Move forward and change the game: our Ecovadis certification

Why do we want to commit into CSR actions? 

For us, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an essential aspect of doing impactful and responsible business. Since our beginning, our team has been aware of the impact of business operations on society and environment, so we were naturally pushed to take sustainability measures.

At Ekkiden, we believe CSR is important not only to improve our business practices, but also to make our workplace a safe atmosphere to work in. CSR actions are not prioritised by every company, but we found ourselves in the attention given to responsibility, environment and inclusion. 

However, we realised that it’s not that easy to enter into the CSR mindset as a company: the necessary decisions and actions are very cross-functional and link employees, customers and suppliers. Nonetheless, we were sure about our commitment to creating a social and environmental value!  

We’re convinced that taking responsibility through CSR is no longer an option but a necessity for us to succeed in the long term. And as we’re game changers in the consulting world, we also want to change the game in the wider world. We want to contribute to a more sustainable society, so we can create long-term value for us and our team. 

How to get the EcoVadis certification? 

In order to translate this willingness to change the game thanks to CSR actions, our VP Finance Benoit and our Legal Assistant Miguel took the decision to be certified with two objectives in mind: answer to some French legal obligations and go further in our commitment to sustainability. 

The EcoVadis adventure was very fast for us: Miguel and Benoit started the process at the end of 2022, and we obtained the certification at the beginning of April. EcoVadis and Ekkiden were meant to be! 

First, our Legal team filled a form evaluating Ekkiden’s behaviors around a lot of subjects:  

• Human rights 
• Working conditions 
• Social benefits 
• Equality 
• Ethics 

• Environment 
• Recycling 
• Corruption 
• Responsible purchases 

And at this moment, we realized that some of these subjects were not that present, at least officially, in Ekkiden. That’s why we decided to implement policies and trainings. For example, we wrote a Code of Ethics to reflect our commitment to society, the environment and economy.  

We also created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee that gathers every month. Its goal is to ensure that the principles of the Code of Ethics are respected by all Ekkiden collaborators, and to give a space for our team to express their ideas for a more inclusive workplace and set up their projects. 

Regarding our responsibility for purchases, we created a chart and gave several trainings to the teams concerned, as well as trainings around anti-corruption. We also decided to take the lead around essential questions like cybersecurity and whistleblowing. All these projects are witnesses to the commitment of our team, so dedicated to these issues that all our departments managed brilliantly to work together. 

Moreover, mirroring the creation of our Ethics chart, we joined the United Nations' Global Impact project. Its goal? To align our operations and strategies with 10 universal principles about human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. 
 
After the deployment of all these initiatives, we were gifted with the precious EcoVadis certification! And we are super proud of it, because it gives a real value to what we’re trying to achieve: it reflects our commitment as individuals and as a company that is game-changing. 

Why did we choose EcoVadis? 

Several reasons led our Legal team to select EcoVadis over other certifications. First, it's a platform that provides sustainability ratings for companies across 200 industries and 160 countries. We applied for their certification to assess our sustainability performance based on a set of criteria that cover four main categories: environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. The criteria are aligned with international standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact – which Ekkiden is a member of –, and the International Labor Organization. 

The EcoVadis rating system is based on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 indicates that a company has achieved the highest level of sustainability performance: we have a score of 60/100! The rating system is transparent, and we were able to access detailed feedback on our strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the platform offers a range of services to help companies improve their sustainability performance, such as training, coaching, and consulting. The platform is helping us a lot to identify areas for improvement and to set targets for reducing our environmental impact. 

Moreover, EcoVadis has gained widespread adoption in the business world, with over 75,000 companies using the platform, including large corporations such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Johnson & Johnson. The platform has also received recognition from sustainability experts, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, which has named EcoVadis as one of the top three sustainability rating agencies in the world. 

At the end, EcoVadis is a great tool to help us create a world where sustainability is a core business value and where we work together towards a more just and sustainable future. We are very proud to have been certified because of all the stakes we highlighted just before, and because it was a largely asked project by our team!