EcoVadis for IT partners: win the tender, then answer the Scope 3 question

Your customers are already asking

Omdia's Partner 1000 Sustainability Analysis, published in August 2026, looked at how the world's largest IT partners are rated. Among the top 30, 84% hold an EcoVadis medal: 27% Platinum, 20% Gold, 30% Silver and 7% Bronze. Across the full top 1,000, the figure falls to 21%.

That gap is the opportunity. The biggest partners got rated because their customers made it a condition of doing business, and the same requirement is now moving down the market. Omdia reports that large customers expect suppliers to align with SBTi, CDP and EcoVadis, and that the NHS grades tender bidders on sustainability maturity, requiring an EcoVadis or CDP rating from its most mature suppliers.

A partner without a rating isn't excluded from every bid. It is, increasingly, starting a few points behind on the ones it most wants to win.

Where the request actually comes from

Most partners expect sustainability requirements to arrive through their vendor's partner programme. For EcoVadis, they mostly don't. We found no vendor partner programme that makes an EcoVadis medal a condition of partnership.

The request arrives through your customer's procurement team. A new supplier onboarding form, a framework renewal or a tender pack asks you to join EcoVadis or share your scorecard, usually with a deadline measured in weeks. Customers on the EcoVadis platform can invite their suppliers directly, so the first many partners hear of it is an email from EcoVadis on behalf of a customer they can't afford to disappoint.

That's why it pays to prepare before the invitation lands, not after.

EcoVadis certification, rating and score: what they mean

People search for "EcoVadis certification", but EcoVadis is a rating. EcoVadis says plainly that its medals are not certifications or product labels. The distinction matters when you write about your result, because you can't claim to be "EcoVadis certified".

How the score works. You complete an online questionnaire and upload evidence. EcoVadis analysts score you from 0 to 100 on four themes: environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Which criteria apply depends on your size, sector and location. The score reflects your management system: what policies you have, what you've done about them, and what you report.

How medals work. Since 2024, medals depend on your percentile rank against every company EcoVadis assessed in the previous 12 months, across all industries.

No fixed score guarantees a medal, because the thresholds move as other companies improve. You also need at least 30 in every one of the four themes. A strong environment score won't carry a weak ethics score.

How long it lasts. A medal is valid for 12 months, the life of the scorecard it was awarded on. Plan for reassessment every year.

How an IT partner improves its EcoVadis score

The score rewards documented evidence. Good intentions that never made it into a policy, a procedure or a report count for very little, which is why small partners who run responsible businesses often score lower than they expect.

The fastest gains usually come from writing down what you already do. A partner that recycles customer equipment through a certified disposal firm, runs background checks and has a data protection officer may already have most of the substance. What's missing is the signed policy, the named owner and the annual record.

The playbook has a theme-by-theme evidence checklist with IT-specific examples. A few areas trip up IT partners most often. Measuring your own emissions is the first: EcoVadis expects at least a Scope 1 and 2 footprint, and many partners have never calculated one. Sustainable procurement is another, because you need to show you've assessed your own suppliers, including your distributor and logistics firms. Ethics catches small firms out too, since an anti-bribery policy and a confidential reporting channel are expected even in firms of 20 people.

Your circular services count as evidence

This is the point almost nobody makes. EcoVadis's environment theme includes criteria on product end-of-life and on environmental services. If you run a takeback scheme, sell certified refurbished devices or offer asset recovery services, you can document them against those criteria.

The same services now earn vendor rebates. Lenovo, HP, Dell and Cisco all reward partners for refurbished sales, takeback or asset recovery, which we cover in the Circular Channel Incentive Guide. One set of actions helps your rating and your margin.

Scope 3: your data decides whether the customer can count the saving

Once a customer has rated you, the next request is usually for carbon data. Your products sit in their Scope 3 emissions under Category 1, purchased goods and services, and they need numbers to report and reduce it.

Many buyers estimate Category 1 from spend. Under a spend-based method, a refurbished laptop that costs 35% less than a new one shows as roughly 35% less carbon, because the calculation only sees the price. Device-level data tells a different story. A Cranfield University study of one UK remanufacturer put a remanufactured laptop at about 6% of the carbon of a new one, around 316 kg CO2e avoided per device. That's a single company's figure and a best case, but the direction is clear: the saving is far larger than the spend method can show.

So a partner who can supply product carbon footprint data with a quote lets the customer book the real saving. A partner who can't leaves the customer with the spend estimate, or with nothing they can defend. Tighter EU rules on unsubstantiated environmental claims, in force since September 2026, mean "this is greener" now needs evidence behind it.

Vendors are making the data easier to get. Rejoose has loaded more than a million HP product carbon footprints for partners and syndicates Lenovo's data.

The playbook includes a template answer to a customer's Scope 3 data request and a short guide to reducing the Scope 3 emissions your customers attribute to you.

What's coming in 2027 and 2028

More of your customers will need supplier data soon. Large-company Scope 3 reporting starts arriving over the next two years under California's SB 253, the second wave of the EU's CSRD, the UK's own sustainability reporting standards (UK SRS) for listed companies, and rules in Singapore and Japan.

Don't overestimate the EU part. The CSRD Omnibus caps what large companies can demand from value-chain firms with fewer than 1,000 staff, so most resellers won't be forced to supply full CSRD data. Customers will still ask; you'll simply have more say over what you give them. The commercial pressure from tenders and supplier onboarding is the stronger reason to act now.

EcoVadis and Scope 3 readiness check

Twelve questions, about three minutes. You'll get a score out of 100, a band and your biggest gaps. Answer for your own company as it stands today.

Independent EcoVadis consultant support for IT partners

Some partners want a second pair of eyes before they submit. Others want the work done for them.

Do you need an EcoVadis consultant? Not always. A partner that already has signed policies, named owners and a carbon footprint can usually submit on its own with the playbook. An EcoVadis consultant earns the fee when the customer's deadline is weeks away, the evidence is scattered across people and folders, or a first scorecard came back below the score the customer asked for. Look for someone who works from your evidence and knows how IT partners operate, not someone selling a software subscription alongside the advice.

Both are delivered by Mike Kelly, Chartered Director (CDir), GRI Certified ESRS Sustainability Professional and B.Sc. (Mgmt). The Channel Institute is not an EcoVadis partner or accredited consultant, and nothing here is endorsed by EcoVadis.

If your sales team needs to sell sustainability into a tender as confidently as they sell the kit, see our channel sales training, or ask about training for your whole team.