The Integration Advances EcoVadis' Position to Help Organizations Improve Working Conditions, Comply With Regulations and Drive Positive Change at Global Scale
PARIS & TORONTO - September 4, 2024 - EcoVadis, the globally trusted sustainability intelligence platform, announces the strategic acquisition of Ulula, a leading human rights technology and analytics company aiming to improve working conditions across global supply chains. Ulula's on-the-ground worker engagement platform will enhance the depth and reliability of EcoVadis’ portfolio of solutions available to customers across their supply chains, advancing responsible and fair employment practices around the world.
Addressing the evolving risk and compliance landscape
According to ILO data, 63% of the 28 million men, women and children in conditions of forced labor globally are in the private economy - largely business supply chains. Anti-slavery and human rights due diligence are at the heart of modern slavery acts, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and its companion Reporting Directive (CSRD), whose impacts will cascade across global value chains. These laws demand unprecedented levels of rigor and verifiable detail to support disclosure on value-chain sustainability performance. In particular, the CSDDD will require all EU and non-EU companies with over 450 million euros of turnover in Europe to implement grievance mechanisms for their supply chain by 2029. The new directive also allows penalties of up to 5% of global turnover for non-compliance.
Bans on products made with forced labor such as the EU Forced Labor Regulation and the US Tariff Act of 1930 Section 307 already dictate tougher due diligence across supply chains, while local jurisdictions continue to adopt modern slavery laws and requirements for grievance mechanisms such as LkSG in Germany, California Transparency Act, and Modern Slavery Acts in the UK and Canada.
Through the Ulula acquisition, EcoVadis seeks to eliminate information gaps from legacy mechanisms by enabling recurring, on-the-ground feedback from workers and communities on labor and human rights conditions.
Strengthening EcoVadis insights
Pierre-François Thaler, co founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis said, “Ulula’s acquisition will enable EcoVadis to integrate and scale up supply chain labor and human rights risk due diligence, meeting customer demands for on-the-ground, verifiable data that complement our in-depth ratings and assist companies around the world in complying with new regulatory requirements.”
Ulula - which means “reveal” in Chichewa, a Southern African dialect - was founded in 2015, after years of engaging with communities and workers in the agriculture, mining and energy industries in 70 countries from the Niger River Delta, to the highlands of Peru.
The Ulula platform will significantly enhance the data in the EcoVadis platform to power additional insights through its automated workforce surveys, grievance management systems and analytics dashboards. Companies use the technology to engage their workers and communities directly so they can identify human and labor rights risks across supply chains, build actionable insights based on continuously updated data to address those risks, and facilitate access to remediation.
With the addition of Ulula’s proprietary platform, the EcoVadis solution suite solves three problems to get far-reaching and meaningful visibility on workforce practices:
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Recurring surveying and expanded sampling of workforce at scale.
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Anonymous third-party system ensuring user confidentiality.
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Accessible from any device, anytime, anywhere, in 114 languages.
Antoine Heuty, founder and CEO of Ulula, said, “Ulula and EcoVadis share an ambition to confront and accelerate progress on the devastating scope of threats to human rights and working conditions across global supply chains. Joining forces will enable us to combine Ulula’s direct labor and human rights data collection and reliable insights with EcoVadis’ global platform and network to accelerate positive impact at unprecedented scale.”
The joint roadmap will aim to deliver a consolidated product offering ahead of new regulatory requirements coming into effect.
To help your procurement teams prepare to comply with upcoming human rights due diligence requirements, visit the EcoVadis blog on labor and human rights.
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ABOUT ECOVADIS
EcoVadis is a purpose-driven company dedicated to embedding sustainability intelligence into every business decision worldwide. With global, trusted and actionable ratings, businesses of all sizes rely on EcoVadis’ detailed insights to comply with ESG regulations, reduce GHG emissions, and improve the sustainability performance of their business and value chain across 220 industries in 180 countries. Leaders like Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Unilever, Bridgestone, BASF and JPMorgan are among 130,000+ businesses that use EcoVadis ratings, risk, and carbon management tools and e-learning platform to accelerate their journey toward resilience, sustainable growth and positive impact worldwide.
Learn more on: ecovadis.com, X or LinkedIn.
ABOUT ULULA
Founded in 2015, Ulula - a certified B-Corporation - is a leading human rights technology and analytics company that aims to improve working conditions across global supply chains and business operations. Ulula’s technology connects organizations directly with workers and project-affected stakeholders on the ground via a variety of online and offline communication channels and in any language, ensuring that stakeholders have access to safe and secure feedback channels regardless of their network connectivity, digital literacy or language. Since its inception, Ulula tools have helped over 150 companies in nearly 70 countries reach more than 4 million workers in supply chains across the globe.
Learn more on: ulula.com, LinkedIn, X
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Pauline Schu
Head of Public Relations, EcoVadis
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