EcoVadis vs Sedex: which one does your EU buyer actually need?
EcoVadis and Sedex are the two platforms non-EU suppliers are most likely to be asked about. They are not alternatives to each other. This guide explains what each one does, who tends to require it, and what neither of them actually covers.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified legal professional for advice specific to your situation.
Why suppliers keep asking this question
If your company supplies EU buyers, there is a reasonable chance you have received a request involving EcoVadis, Sedex, or both. The requests often arrive in the same inbox, from procurement teams responding to regulatory pressure they are still figuring out themselves. The natural question is whether completing one satisfies the other, or whether they serve the same purpose under different names.
They do not. EcoVadis and Sedex are designed around different problems, use different methodologies, serve different industries, and are not substitutes for each other. Many large supply chains use both simultaneously. Understanding the difference matters because it affects what you are committing to, what it costs, and what the resulting documentation actually demonstrates.
What EcoVadis is
EcoVadis is a sustainability ratings platform. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Paris, it sells scorecards: numerical ratings from 0 to 100 across four themes covering environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Scores above certain thresholds earn medal designations at bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels.
The process works as follows. The supplier completes a questionnaire tailored to their industry and company size, uploads supporting documents and policies, and receives a score. EcoVadis analysts review the submission alongside publicly available information about the company. The result is a verified self-assessment: not an on-site audit, but a document-based review with analyst involvement. Turnaround is typically several weeks.
The score belongs to the supplier, but access to it requires an active subscription. When the subscription lapses, the score disappears from the platform. Buyers pay separately to access supplier scorecards. Pricing is not published. Suppliers typically pay approximately $2,800 to $3,000 per year for basic plans.
EcoVadis is most widely used in Western Europe and North America. EU multinationals in chemicals, retail, food, manufacturing, and services are the most common buyers requiring it. Companies including BASF, L’Oreal, LVMH, and Johnson and Johnson use it as part of their supplier screening programmes.
What Sedex is
Sedex is a membership-based data-sharing network, not a rating agency. Founded in 2004 by a group of UK retailers, it operates as a non-profit. Suppliers upload their ethical trade data once and share it with multiple buyers through a single platform. There is no scorecard and no medal system.
Sedex has two main components. The first is the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), a structured questionnaire covering labour standards, health and safety, environment, and business ethics, completed by the supplier and stored on the platform. The second is the SMETA audit (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit), an on-site audit conducted at the supplier’s facilities by a third-party audit firm from Sedex’s approved list. The supplier selects and pays the auditor. The resulting report is uploaded to the platform and becomes visible to all buyers the supplier has linked to.
SMETA comes in two variants. The two-pillar version covers labour and health and safety. The four-pillar version adds environment and business ethics. Buyers specify which they require.
Sedex is dominant in UK and European retail, food and beverage, apparel, and agriculture. UK supermarkets including Tesco, Marks and Spencer, and Sainsbury’s commonly require it, as do global food companies and EU fashion brands. It is the most widely used platform in garment supply chains across South and Southeast Asia.
Membership fees start at approximately £6,471 per year for buyer membership. Supplier membership is less expensive, though costs vary. The network has approximately 90,000 members across 150 countries.
The core difference
EcoVadis produces a score. Sedex produces a data-sharing record.
When a buyer asks for your EcoVadis score, they want a rated assessment of your overall ESG performance across four themes, delivered as a number they can use for supplier screening or risk tiering.
When a buyer asks for your Sedex membership or SMETA audit, they want visibility into your labour and safety practices through on-site audit documentation, shared on a platform that multiple buyers can access simultaneously.
The two requests reflect different parts of what EU sustainability regulations require EU companies to do. EcoVadis is more aligned with broad ESG performance screening. Sedex and SMETA are more aligned with social compliance auditing and labour conditions specifically.
Which industries use which
The clearest pattern is by sector and geography.
EcoVadis is most common in B2B manufacturing, chemicals, services, and branded consumer goods. If your EU buyer is a large industrial company, a global retailer in personal care or luxury goods, or a professional services firm with a formal supplier sustainability programme, EcoVadis is the more likely requirement.
Sedex is most common in food, apparel, agriculture, and retail supply chains, particularly where the buyer’s primary concern is labour conditions, worker welfare, and factory safety. If your EU buyer is a UK or European supermarket, a clothing brand sourcing from Asia, or a food company with a complex commodity supply chain, Sedex is the more likely requirement.
In practice, many large EU companies with diverse supplier bases require both. A global retailer might require EcoVadis for its general merchandise suppliers and SMETA audits for its food and apparel suppliers. Some require both from the same supplier.
