L’Occitane, Amazon EU, Bridgestone, Mars, Crédit Agricole, and Johnson & Johnson Recognized for Outstanding Sustainable Procurement Practices
PARIS and NEW YORK - March 8, 2021 - EcoVadis, the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, today announces the winners of its fifth annual Sustainable Procurement Leadership Awards program. Winners were announced at the EcoVadis Sustain 2021 virtual conference in Paris.
The EcoVadis Sustainable Procurement Leadership Awards celebrate excellence and recognize the outstanding performance of companies in engaging and integrating sustainability into their relationships with trading partners around the globe.
“While all our nominees exemplify true commitment to creating a more sustainable future for the world, we are delighted to recognize those who continue to raise the bar for sustainable procurement practices,” said Pierre-François Thaler, Co-CEO, EcoVadis. “Our 2021 winners have gone big on their commitments to see actionable business value from sustainability by working to spark real change where it matters most - across the supply chain.”
Nominees were evaluated on strategy and approach, procurement integration, scale and coverage, and program results across three main categories:
Best Value Chain Engagement
Winners: Johnson & Johnson, L’Occitane Group
This award, which was given out to two companies, acknowledges excellence in engaging trading partners in sustainability initiatives and honors best-in-class examples of driving internal engagement to roll out global sustainable procurement programs. This award was selected by an independent jury panel comprised of industry experts: Brigitte Monsou Tantawi, Former Director of Sustainable Value Chain of WBCSD and current Vice President of Oxfam in France; Godefroy Motte, former CSO and Senior VP of Integrated Global Supply Chain of a Fortune 500 Chemical Company; and Luk Van Wassenhove, Academic Director of the INSEAD Sustainable Operations Initiative, bringing his unique combination of CSR and sustainable procurement expertise to the panel.
The jury panel noted key attributes that led to Johnson & Johnson’s selection through a winning combination:
- A clear Supplier Sustainability Program (SSP) strategy, rooted in their public “Credo”, supported by global governance across 30 categories and multiple regions, and linked to a focused program on human rights risk monitoring.
- Well defined objectives with a public-facing goal to achieve 80% coverage of their global spend with suppliers by 2020.
- Demonstrated results via a tracking system for the engaged suppliers, expanding the reach to smaller spend suppliers, and reducing the number of suppliers identified as medium and high-risk.
Len DeCandia, Chief Procurement Officer, Johnson & Johnson
“Our Supplier Sustainability Program is an important component of our Responsibility Standards for Suppliers and our Health for Humanity goals, and reflects the values stated in our Credo: ‘We are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world community as well.’ We are humbled by this selection by an independent panel, recognizing our Program's outstanding performance as well as the focus and commitment of our Johnson & Johnson teams and our supplier business partners on ensuring sustainable business practices for us all.”
The jury panel also said L’Occitane “stepped up their game” over the past two years, noting these key observations that earned the company honors:
- Bolstered its impact and visibility with international coverage.
- Supported industry collaboration by joining the Responsible Beauty Initiative in April of 2020, enabling mutual scorecard sharing with other RBI members, thus boosting value to suppliers.
- Strong top management support and program leadership to create effective governance, and integrating the sustainability criteria into their processes and software tools.
- Effective use of risk mapping on 1500 of its global suppliers to identify risk areas and guide investments in monitoring sustainability performance.
Elvire REGNIER-LUSSIER, Chief Procurement Officer, L’Occitane
“I recently joined L’Occitane Group as CPO. I’m so proud of the terrific job that has been accomplished by the team on its CSR journey under the leadership of Katia Michieletto and with the support of Ecovadis’ tools and teams. Sustainability has always been at the heart of the L’Occitane business strategy. It is with great pride that L’Occitane is receiving the “Best Value Chain Engagement Award'' for our sustainable #NotJustSuppliers program. This award recognizes our strategy to consider our suppliers as true business partners, building environmentally safe solutions and innovations together that delight our customers.
