How well do we score in Corporate Social Responsibility?

We hear a lot about CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in and around the workplace, but many people are unaware of what we are achieving behind the scenes and who’s responsible for pushing for our ever-growing success in this specific area. We have been acquiring EcoVadis medals at our global manufacturing locations, with a dedicated team constantly perusing and achieving these results. But what do these medals mean? We caught up with an expert on this subject, Marie-Manuela Da Cunha Queiros, our Global CR Certification Specialist, to learn how we can all help achieve a better, more sustainable future for Markem-Imaje and everyone who collaborates with us.  

EcoVadis is a purpose-led company whose mission is to provide trusted business sustainability ratings. Businesses of all sizes rely on EcoVadis’ expert intelligence and evidence-based ratings to monitor and improve the sustainability performance of their business and trading partners. EcoVadis’ evidence-based ratings are validated by a global team of experts, and are adapted to more than 200 industry categories, 160 countries and companies of all sizes. They conduct audits to supply streamlined data, updates of performance and level progression benchmarks, insights, and a guided improvement journey for environmental, social, and ethical practices. Tens of thousands of companies are partnering with EcoVadis to collaborate on sustainability with a common platform, universal scorecard, benchmarks, and performance improvement tools. They cover four sustainability themes: Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.  

Now more than ever, consumers and governments alike are focusing their attention on the importance of companies to be fully responsible for the environmental and human rights impact of their entire supply chain. To track and audit this, businesses need a method to measure the quality of their company’s sustainability management system through its policies, actions and results.

Our achievements 

Markem-Imaje Bourg-les-Valence, France manufacturing site has been awarded, for the third consecutive time, a Gold Medal and maintained its high score. With an overall score of 70/100, this site scored specifically well on ethics, followed by environment, labor & human rights. MI Industries has been ranked in the top 1% of companies assessed by EcoVadis in our industry. 

Markem-Imaje Shanghai, China manufacturing site has successfully achieved its first assessment and was awarded a Silver Medal. The Markem-Imaje China Co Ltd is in the top 11% of companies rated by EcoVadis in our industry.  With an overall score of 62/100, this site scored well on ethics, followed by labor & human rights, and sustainable procurement.

Markem-Imaje Bhiwadi, India manufacturing site has been awarded a bronze medal in 2020 and has been able to improve its core by achieving an EcoVadis Silver Medal in 2021, for its ESG performance. The Markem-Imaje India site is in the top 20% of companies rated by EcoVadis in our industry. With an overall score of 57/100, this site scored well on ethics, followed by environment.

Markem-Imaje Keene, US manufacturing site has successfully been awarded the Ecovadis Gold rating for the second time in a row. Markem-Imaje Corporation Keene, US is in the top 5% of companies rated by EcoVadis in our industry. With an overall score of 68/100, this site scored specifically well on environment, followed by labor & human rights, and ethics. 

Why is it important to be part of the EcoVadis organization? 

Part of our corporate social responsibility is to take part in regular audits and assessments from a reputable outside source. EcoVadis is the perfect platform to achieve fair, accurate results for these efforts. A vast number of industry leading and important companies are assessed to ensure that their supply chain and products prove high standards of environmental, social and governance.

Who is involved in this process and what or who do we owe our success to? 

The departments usually involved in these audits are Environmental Health Safety (EHS), Human Resources (HR), Compliance and Sourcing. These departments have members across the globe at our various locations working hard to support, implement and fulfil every request set out by EcoVadis.
  

How do these medals that we are achieving help us with our sustainability efforts? 

Our medals matter because customers use them as a reference point for trust. Businesses want to join reputable brands who take sustainability seriously, so if you have obtained a high score the customer will come back to us and say, “OK, it’s great. We saw that you are mature on corporate social responsibility. We can trust in you. Let’s continue business.” Sometimes it can also give us more business opportunities and we can be declared as preferred suppliers, in turn giving our sales teams more opportunities for business and allowing them to create improved relationships with brands.
 

What should employees know about EcoVadis and how it affects our business? 

This audit is mandatory for Markem-Imaje if we want to keep in business with our customers. Our biggest customers are not only from the food packaging industry. We also work with some of the largest companies from the pharmaceutical and electronics industries and have customers in every industry around the globe. Through these certifications we demonstrate to our customers that we are reliable, trustworthy and helpful partners in their supply chain and in turn, create valued business relationships.  

People want to see the power of MI along with evidence that we are fulfilling our incorporated responsibility. So, the benefits are that with these assessments, we can display our results and continue to perform while being tracked. Every year the stakes get higher and higher—with audits becoming more complex and intricate, and often with more requirements than the previous years teaching us to stay alert and adaptable. In turn this is a fantastic way for the company to continuously improve and grow.  
 

Can you explain some of the challenges that you face when acquiring these certificates? 

The main challenge for us is collecting accurate information from others. Sometimes people have some difficulties providing us with the right documentation or have missing information that we need to obtain for the evidence to be scored. For example, sites may struggle to produce accurate and complete training records. It is not enough to say we have conducted training; we need to prove it by sharing training records which demonstrate which roles at the site have attended which training. This means that training attendance must be logged, and training records maintained throughout the year for the documentation to be readily available when doing audits.
 

How can employees help each other to gain more medals and achieve better results in the future? 

Employee behavior is crucial for any business and its success. Employees need to comply with the requirements laid out in the Dover Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and in the employee handbook. Employees will keep the company safe, and the audits will be successful. Employees can help also by having their procedures and KPIs updated accurately. 
 

What are the challenges ahead and Markem-Imaje’s goals regarding EcoVadis? 

The main challenge is to keep our gold medals because every year we need to demonstrate improvements, so we are required to do more than just provide the same answers with the same documentation. MI must demonstrate continuous improvement to keep moving forward. On top of this, the environment and collective carbon footprint are increasingly becoming hot topics. It is not always easy but focusing on topics such as human rights and lowering emissions is just as important for the customer as it is for Markem-Imaje and Dover.  
 

Is there anything else you would like to add? 

These assessments are in fact remarkably interesting and usually people are very keen to take part. Today corporate social responsibility along with sustainability are key topics for improvement for any business to tackle and keep up with. By achieving our corporate social responsibilities this benefits everyone, so the focus is to keep achieving and supporting each other to push towards our collaborative goals as well as personal achievements. Each audit we learn an incredible amount of interesting and informative data that helps us to evolve and grow together with our partners, in turn creating warmer and more trusted business relationships for Markem-Imaje and the customer.