This article offers guidance about assessing trading partners categorized as one-person businesses: who is eligible, and the recommendations for the requesting companies.
Who are one-person trading partners?
They are businesses run by one person, usually referred to as a sole proprietor, one-person company, freelancer, or self-employed.
Only trading partners operating as a legal entity are eligible for the rating. EcoVadis provides ratings of a sustainability management system, which is a tool for organizations and not for individuals. As such, freelancers or self-employed natural persons without legal entities are not eligible. One-person business with a legal entity is eligible for the rating, although it is not recommended (see the next section).
EcoVadis offers ratings for a group of entities, a single entity, or a site of all sizes.
For other specific ineligible cases, please learn more about scope of assessments.
Recommendation regarding the invitation of one-person trading partners
In most cases, we recommend not to invite one-person companies to the sustainability rating. As EcoVadis rating methodology aims to assess management systems for organizations based on the supporting documents, there may be certain areas that one-person companies find challenging in the rating.
Therefore, we recommend using our new module, EcoVadis Vitals, for one-person trading partners. It is an enhanced risk prioritization tool that allows you to collect your partner's direct input on sustainability and due diligence fundamentals. Learn more about the EcoVadis Vitals questionnaire.
EcoVadis suggests continuing to use our Sustainability Ratings solution to rate companies with 2–25 employees. These companies are classified as extra-small (XS), and we have a specific methodology designed for them. In 2023, EcoVadis improved its XS methodology to provide better support to these companies throughout their sustainability journey. You can find a dedicated Guide to XS companies.
Contact us directly if you have questions on this topic.
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