I would like to seize this opportunity to recognize L’Occitane global head of responsible purchasing, Katia Michieletto, for more than ten years of dedication to the sustainability journey. Having Katia recognized today by Ecovadis as “Outstanding Program Manager” fills me, the procurement community, and the 90-plus countries L’Occitane Group is represented in with great pride. Well done Katia, well deserved!”
Outstanding Program Leadership
Winners: Gemma Tyndall (Amazon EU), Katia Michieletto (Groupe L’Occitane)
This award recognizes individuals with outstanding contribution to driving a sustainable procurement initiative forward within their company. This award is nominated and selected by the EcoVadis team based on sustainable procurement program results and demonstrated excellence in program strategy and execution.
Gemma TYNDALL, EU Procurement Sustainability and Safety Manager, Amazon EU
“On behalf of the whole sustainability procurement team at Amazon, it’s a great honor to receive this award from EcoVadis. Amazon made a big commitment by co-founding The Climate Pledge with the goal of achieving net zero carbon across all our businesses by 2040 – a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goal – and it wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of the procurement team.”
Katia MICHIELETTO, Global Head of Responsible Purchasing, L’Occitane
“It is already a great privilege to have been assigned as the global head of responsible purchasing for L’Occitane Group, which is such a committed group. It is now an honor to receive these awards from EcoVadis. A warm thank you to L’Occitane’s top management for your sponsorship, to our suppliers and to the purchasing teams worldwide who make it happen. Finally, a big thank you to the EcoVadis team for your support to improve sustainability in our supply chain.”
Best Portfolio Performance Improvement
Winners: Crédit Agricole, Mars, Bridgestone
For the first time, this award is granted to three companies who demonstrate the highest percentage of rated companies improving their sustainability performance. This category was not open for submissions and was instead granted based on the EcoVadis data.
Sylvie ROBIN-ROMET, CPO, Crédit Agricole
“The Crédit Agricole Group and I want to thank the EcoVadis team for this recognition. This award is the result of investments made in building a collaborative spirit between our suppliers and the sourcing team. Our suppliers have improved their sustainable approach while the Crédit Agricole procurement team has increased their skills, thus accelerating our mutual success.”
Barry PARKIN, Chief Procurement & Sustainability Officer, Mars
“We’re proud to accept the Best Portfolio Performance Improvement award for the Americas region. This award reflects the great work our suppliers are doing to make progress on social and environmental priorities. It also is a testament to the significant efforts our buyers are making to engage and support our suppliers in their sustainability journeys.”
Emilio TIBERIO, COO and CTO, Bridgestone EMIA
“We are honored to receive such an important award from EcoVadis, a partner that has been instrumental in fostering Bridgestone’s sustainability agenda. This award is proof of our continued efforts to advance sustainability with our trusted suppliers, and clearly demonstrates the impact of our Global Sustainable Procurement Policy. Since it was introduced in 2018, the policy has accelerated positive change within the supply chains we’re part of. Thank you to EcoVadis for recognizing this impact”
In addition to these awards, EcoVadis also recognizes a selection of small and medium sized rated companies (suppliers and trading partners) from across the globe who achieved exceptionally high performance in their EcoVadis rating in the past year. Learn more on the EcoVadis 2021 Sustainability Leadership Awards page.
About EcoVadis
EcoVadis is the world's most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. Global supply chains, financial institutions and public organizations rely on EcoVadis to monitor and improve the sustainability performance of their business and trading partners. Backed by a powerful technology platform, EcoVadis’ evidence-based ratings are validated by a global team of experts, and are adapted to more than 200 industry categories, 160 countries, and companies of all sizes. Its actionable scorecards provide benchmarks, insights, and a guided improvement journey for environmental, social and ethical practices. Industry leaders such as Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Unilever, LVMH, Salesforce, Bridgestone, BASF, and ING Group are among the 85,000 businesses that collaborate with EcoVadis to drive resilience, sustainable growth and positive impact worldwide. Learn more on ecovadis.com, Twitter or LinkedIn.
###
Press Inquiries
US: Corporate Ink for EcoVadis
617-969-9192, ecovadis@corporateink.com
