Four out of five (80%) companies rated by EcoVadis have no documented process for identifying or managing sustainability risks within their own supply chains, a new report has found.
According to the tenth edition of the EcoVadis Sustainability Ratings Index, while firms in Tier 1 supply chains are making progress on climate goals and human rights in their own operations, that ‘progress stalls’ when you move one tier into their supply chain.
As well as uncovering a lack of documentation for identifying or managing sustainability risks among their own suppliers, the report also found that 73% of Tier 1 suppliers have no Scope 3 upstream emissions reporting and 77% have no downstream tracking.
Just 2% have an external grievance mechanism in place to enable workers deeper in the supply chain to report human rights concerns, while fewer than 1% share granular, decision-grade sustainability data to buyer organisations.
EcoVadis’ analysis
EcoVadis’ report analysed almost 200,000 sustainability scorecards from more than 100,000 companies assessed between 2021 and 2025. The companies are typically Tier 1 suppliers to more than 1,400 multinational organisations using the EcoVadis platform.
Other findings from the report include that most firms are making ‘real progress’ on sustainability within their own operations, with 46% of rated suppliers purchasing or generating renewable energy and 38% running climate-related training programmes for employees. However, close to four fifths (78%) have no science-based carbon reduction targets in place.
Sustainable procurement
Procurement practices are an issue, with 42% of firms saying that they continue to rely on supplier questionnaires that are not independently verified, while 46% require suppliers to sign a sustainability code of conduct. Just 20% conduct on-site audits, a figure that has barely moved in four years.
These capability gaps are also affecting the rollout of AI in sustainable procurement, EcoVadis noted. A separate study, the EcoVadis Barometer 2026 report, found that more than two thirds (68%) of corporate buyers have introduced AI tools into procurement programmes, with carbon data validation among the most common applications. However, close to a third (30%) of suppliers provide no carbon data, while 26% supply only aggregated estimates.
“Organisations have built sophisticated tools to analyse supplier sustainability data. The suppliers either don’t have that data or can’t report it in a form the tools can use,” commented Sylvain Guyoton, chief rating officer at EcoVadis. “Better software does not close that gap. The measurement problem lives in the supply base itself, and closing it requires sustained engagement over time: structured assessment, scored performance, and documented follow-through.
“Companies willing to treat supplier engagement as an ongoing process, rather than a one-time compliance exercise, close the distance between what they intend and what they can actually verify.” Read more here.
