B2E Awarded a Gold Medal for the 2022 EcoVadis Sustainability Assessment

Introduction

The world is shifting, there is a growing awareness toward sustainability, ethics and human rights. With this in mind, the necessary pressure is being applied by companies across all industries and geographic regions to partner with sustainable companies.

In recent years, B2E Consulting has been actively engaging on topics of sustainability and CSR internally. However, we have realised that it is hard to measure sustainability without being able to compare results with similar companies. Recently, B2E has been asked by a client to complete a Sustainability Assessment on the EcoVadis platform. Our numerous internal initiatives and policies have been analysed carefully to understand areas of improvement and strengths. This has enabled B2E to position itself among other companies and it will guide our future sustainability strategies.

What is EcoVadis?

EcoVadis is the only Universal Sustainability Ratings Provider that helps companies manage their network both upstream and downstream, either by sharing their sustainability performance with stakeholders or monitoring the performance of the company’s own upstream value chain. Thousands of companies have partnered with EcoVadis to either request or take part in the assessment. The EcoVadis questionnaire was separated into sections: General, Labour and Human Rights, Environment, Ethics and sustainable procurement. B2E was prompted to provide documentation to support any declaration. Analysts validated the quality of the documentation and based on their findings, determined B2E’s EcoVadis Rating according to three key indicators: Policies, Actions, and Results.

The content of the Assessment:

The general questionnaire focused on assessing the sustainability management system put in place by B2E through the presence of formalised policies. This included: Energy consumption and greenhouse gases, waste management, employee health & safety, working conditions, career management & training, diversity, discrimination & harassment, anti-corruption and information security. Although B2E is small in size, policies for each of these topics are present and available to all employees. Key performance indicators were assessed, focusing notably on the environment and employees. This included the electricity consumption and quantity of waste recycled. B2E’s company admin has become fully digitised and our flexible working arrangement saves 17 metric tonnes of CO2 every year.

B2E has demonstrated its consideration towards human resources and human rights through policies and internal initiatives. Topics considered in the assessment included: health & safety, working conditions, structured social dialogue, career management, and training. Human rights issues included child, forced labour & human trafficking, diversity, discrimination & harassment and external stakeholder human rights. B2E has and will continue to integrate the principles of international labour standards into the management system.

B2E is aware of the issues of business ethics, such as, bribery and information security. Thus, our policies and initiatives focus largely on addressing threats of corruption and bribery. Some of which include awareness training, approval procedures for sensitive transactions and measures in place to protect third party data disclosure. B2E is committed to conducting all business in an ethical manner, in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Lastly, B2E was assessed on the actions taken to enable Sustainable Procurement within the supply chain. We are committed to procuring sustainably and minimising the potentially negative environmental impacts of our business operations by striving to adopt the Foundation (level 1) arrangements of Defra’s 2011 Flexible Framework Solution. The environment is considered in all supplier decisions, we are committed to having a thorough understanding of our client CSR strategies before engaging in business with them.

B2E results:

B2E is proud to have achieved in the top 5% of companies assessed by EcoVadis, scoring in the 93rd percentile amongst tens of thousands of other companies. B2E has therefore been awarded a Gold Medal for the 2022 EcoVadis Sustainability Assessment. With only 9% of companies achieving a score of 65/100 or above, B2E’s position in the assessment recognizes the dedication and effort put into all issues surrounding sustainability and CSR. With these encouraging figures, B2E will continue to push towards becoming a fairer and more sustainable workplace. The thorough feedback from Ecovadis analysts has enabled B2E to understand the areas that need improvement in the upcoming months.

Why is this important?

Sustainability has become one of the top criteria considered by individuals or companies when making decisions. Consumers are more likely to buy from a company that is sustainability oriented, and companies take sustainability into account when partnering with suppliers.

Scorecard:

Comment

“B2E recognised that as a business which advises companies on how to develop their systems and processes it was essential that they are leading the way when it comes to social responsibility and in particular the drive to become carbon neutral. Whilst many organisations are using offsetting to achieve carbon neutrality, B2E have taken the view that they have to genuinely reduce their carbon footprint for all their activities, including their supply chain. As a starting point in this process, we have used EcoVadis to assess our current performance and are very pleased to have achieved the results we have. However, this is only a starting point, and we recognise that there is still a long way to go and will be putting into place a social responsibility strategy that over the next five years will ensure we are not only carbon neutral but are also operating as a truly socially responsible business including our workforce, our clients and the community around us. In implementing this strategy, we will also ensure that we are ESG compliant and aligned with the UN Social Development Goals, something we want to help all our clients and suppliers achieve. For more information on our approach and how we can help our clients implement a CSR strategy please contact us.”