Supporting documents must meet eligibility and substantive requirements. Evidence may receive no credit because it fails to demonstrate the questionnaire answer, scope or implementation, even where the company has acted. This guide covers ISO certificates, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and internal SOPs.
Information checked: October 28, 2026. This concerns EcoVadis Sustainability Ratings. Being uploadable, eligible as a document and credited under a particular scoring indicator are different decisions, governed by the current question and methodology.
1. ISO certificate checklist
ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO/IEC 27001 must match relevant sustainability questions. ISO 9001 quality-management certification is outside the certification indicator's scope. An ISO certificate does not automatically earn points. The 2026 update also discontinued “in-progress” status as proof of completed certification. Whether an audit report supports other policy, action or reporting questions requires separate assessment. 2026 methodology update
| Check | Requirement and review | Common gaps and self-check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Validity | Verify current validity, absence of suspension/withdrawal and checkable status. | □ Expired or merely undergoing renewal. Applications, schedules and in-progress evidence are not valid certificates. Verify any formal extension and current requirements. |
| 2. Scope | Company, activities and sites must cover the assessed entity; provide a site/legal-entity mapping for group certificates. | □ Headquarters certificate without proof the subsidiary or assessed site is included. |
| 3. Certification body | Verify the issuing independent certification body and accreditation for that standard; distinguish certification from accreditation bodies. | □ Consulting-completion certificate passed off as management-system certification; logo checked without accreditation scope. |
| 4. Completeness | Include the main certificate and necessary site, scope or extension annexes, legibly and verifiably. | □ Missing annex prevents checking address, activities or validity. |
TAF, UKAS and ANAB are accreditation bodies, distinct from the bodies issuing management-system certificates. Verify with the issuer, accreditation body or relevant public database. A missing database result first calls for checking data completeness, rather than an immediate conclusion. ISO explanation
2. GHG inventory checklist
ISO 14064-1 or the GHG Protocol may underpin an inventory; using a standard does not mean independent verification has occurred. General KPI reporting validity is two years, not automatically a fixed “two most recent complete calendar years” rule. Check reporting period, document date and platform instructions. Document requirements
| Check | Requirement and review | Common gaps and self-check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Recency | Check the two-year KPI window, inventory year and publication date; prefer the latest complete year. | □ A 2026 assessment relies only on 2022 or older data; changing the cover year without updating the reporting period. |
| 2. Boundaries | Identify entity, sites, period and tCO₂e; separate Scope 1/2 and explain methods, factors, exclusions and other applicable scopes. | □ Total emissions only, without scope split or calculation basis. Follow current questions on location-based and market-based Scope 2. |
| 3. Verification statement | If declaring verification, attach a formal statement matching year, entity, boundary and conclusion. | □ Internal Excel only despite claiming verification; statement and inventory years/boundaries differ. |
| 4. Publication responsibility | Identify company, version, date, preparer and reviewer; retain formal approval under internal procedures. | □ Undated spreadsheet screenshot. Handwritten signatures at every level are not universal; electronic approval must remain traceable. |
Review data and verification statement together, retaining activity data, emission-factor sources and calculation workbooks. Refer to the 2026 update and current questionnaire for Scope 2 reporting.
3. Internal SOP checklist
Chemical, procurement and waste procedures may support policy/action questions. Their existence alone does not prove deployment; include appropriate implementation records.
| Check | Requirement and review | Common gaps and self-check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Approval and dates | Identify company, issue/review date and approved status; retain approvals or controlled publication records. | □ No source, date or approval evidence. A CEO's handwritten signature on every SOP is not a universal rule. |
| 2. Recency | Policy/action documents generally have an eight-year validity period; updates must reflect real review. | □ Long-unreviewed procedures; date-only changes without reviewing content. |
| 3. Substance | Define roles, steps, frequency, controls and records, linked to implementation. | □ Slogans without process or deployment. Page count alone does not determine adequacy. |
| 4. Status | Supply approved, effective documents integrated into the existing system. | □ Draft/unimplemented preview. A confidentiality label alone does not make a document a draft. |
| 5. Language/readability | Ensure readable text. Outside English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Japanese, official guidance requires text-encoded documents rather than images alone. | □ Unrecognizable scanned text. Other languages do not universally require an English summary; summaries cannot replace necessary complete evidence. |
See EcoVadis document guidance. Follow actual document controls; do not manufacture questionnaire-only evidence or backdate approval.
4. Quick pre-upload checklist
This is a working checklist, not a guarantee of scoring or instant acceptance.
[ ] 1. Each file is under 30 MB; the assessment's 55-document limit is met.
[ ] 2. Policy/action: eight years; KPI: two years; certificates remain valid.
[ ] 3. Company identity, issue/review date and version are identifiable.
[ ] 4. Formal approval or controlled publication is traceable.
[ ] 5. Entity, sites, activities and data boundary match the assessed scope.
[ ] 6. Use accepted formats: PDF, Word or Excel as appropriate, with legibility
and applicable searchable-text requirements checked; not PDF only.
[ ] 7. Annexes, verification statement and key evidence appear directly in
the file, not only embedded attachments or external download links.
[ ] 8. GHG year, units, Scope 1/2, methods and verified scope align.
[ ] 9. Questions, filenames and evidence pages are cross-referenced.
[ ] 10. No unrelated document compilation, copied content or invented records.
Do not evade the limit by combining unrelated files. Existing manuals, multisite certificates and contextual training materials have specific conditions. Document limits and combining rules
Check each certificate, GHG report and SOP for eligibility, then connect policy, action and results so the evidence reflects real management maturity.