Acea and EcoVadis for sustainable procurement

For us sustainability is paramount: it leads us towards a careful management of the environmental and social impacts of production processes. Suppliers, in fact, are a priority stakeholder for Acea and that is why we have decided to strengthen our commitment to promoting sustainability along the supply chain, adopting the Ecovadis model to assess the sustainability performance of our business partners.

Sustainability is a priority for Acea 

For a while now, the Acea Group has been conducting its activities following the principles of sustainable development and in line with the SDGs in the UN 2030 Agenda. This approach has involved all business areas of the Group, including its relationship with suppliers, priority stakeholders who play a decisive role in our value chain.

Acea aims to encourage its suppliers to adopt practices that reduce the impact on the environment and to this end has started a collaboration with EcoVadis, the largest European certification platform to assess corporate social responsibility and sustainable procurement.

EcoVadis, what it does and how it certifies sustainable procurement

EcoVadis is a company that rates global Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) based on international standards. The Acea Group has asked it to evaluate of the companies involved in its supply chain.

Our suppliers and commercial partners can register on the EcoVadis platform and start the evaluation process. After an initial assessment, based on its activities, the supplier obtains a rating that indicates how sustainable it is within the supply chain and a snapshot of its points of strength and areas requiring improvement, for which it will receive an action plan to follow also with the support of the Acea Group.

To reward the most virtuous companies in terms of environmental and social sustainability, the Ecovadis rating system (providing a specific technical rating) will be introduced in November 2021 in Acea’s calls for tender. When presenting their candidacy, suppliers will have to provide their valid scorecard or, alternatively, demonstrate to have filled in the questionnaire.

With this new tool, Acea’s supply chain will be assessed in terms of sustainability, in line with the Group strategy.
It is not just a new evaluation method but the start of a longer journey towards a more sustainable future.

Start the process to obtain the EcoVadis certification

Start the evaluation process to see your current sustainability performance rating and find out how to improve it.

Sustainability meets finance

From the rewarding criteria during tenders to the possible specific benefits of a sustainable supply chain.
Acea Group, in addition to the rewarding elements applied when awarding tenders to entities that possess sustainability ratings, will guarantee further opportunities to its suppliers that might be planning to exercise the option of assigning credit without recourse.
In this way, the Acea Group contracting authority/Purchaser will recognise not only a commercial deferral charge, as already provided for in the current tender specifications, but also a benefit for the achievement and improvement of the assigned sustainability ratings.

The companies forming Acea Group will support the suppliers in managing invoices linked to the described benefit, that are to be quantified substantially on the basis of the sustainability rating level obtained by EcoVadis and of its improvement over time.

For further details on how to determine and quantify the benefits that can be recognised according to the sustainability rating and on how and when suppliers can be supported, please write to acea.factoring@aceaspa.it.

Continuous improvement of CSR performance - Corrective plans

Acea Group is committed to building a solid and reliable supply chain, in an innovative and integrated ecosystem, capable of supporting the social and economic development of the territories it operates in.

During 2022, we extended to all qualified suppliers on Acea's registers the invitation to sign up on the platform and participate in the evaluation process conducted by Ecovadis. To date, over 400 suppliers have been assessed with a score of over 60.01/100 (compared to an Italian average of 50.4/100).

In addition, we set minimum score thresholds to encourage continuous improvement of all suppliers: for scorecards with an overall assessment or a score in one of the individual topics (environment, labour practices and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement) equal to or less than 44 we send a corrective action plan.

Highlights

Discover the latest news and initiatives of the Acea Group