Sustainability remains a key growth area and a decisive competitive factor for companies in our industry. With a sustainability rating from EcoVadis, companies can communicate their environmental, social, and ethical performance effectively and transparently to the outside world. 2025/26 brings new requirements and opportunities, which we present to you in a compact form in the following article.
EcoVadis is continuously evolving with its regular methodology reviews.
Important changes from 2025/26
- More precise individual scores instead of rounding: Since January 1, 2025, the scores for each assessment area are no longer displayed as rough rounding to the nearest ten, but as exact, unrounded scores (e.g., 83.4 instead of 80). This means that even small improvements or fluctuations become transparent and have a real impact on the overall score.
- Higher requirements for documentation and evidence: Documents must be clearly traceable, relevant, and in the right context. This means that quality management, data management, and transparency are becoming massively more important.
- Greater consideration of climate and emissions: EcoVadis integrates criteria relating to climate strategies, CO2emissions in Scope 1 to 3, and environmental management.
- New requirements for social responsibility and supply chain: New tools such as external voice surveys and stricter requirements for supplier risks and complaint mechanisms are being integrated.
- Expanded industry coverage and differentiated assessment: EcoVadis takes additional sectors into account and tailors its assessment more closely to industry-specific characteristics.
Relevance and consequences of the changes
- Greater transparency and depth of detail
- Shift from compliance to strategic sustainability
- Focus on the supply chain, ESG as a decision-making criterion
- Growing expectations due to regulation and standards
What companies should do now:
- Centralize data and document management,
- establish climate strategy and emissions balance,
- anchor social responsibility,
- clearly communicate industry-specific characteristics,
- strategically embed sustainability.
Conclusion
The innovations at EcoVadis clearly show that sustainability can no longer be documented in a superficial manner. With its updated methodology, EcoVadis provides more demanding specifications and, at the same time, a tool for the targeted improvement of ESG performance.
Our offer
Would you like to strengthen your sustainability strategy, improve your EcoVadis performance, or establish holistic ESG structures? Then get in touch with us! As specialists in consulting for the packaging industry, we are happy to support you in making sustainability effective, measurable, and sustainable. You can find a current success story on our LinkedIn channel.
