Washington, DC – May 25, 2016 – The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) announced that EcoVadis, the leader in sustainability ratings for supply chains, and Together for Sustainability (TfS), the chemical industry initiative for sustainable supply chains, have won the 2016 SPLC Market Transformation Award.
EcoVadis and TfS submitted the case study, available for download here, detailing the collaboration among 19 chemical leaders, including AkzoNobel, Bayer, Eastman, Merck and BASF, who are using the initiative to assess and audit their suppliers and share the results. EcoVadis is the partner providing supplier CSR assessments for TfS.
The SPLC Market Transformation Outstanding Case Study Award recognizes a purchaser or collaboration whose work led to the creation of a more sustainable ‘new normal’ in a specific market segment. Awards were selected by a jury of nine leaders in procurement and sustainability from public and private organizations, listed with all award recipients on the SPLC website.
“The judges were very impressed by the case study submitted by EcoVadis and TfS.” commented Jason Pearson, Executive Director of SPLC. “We believe that collaborative initiatives like TfS can play an important role in accelerating market innovation, and we are pleased to recognize their success in evaluating and improving sustainability across the chemical industry supply chain. Their work serves as a great example for other industries to follow.”
Photos with awardees (from left to right) : Matthew Swibel, Director, Corporate Sustainability, Lockheed-Martin; John Lanzi, Director Global Procurement at Evonik Degussa (representing Together for Sustainability), Pierre-Francois Thaler Co-CEO EcoVadis; Jason Pearson, Executive Director, SPLC; Anastasia O’Rourke, PhD, Chair of Board of Directors, SPLC
The TfS initiative yields benefits on both sides: suppliers receive one request from TfS instead of multiple from each individual customer and TfS members share the results. These synergies of mutualized sharing, combined with the CSR rating and detailed feedback provided in the EcoVadis scorecard, enables all parties to focus efforts on driving improvements. More than 70% of suppliers who take EcoVadis assessments improve their score upon reassessment.
The TfS program has expanded to have significant impact, with a total of more than 4,600 supplier companies assessed through EcoVadis, and almost 500 suppliers audited by TfS. In 2015, 2,580 scorecards and 179 new TfS audit reports were received by the TfS initiative. A TfS Audit is an on-site examination of a company’s business sites and sustainability practices by an independent third party auditor, pre-approved by TfS.
“We appreciate this selection by SPLC, whose practical tools and thought leadership are helping shape how purchasing teams engage in sustainability” added Pierre-Francois Thaler Co-CEO of EcoVadis.
About Together for Sustainability
Together for Sustainability is a joint initiative of chemical companies for sustainable supply chains. It was founded in 2011, to develop and implement a global program to assess, audit and improve sustainability practices within the supply chains of the chemical industry. Currently it has 13 member companies worldwide and intends to grow globally. http://www.tfs-initiative.com/
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TfS press contact:
Mrs. Dr. Gabriele Unger
General Manager TfS
Phone: +32 2792 7515
e-mail: gabriele.unger@tfs-initiative.com
About EcoVadis
EcoVadis is the first collaborative platform providing sustainability ratings and performance improvement tools for global supply chains. EcoVadis’ easy-to-use CSR scorecards help companies to monitor suppliers’ environmental, ethical, and social practices across 150 purchasing categories and 110 countries.
Over 120 industry leaders such as Verizon, Merck, Coca Cola Enterprises, Heineken, Johnson & Johnson, Renault-Nissan, ING Bank, and Nokia use EcoVadis to reduce risk, drive innovation and foster transparency and trust among over 20,000 trading partners. www.ecovadis.com
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EcoVadis Press contact:
David McClintock, Marketing Director
EcoVadis.
Phone (805) 364-3239
dmcclintock@ecovadis.com
