The good news arrived in December, just in time for the Christmas Magic event in Laupheim and the Christmas party in Lisse: Both Uhlmann Pac-Systeme and Cremer Speci­aal­ma­chines secured medals from EcoVadis, a company that measures busi­ness sustain­ability perfor­mance across the entire supply chain. According to their own figures, more than 100,000 compa­nies world­wide seek an EcoVadis rating for their social, ethical and envi­ron­mental prac­tices. The medals place Uhlmann and Cremer among the top 25 percent of compa­nies assessed by EcoVadis.

The external sustain­ability assess­ment has become crucial for compa­nies.

Carolyn Leung, Sustain­ability Manager Uhlmann Pac-Systeme

Credit for this success goes to all our employees because sustain­able action starts with each and every indi­vidual. Carolyn Leung and Lea Steilen, Corpo­rate Sustain­ability Managers of the Uhlmann Group, and Freek Voogt, respon­sible for Occu­pa­tional Health, Safety and Envi­ron­mental Manage­ment at Cremer, ensured that EcoVadis received all the neces­sary docu­ments on time and in full.

Sixty-five pages of ques­tions

Together they worked their way through a 65-page ques­tion­naire, answering ques­tions such as “Does your company have a policy on labor prac­tices or human rights issues?” But you can’t just answer with a simple ‘Yes’. Each answer must be backed up with docu­ments, such as excerpts from Cremer’s company regu­la­tions. “Count­less hours of work go into compiling the supporting docu­ments,” says Freek. In addi­tion, not only does EcoVadis want to know if and what kind of guide­lines are in place; according to Carolyn, “We also have to explain in very specific terms exactly what improve­ment measures we are taking, for example, whether we have sustain­ability-related training courses for employees, or whether we also encourage our suppliers to act sustain­ably. And we have to demon­strate the success of these measures through our Sustain­ability Report.”

Our sales people need the rating for poten­tial customers.

Freek Voogt, QHSE Specialist Cremer Speci­aal­ma­chines

There’s no doubt in Carolyn’s mind that it’s all worth the effort: “The external sustain­ability assess­ment has become crucial for compa­nies in recent years. It shows us where we stand in terms of sustain­ability and is also an impor­tant signal to the outside world” – a view echoed by Freek who says “Our sales people, in partic­ular, often ask me about the rating because they need it for poten­tial customers.”

According to Freek, one of the special merits of the EcoVadis rating is that “Along with the assess­ment, EcoVadis also clearly indi­cates where further improve­ments are needed. At Cremer, for instance, EcoVadis crit­i­cized the fact that there was no coherent reporting on sustain­able procure­ment issues. That’s an issue we intend to tackle now,” says Freek, and goes on to stress that it’s also always impor­tant to gauge whether the measures are feasible for the work­force. “If, for example, we believe that you put a lot more into securing ISO certi­fi­ca­tion than you actu­ally get out of it, we decide against doing it and accept that it means we won’t get a gold medal.”

After the rating is before the rating

For Uhlmann, partic­i­pating in the rating for the sixth time has paid off. “So far we have drawn up an action plan every year based on the rating and imple­mented it in the indi­vidual areas, so this time there were few issues raised by EcoVadis,” says Carolyn. What is new, however, she says, is EcoVadis’ focus on green­house gas emis­sions. “They want to see us working with our suppliers and customers to reduce our CO₂ emis­sions.”

So, Carolyn, Lea and Freek cannot rest on their “golden and silver laurels” for long. Now it’s time start putting the indi­vidual measures in place. And, as far as EcoVadis is concerned, it’s not that long before we get the next chance to win an award: The docu­ments for this year’s rating have to be submitted in September. So let’s hope that we stay ahead with our sustain­ability drive and that there will be further medals to cele­brate at our Christmas parties in 2023!