Structural weaknesses of each
EcoVadis
EcoVadis is a verified self-assessment. The supplier submits documents, and analysts review them. There is no on-site verification. A supplier can submit policies that describe good practices without those practices being independently confirmed in their facilities.
The scoring methodology rewards the policy-to-action-to-results progression. A company with a well-documented environmental policy but weak evidence of implementation scores lower than a company that can document what it actually does. This creates an incentive to gather evidence, which is constructive, but the evidence itself is not independently verified through site visits.
The score disappears when the subscription lapses. This means compliance continuity depends on continued commercial relationships with EcoVadis, not on the underlying practices the score is supposed to reflect.
EcoVadis is also expensive for the small and mid-sized non-EU suppliers who most frequently receive requests from EU buyers. A manufacturer in Southeast Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa paying $3,000 per year for a score that serves one buyer’s procurement process faces a cost that is difficult to justify.
Sedex and SMETA
The structural problem with SMETA is the auditor selection model. The supplier chooses and pays the auditor from Sedex’s approved list. Auditors who want repeat business from the same suppliers have a financial incentive to produce reports that maintain those relationships. This is a well-documented dynamic in social compliance auditing: the same financial structure that makes SMETA accessible creates a leniency pressure that independent commissioning would not.
SMETA audits also capture conditions at the time of the audit. Preparing for an audit, coaching workers on responses, and presenting temporarily improved records are practices documented across audit-heavy industries in Asia and elsewhere. Conditions between annual audits are unknown to the buyer.
Neither Sedex nor SMETA has regulatory recognition under EU frameworks. Sedex describes itself explicitly as a data-sharing platform, not a compliance certification. The SAQ component is entirely self-reported with no independent verification.
What they do not cover
Neither EcoVadis nor Sedex was designed around EU regulatory requirements. Both predate CSRD and CSDDD by years. Their frameworks reflect the procurement priorities of their founding members, not the specific obligations that EU law now imposes on companies in scope.
For CSRD, the most demanding supply chain data requirement is Scope 3 emissions data, specifically the GHG Protocol categories covering purchased goods and services and upstream transportation. Neither EcoVadis nor Sedex is designed to collect this data in the structured, verifiable form that a CSRD sustainability report and its assurance process require.
For CSDDD, the requirements go beyond what either platform addresses. CSDDD requires documented identification of actual and potential adverse impacts, evidence of preventive and corrective action, a functional complaints mechanism accessible to affected workers and communities, and ongoing monitoring with documented outcomes. An EcoVadis score or a SMETA audit contributes evidence toward some of these elements but does not constitute a complete CSDDD due diligence programme on its own.
For EUDR, neither platform addresses the specific documentation requirements: geolocation data for land plots, evidence of no deforestation after December 2020, and the due diligence statements required before placing covered commodities on the EU market. EcoVadis commissioned analysis suggesting its platform supports CSDDD compliance, but no regulator has confirmed this. No such claim has been made for EUDR.
A detailed explanation of what CSDDD actually requires is available here: CSDDD explained: what the corporate sustainability due diligence directive means for supply chains.
How to respond when a buyer asks for both
If your EU buyer requires both EcoVadis and Sedex or SMETA, treat them as separate obligations with separate processes. There is no shortcut that satisfies both simultaneously.
For EcoVadis: gather your existing policies, management systems, and evidence of actions taken across the four themes before beginning the questionnaire. The gap between having good practices and being able to document them for the platform is usually larger than suppliers expect. Budget several weeks for the submission and review process.
For Sedex or SMETA: register on the Sedex platform, complete the SAQ accurately, and commission an audit from an approved provider if your buyer requires one. Understand which pillar variant your buyer expects. The audit covers conditions on the day it is conducted. If there are known issues in your facilities, address them before the audit, not because auditors should not find problems, but because the remediation timeline for a finding after an audit is typically short and commercially pressured.
What neither tells you about EU law
The most important thing to understand about both platforms is what they are not. EcoVadis is a ratings platform for supplier screening. Sedex is a data-sharing network for social compliance documentation. Neither starts from the text of EU legislation and maps your specific obligations against your current practices.
If your concern is whether your operations comply with CSRD supply chain requirements, CSDDD due diligence obligations, or EUDR documentation requirements, neither an EcoVadis score nor a SMETA audit answers that question directly. They generate data that may be relevant to those questions, but they do not map that data against the legislative requirements or identify where your gaps are.
For non-EU suppliers trying to understand what EU law actually requires them to do and where their current practices fall short, the starting point needs to be the legislation itself, not a platform framework designed for a different purpose.
Verdandi monitors EUDR, CBAM, CSRD, CSDDD and more continuously — so non-EU businesses touching EU markets are working from current requirements as deadlines, benchmarks, and scope thresholds change. Start for free.
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