EcoVadis, the world’s leading provider of sustainability ratings, announced last week the winners of its fourth annual Sustainable Procurement Leadership Awards and Sustainability Leadership Awards, including Groupe PSA, Henkel, L’Oréal and The Estée Lauder Companies. Winners were recognized at EcoVadis’ annual Sustain conference. 

“The purpose economy demands that companies think beyond their own business and help create a better world. Sustainable supply chain offers a powerful opportunity for turning that vision into reality,” said Pierre-François Thaler, co-CEO, EcoVadis. “This year’s winners are great examples of companies leading the way, investing in sustainability performance and seeing real impact from their commitment to responsible practices.”

The awards program recognizes excellence in sustainability and sustainable procurement across several categories: stakeholder engagement, supplier engagement, supplier portfolio CSR performance improvement, program leadership and regional performance. Nominees were evaluated on strategy and approach, procurement integration, scale and coverage, and program results.

Additionally, the awards serve to acknowledge and celebrate companies partnering with EcoVadis that are driving progress in sustainability through setting bold, ambitious goals.

Sustainable Procurement: Best Internal Stakeholder Engagement 

This award recognizes best-in-class examples of driving internal engagement to roll out sustainable procurement programs in key dimensions including coverage (geographic, category, size or other diversity criteria) and depth in how sustainability criteria are integrated into processes across the business.

Winner: Henkel

“Creating sustainable value is the purpose that unites all of us at Henkel. As one of our five company values and firmly embedded in our strategic framework, our commitment to leadership in sustainability guides us in everything we do”, said Bertrand Conquéret, President Henkel Global Supply Chain B.V & Chief Procurement Officer Henkel. “We see it as our responsibility and a leadership task to drive our responsible sourcing agenda in our internal and external stakeholder engagement and have set ourselves the target of 100 percent responsible sourcing by 2025. Therefore, we are extremely proud and thank the EcoVadis jury for the Best Internal Stakeholder Engagement Sustainable Procurement Leadership Award as a recognition of our commitment and efforts.”

According to the evaluation, highlights of Henkel’s program include excellent internal communication, set quantitative targets and goals created jointly with business leaders, employee onboarding and training amplified by an “ambassador program”, and leveraged membership in the industry initiative Together for Sustainability (TfS).

Winner, North America: The Estée Lauder Companies

This year the judges recognized The Estée Lauder Companies for demonstrating excellence in internal stakeholder engagement among applicants from North America. Program strengths include continuous communication on progress reporting and feedback on the process, participation of C-level leaders, and a high level of integration into procurement processes.

“Sustainability and ethical business practices have long been central to how The Estée Lauder Companies and its brands have operated. As a global manufacturer of prestige beauty products, we hold ourselves and expect our suppliers to achieve a high standard. We are committed to embedding best-in-class sustainability programs across the company. EcoVadis’ sustainability ratings play a critical role in enabling our employees to drive this commitment to sustainable procurement practices throughout our supply chain,” said Roberto Magana, Senior Vice President, Chief Procurement Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies.

Sustainable Procurement: Best Value Chain Engagement 

Winner: L’Oréal

This award acknowledges excellence in engaging suppliers in sustainable procurement programs. Judges assessed initiatives such as training programs, as well as development program plans and efforts to train and reward suppliers for sustainability and CSR performance.

“On behalf of the L’Oréal Sourcing teams, I am deeply grateful to receive the Ecovadis award for the Best Value Chain Engagement. I am particularly proud of all L’Oréal buyers and suppliers who demonstrate such a great commitment to sustainability and inclusion for so many years now,” said Régine Lucas, CPO at L’Oréal. “As a company, we want to be a leader in beauty and in sustainability performance. We want to inspire and engage collective actions with our suppliers towards a more sustainable and inclusive future.  We are convinced that our suppliers are a great asset for a more sustainable future.”

Sustainable Procurement: Best Portfolio CSR Performance Improvement 

Winner: Groupe PSA

This award recognizes companies demonstrating the highest percentage of suppliers improving their CSR performance and EcoVadis average score. This category was not open for submissions and the award is granted based on the EcoVadis data.

“Groupe PSA is very pleased to receive this years’ sustainable procurement award « Best Portfolio CSR Performance Improvement ». This is a great result that is achieved thanks to our robust internal processes as well as the continuous and growing successful relationship to our supply base. In fact this recognition is in the same way valid for all our suppliers around the globe who made this result possible through their support and dedication for sustainability,”  said Gilles Testu, VP – Purchasing Strategy Processes & Systems, Supplier Relationship & Risk Management. “This award marks a further piece of motivation for Groupe PSA to further strengthen our supplier performance and the performance of Groupe PSA on Sustainability in the Supply Chain.”

Outstanding Program Leadership 

Winners: Marc Pinart, Faurecia and Andy Lowrie, NSG Group

Introduced in 2018, this award recognizes individuals with outstanding contribution to driving a sustainable procurement initiative forward within their organizations. This award is nominated and selected by the EcoVadis team.

Pinart was recognized as a “king of change management,” motivating buyers, driving adoption and powering innovation for Faurecia. He is named a trailblazer in sustainable procurement by his team and has embedded sustainability in every corner of Faurecia’s value chain.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by EcoVadis for our excellence in sustainability. I’d like to share this recognition with our purchasing team and our suppliers who are key contributors to our success,” said Pinart. “I’m looking forward to another year of advancement in sustainable procurement at Faurecia and continue our fight against global warming.”

Lowrie is credited for re-energizing NSG Group’s sustainable procurement program. His strong leadership and focus on buyer engagement and training has helped his team set clear sustainability objectives and drive big results.

“It’s a real pleasure to receive this award on behalf of NSG. As a global glass manufacturer we face the challenge of operating in an energy intensive industry which can be dangerous and involves the procurement of some high risk materials. However, we are committed to our long term ESG priorities, including procurement’s drive for a sustainable supply base,” said Lowrie. “This award is a great recognition and certainly motives me and my procurement colleagues to continue our efforts in supporting our company sustainability drive”

Sustainability Leadership Awards

EcoVadis also selects the best rated companies for the Sustainability Leadership Awards based on their EcoVadis score. For 2020, EcoVadis has extended the program to recognize the top 1% of performers who meet eligibility criteria from across the 160 countries and 200 categories covered in our assessment methodology.  The complete set of 36 winners were announced at the EcoVadis Sustain event, and are also celebrated online.