What is a sector initiative?

A sector initiative is a group of companies in the same industry, facing similar sustainability challenges within their supply chains, who have decided to collaborate on creating a positive impact on the Planet and Society in their organizations and throughout their entire value creation chain. In becoming members of a sector initiative, companies aim to leverage synergies, share best practices, reduce workload and thus accelerate their sustainability journey. Most initiatives seek harmonization of standards and tools to assess and improve the sustainability practices of their trading partners within global networks. They come from the same industry and have collective value chains (i.e. overlap of critical suppliers and partners).

Enrolling their trading partners in the same assessment process is incredibly beneficial for their partners too. Instead of replying to several standards and questionnaires, they cover multiple requests simultaneously. Trading partners decide to share their results with various partners within the sector initiative, and this avoids duplication of effort on both sides. Look at this article to better understand the benefits for rated companies.

Since 2011 EcoVadis has provided specific features and solutions to support sector initiatives on our platform. Suppose one member invites a trading partner to participate in an EcoVadis sustainability rating. All existing and future initiative members will have access to the scorecard, provided the trading partners accept the sharing. The commercial link between a rated company and the requesting member is kept strictly confidential. The members’ meetings are held under antitrust regulations with a facilitator from an independent coordination office. This coordination office can be led by EcoVadis or an external not-for-profit organization collaborating with EcoVadis.
EcoVadis is the chosen sector initiative sustainability ratings platform for the following key industries:

• Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Food & Beverage: Progress Initiative
• Chemical: TfS (Together for Sustainability)
• Railroad and OEMs: Sustainable Rail Initiative (SRI)
• Beauty and cosmetics: Responsible Beauty Initiative
• Health and pharmaceutical: Responsible Health Initiative
• Information, Communication, Telecommunication: EcoVadis ICT
• Automotive, mobility, vehicles: Accelerate Initiative
• Aerospace and Defense: International Aerospace Environmental Group (IAEG)
• Commercial aviation: Sustainable Airlines Initiative
• Hospitality: Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement

Watch this video and hear from EcoVadis Sector Initiative members.

If you are interested in learning more about sector initiatives powered by EcoVadis or creating an initiative, please reach out to sectorinitiatives@ecovadis.com, talk to your regular EcoVadis point of contact or submit a request.