded in Paris by Pierre-François Thaler and Frédéric Trinel, EcoVadis turned a compliance requirement into market infrastructure: it now rates over 130,000 companies in more than 200 countries, covering virtually every industrial sector and geographic area relevant to global trade. The business model is built on annual subscriptions: companies pay to be assessed and to keep their scorecard current, while buyers pay to access supplier data. This creates a two-sided network effect — the more companies are rated, the more useful the platform becomes for buyers. EcoVadis has become the de facto standard for supply chain ESG reporting, recognized by multinationals, regulators, and investors as a reliable measure of corporate sustainability. In an increasingly demanding European regulatory environment — with mandatory due diligence and reporting directives — EcoVadis's positioning becomes ever more strategic.