EcoVadis' global team is driving the sustainable transformation of business across regions and industries, and we offer careers with an impact. What does it mean to our teammates?
Hear from Julie de Mony-Pajol, a Customer Success Manager based in our Paris office, and Chetan Peryagh, a Senior Sustainability Analyst based in Mauritius, both of whom are involved with the EcoVadis Impact & Values Commission.
What do you think about making an impact in your own career? How does EcoVadis fulfill that vision?
Julie
Making sense has always been the first driver of my professional life. Working for an NGO, I arrived in Bangladesh a week after the Rana Plaza fashion factory collapsed, causing the deaths of thousands of workers. Coming back to France two years later, I was so happy to discover EcoVadis, a startup aiming to generate positive impacts within global supply chains. I had no doubt that by joining this mission-driven company, one that leverages technology and sustainability expertise, I was in the right place to participate in the improvement of business practices among global companies, irrespective of their size or industry.
Chetan
The first question I had to ask myself when considering whether to join EcoVadis was this: Knowing that I have a deep interest in sustainability and had previously been involved in volunteering with local NGOs on environmental and conservation projects, would I have the opportunity to continue to work with communities and make a tangible impact on sustainable development at a global level through my work? Well, during my 7 years in the company, if I can put it this way, it was actually EcoVadis who has embraced my vision via its robust commitments and core values as well as its continuous effort to bring the best out its workers. I have no doubt that I have found an appropriate place of work, one in which I can learn, grow, develop and make a difference.
How do your teams contribute to the company’s impact model?
Julie
The Customer Success team enables buying organizations to create a positive impact with every unit of procurement spend they allocate to contracts with sustainable suppliers, thereby creating and amplifying impact across global value chains and the communities they support. Our talented team of experts influence decision makers from the biggest corporations in the world to strongly embed sustainability into procurement core vision, strategies and processes. They incentivize and train procurement experts to both challenge and empower their preferred partners to reach environmental and social standards, reducing environmental footprints and improving the lives of millions of workers.
Chetan
The Evaluation Services team, with its network of professional sustainability analysts, provides scorecards of rated companies via thorough assessments based on questionnaire declarations, supporting evidence provided, the application of a robust methodology and quality check at all levels. Because the scorecards contain comprehensive information on the sustainability management system of rated companies, customers are equipped with the materials needed to better manage and communicate their sustainability performance in a clear and actionable way to stakeholders. Comparing performance against industry benchmarks, reviewing and taking action on key improvement areas, and deploying EcoVadis ratings to win customers and retain employees are just some examples of impact at the rated company level. On a global level, as elaborated in our annual Business Sustainability Risk and Performance Index, the team prompts opportunities for corporations to leverage environmental, social and governance topics through their value and supply chains.
You are both engaged with EcoVadis’ own sustainability projects. Can you elaborate on your journey?
Julie and Chetan
We also wanted to have a more direct impact with our communities, leveraging the power of the EcoVadis community to support organizations we cared about. Therefore, we volunteered to organise fundraising, blood donations, food and cloth collections at our offices (Julie in Paris & Chetan in Mauritius). EcoVadis teammates were willing to get involved on the ground and EcoVadis decided to offer 1 day to each employee to act within their local communities. Around the world, a network of CSR champions came to life enabling us to act powerfully as a collective in response to international humanitarian disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil spill environmental disaster in Mauritius.
Providing sustainability induction training for new employees, curating awareness campaigns on waste reduction, contributing to data collection for the annual sustainability report; all these tasks gradually came under our purview. We also solicited information regarding energy consumption in our Warsaw office, compiled taxi mileage data for Japanese employees, and participated in recording the weight of the corporation's garbage. Such painstaking work was necessary to precisely measure the company’s CO2 emissions and we are pleased to have an opportunity to thank and congratulate all the volunteers that participated in the CSR network over the past number of years. They are true Sustainability advocates and ensure that Sustainability endures as a key value within each EcoVadian.
With the organization growing rapidly in 2021, we contributed to the creation of the Impact & Values Commission as a new governance framework to embed sustainability in the core of EcoVadis’ strategy. We are both leading two task forces with ambitious goals. The Carbon Task Force will aim at reducing our CO2 impact, while the Philanthropy & Communities Task Force will concentrate on the creation and animation of a global philanthropy and community involvement strategy for EcoVadis.
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