How does EcoVadis handle fraudulent supporting documents?

EcoVadis Rating is evidence-based, which requires companies to provide formalized, recent, and pre-existing documentation that serves as a reliable element of the company’s sustainability management system. Since credible supporting documents are critical to the assessment, EcoVadis has a rigorous, multi-faceted program to verify the integrity of the evidence. 

The following documents will not be considered as evidence and will not be accepted:

• Documents (commitments, actions, and reporting) created solely for satisfying the EcoVadis questionnaire;
• Documents copied from another organization or online sources without reasonable evidence and assurance of implementation;
• Forged certificates.

Read more about the format and validity period of the supporting documents.

How does EcoVadis verify the credibility of documents? 

EcoVadis has an internal mechanism in place to detect dubious documents. Additionally, our analysts can report dubious cases to a special task force. We put certificates submitted through a systematic verification process to check their validity as well as the reliability of the certifying body. EcoVadis has also established a partnership with a software provider to detect the presence of plagiarized content. This accurate, reliable, and confidential tool allows our analysts to determine whether the documents are authentic, trustworthy and credible. 

What are the consequences of submitting dubious documents? 

Your documents will be rejected if they are found to be specifically prepared for our assessment or extensively plagiarized from external sources without an adequate level of adaptation. A specific comment from our analysts will also be shown on the scorecard of your company and visible to the requesting companies. Finally, the requesting companies will be alerted if the documents you submitted are similar to documents of other companies assessed by EcoVadis or if forged certificates have been provided for the assessment. Therefore, submitting dubious documents could have serious repercussions for your company and your relationship with your trading partners.

For more information and examples of documents that can be provided, please download our document guide.