DS Smith awarded Platinum rating from EcoVadis

EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted providers of sustainability ratings. Companies partner with EcoVadis to strive towards a more sustainable economy with a common platform, universal scorecard, benchmarks, and performance improvement tools.

The company scored 90 percent for its performance in sustainable procurement with praise for its supplier engagement program and FSC chain of custody certification and 80 percent on environmental issues, with commendations for its ‘exceptional’ reporting.

DS Smith was also praised for its work to close the loop through better design and to protect natural resources as part of its Now and Next sustainability strategy, commitment to sourcing 100 percent recycled or chain of custody certified papers, and its commitment to 100 percent of in-scope sites maintaining ISO 50001 Energy Management System certification.

‘We are delighted to have improved our EcoVadis score and achieved a platinum rating. EcoVadis is an important rating to our customers, who use the platform to assess our performance as their provider of sustainable packaging solutions,’ commented Wouter van Tol, head of government, community affairs, and sustainability at DS Smith. ‘As a key part of their packaging supply chain, our customers want reassurance that we can support them in achieving their own sustainable packaging goals by reducing the impact of the products they buy from us and delivering strong ESG performance with our Now and Next sustainability strategy.’

Oliver Bradley, sustainability reporting manager at DS Smith, added: ‘EcoVadis sits alongside our other priority ESG ratings that we engage with to independently review our performance and reassure customers, investors and other partners that we are delivering strong ESG and sustainability performance throughout our business. There are always opportunities to improve, and we value the chance to have our performance assessed.’

DS Smith published its Sustainability Report 2021 in July 2021 and announced that it had hit seven of its key sustainability milestones – including meeting targets on the circular economy, forest management, community engagement, and water.