Ecovadis is a company that examines the sustainability efforts and successes of industries and companies worldwide and classifies them in a ranking. Phoenix Contact has now been awarded a gold medal for its efforts.
Do good things and talk about them. Or have yourself independently assessed and then talk about it … After two silver awards, now gold: Phoenix Contact has once again had its sustainability performance assessed by EcoVadis experts this year. EcoVadis claims to be the world’s largest provider of sustainability ratings and has already worked with more than 100,000 companies. The experts analyze the entire company, examine working conditions (social sustainability) as well as the resources used and supply chains. From this, ratings and scorecards are created that show how well a company has integrated the principles of sustainability/CSR into its business and management system.
Out of a possible 100 points, Phoenix Contact achieved 76 points in the classification. “We have improved thanks to our diverse projects,” says Andreas Kehl, head of the sustainability project at Phoenix Contact, who is delighted with the Gold status. Phoenix Contact scored particularly well in the areas of environment, labor and human rights. It also scored highly in the areas of ethics and sustainable procurement.
Numerous employees have worked hard to achieve this. In the “Labor and human rights” category, for example, projects to promote diversity and social aspects were included in the assessment. In the “Environment” category, it was the publication of the sustainability report and the analysis of the environmental impact of the products used (PEF). In the “Ethics” category, it was the standardization and roll-out of global compliance training. And in the “sustainable procurement” category, it was the Code of Conduct for suppliers and the collection of key figures on sustainable procurement.
“For the evaluation process, the participants had to provide very precise documentation and back up the projects with evidence. This resulted in a total of around 100 pages of evidence,” says Andreas Kehl, praising the effort – which is now paying off. “Only by integrating sustainability into our business model and thus into our ‘daily business’ can we meet customer requirements for an assessment and documentation of our sustainability strategy and at the same time act in compliance with the law.”
