Arco strikes gold with EcoVadis sustainability rating

By Simon Bristow

Arco has been awarded a gold medal by EcoVadis, the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.

The gold award sees Arco improve on the silver rating it has held in previous years, with the fifth-generation family business improving its scores in areas like the environment, by improving energy performance reporting and the setting of carbon reduction targets, as well as on labour and human rights and sustainable procurement.

The rating puts Arco in the top five per cent of the 100,000-plus rated companies assessed by EcoVadis. In addition, Arco was also recognised as an industry leader overall, by making the top two per cent of companies rated by EcoVadis in its industry sector, as well as in the areas of sustainable procurement (top one per cent) and environment (top two per cent).

Jim Harbidge, head of sustainability at Arco, said: “As a responsible choice of safety partner, Arco is very proud to have secured a gold medal from EcoVadis and that our efforts to continuously improve in sustainability and ethical performance have been recognised.

“As a business, we are always striving to be the best at what we do, to lead in our industry and in the family business sector.

“We will continue to take steps to achieve our ambition of being a platinum-rated business in the future, including increasing our alignment to external standards and accreditations, such as setting science-based targets, and further improving our reporting to stakeholders.”

The EcoVadis methodology framework assesses companies’ policies and actions as well as their published reporting related to the environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

Its team of international sustainability experts analyse and cross check companies’ data (supporting documents, 360° Watch Findings, etc.) in order to create reliable ratings, taking into account each company’s industry, size and geographic location.