Bellwyck achieves EcoVadis Silver Certification
In the packaging industry, there’s more to sustainability than meets the eye. Packaging manufactured with post-consumer recycled materials and plant-based eco-friendly inks immediately spring to mind as sustainable initiatives, but there are other important variables in play. For example, have you ever considered packaging’s innate role in protecting the contents inside? A well-packed product ensures it gets into the consumer’s hands intact, saving unnecessary waste. The packaging industry also has a responsibility to ensure products aren’t packed in overly large containers, which contributes to both excess waste and means fewer products can be shipped in a single load.
It’s this big-picture thinking that drove Bellwyck to seek EcoVadis certification. The world’s most trusted business sustainability ratings, EcoVadis dives deep below the surface to assess a company’s commitment to sustainability. In fact, EcoVadis has found that the supply chain is the most powerful lever for sustainability impact. Like an analogue clock, the hands may tell the time but it’s the functioning of the gears inside that enable a clock to function properly.
EcoVadis uses seven core principles to reach their sustainability ratings: assessments are made by international sustainability experts; they tailor their ratings to industry sector, country and company size; employ source diversification to ensure rich stakeholder input for reliable scoring; utilize technology to ensure a secure and confidential process and accelerated cycle time; ensure traceability and transparency of documentation; employ evidence-based analysis; and inspire ongoing excellence by empowering companies to seek continuous improvement.
Sustainability is the engine that drives Bellwyck’s operations. It’s the platform upon which the company has developed their supply chain, and how they strive to complement the supply chain of each of their clients. Bellwyck’s ultimate attraction to the EcoVadis rating system was that the program gives companies the tools to implement continuous improvement by issuing a scorecard with individual ratings for the four sustainability themes: the environment, ethics, labour and human rights, and sustainable procurement. This allows companies to understand their strengths and weaknesses. EcoVadis also compares a company’s score against competitors and peers in the industry, again illustrating best practices to improve performance.
Despite the fact that EcoVadis scores one company’s performance against their peers, the program actually embraces the “we’re all in this together” spirit. Companies within an industry are empowered to collaborate on supply chain sustainability to accomplish even more together, boosting sustainability in the value chain while creating greater benefits for all.
Achieving EcoVadis certification is a rigorous process. Companies are provided with a questionnaire that must be completed with meticulous attention to detail. Questions such as “does your company have a formalized environmental policy,” “what actions are in place regarding employee health and safety” and “on which topics does your company publish a CSR report” have to be answered and accompanied with evidence, and then the answers are analyzed and scored by EcoVadis sustainability experts.
Emma Blanchard, Product Specialist with Bellwyck, did most of the heavy lifting to earn the company an impressive EcoVadis Silver Certification. “Sustainability is at the core of everything we do,” said Blanchard. “I was extremely impressed with the level of detail EcoVadis required in order to achieve certification. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. I’m extremely proud that Bellwyck earned Silver Certification, and we’re inspired to implement EcoVadis’ recommendations so we can continue to do better and better for the sake of our communities and the planet.”
“We are honoured to receive a Silver Certification from EcoVadis and very much appreciate the immense work and effort Emma Blanchard invested in this endeavour,” said April Burke, VP Operations – Corporate Printed Packaging with Bellwyck. “As a company, sustainability drives our research, our supply chain and our overall operations. Sustainability informs our business decisions, our supplier partnerships and the solutions we innovate every day for our clients. We will remain committed to our sustainability efforts with EcoVadis in striving to make as big a difference as possible in today’s challenging global environment.”
