How to Improve Your EcoVadis Score: A Practical Plan for UAE and GCC Suppliers (2026)

1. Diagnose your last scorecard

List every Improvement Area by theme and mark whether each gap is a missing document, a missing practice or missing data. For first-time UAE suppliers, most gaps we see are missing documents for things the company already does.

2. Prioritise your highest-weighted theme

Your scorecard shows the theme weights. Effort on a theme weighted 4 moves the overall score up to four times as much as the same effort on a theme weighted 1. For manufacturers, construction suppliers and logistics companies this is usually Environment and Labour & Human Rights.

3. Rebuild policies so they can be credited

Each policy should be on company letterhead, dated, approved by senior management, state its scope (which legal entities and sites), name who is responsible, and include measurable targets with a baseline year and a target year. Cover the issues EcoVadis activates for your industry rather than a generic list. Our EcoVadis documents checklist lists the core documents.

4. Turn existing practices into evidence

Because Actions carry 40% of each theme score, this is usually the biggest lever. Typical UAE evidence includes training records and attendance sheets, internal audit reports, HSE procedures and incident logs, waste contractor records, utility bills from DEWA, ADDC or SEWA showing the effect of efficiency measures, employment contracts and Wage Protection System records, and a whistleblowing procedure with its log. Since April 2026, sustainability and certification audit reports can also be used as evidence.

5. Use certifications the methodology recognises

An ISO 14001 or ISO 45001 certificate from an accredited body is strong action evidence for Environment and for Labour & Human Rights; ISO 37001 and ISO 27001 support Ethics. Where the standard has a public certificate database, a screenshot showing your company name, the standard, the scope and the validity status is now accepted. In-progress certificates are not. See how ISO certificates affect your EcoVadis score.

6. Close the reporting gap

Report energy use and Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions for at least 95% of your scope, with Scope 2 shown both location-based and market-based. Keep all KPIs within the last two years. A sustainability report prepared “with reference to” GRI is now eligible for a reporting score of 75 if the other reporting quality criteria are met. If you are new to GHG accounting, start with our UAE GHG reporting guide.

7. Put a basic sustainable procurement programme in place

A supplier code of conduct signed by your key suppliers, a simple supplier risk screening, and at least one documented supplier assessment. For SMEs this is often what lifts the Sustainable Procurement theme out of the Insufficient band.

8. Check 360° Watch and your public footprint

360° Watch accounts for 21% of each theme score and draws on findings from NGOs, regulators, the media and grievance mechanisms. If nothing negative is found, you receive a default score. A 360° Watch score of 0 in one theme, or 25 in two themes, makes you ineligible for a medal, so address any public findings and document the corrective action.

9. Submit cleanly and use the review window

Upload documents in accepted formats (PDF, Word, Excel, JPG or PNG, each under 30 MB, up to 55 files per assessment) and name them so the analyst can match them to the questions. Do not rely on EcoVadis contacting you about missing or wrongly formatted documents during analysis. Before publication you have two business days to view your scorecard and report factual errors.