Celonis and EcoVadis outline sustainable procurement partnership

Celonis said it has formed a strategic partnership with EcoVadis, a leading business sustainability ratings platform, to operationalize sustainable procurement. EcoVadis recently raised $500 million in venture funding led by Astorg and BeyondNetZero, General Atlantic’s climate investing venture, with participation from Singapore-based GIC and Princeville Capital’s Climate Technology Fund. 

Sustainability has become a lead issue for companies along with supply chain and inflation as a bevy of executives and Celonis customers outlined at World Tour 2022. The three topics are increasingly intertwined because enterprises need to become more efficient. In other words, what saves money can also advance sustainability goals.The next move will be to operationalize sustainability.  

What is Procurement? The process and KPIs that matter | What is sustainability in business? The process, returns, KPIs and everything you need to know

Under the partnership, Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) will integrate EcoVadis ratings. The partnership includes four pillars:

• Data-driven supplier selection: EcoVadis' supplier sustainability ratings will be integrated with Celonis EMS to provide businesses a dashboard to view supplier sustainability and proactive suggestions on the best supplier for any orders. Those supplier decisions can then be audited. 

• Managing supplier onboarding and performance: By melding the EcoVadis catalog of sustainable suppliers with Celonis EMS, businesses will be able to onboard compliant suppliers and offboard ones with poor performance.

• Reporting on sustainable procurement spending: Celonis EMS will integrate EcoVadis sustainability data across multiple views and filtering options to comply with legal regulations including California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act or the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains).

• Sustainable transparency in sales: The partnership will provide transparency on a product's ESG performance for end customers by sharing average supplier ratings. 

Also see:

• Sustainability will drive returns on investment with assist from inflation

• Why inflation, supply chain, sustainability crises require Execution Management, efficiency gains

• Supply chain optimization, sustainability are blending together

• 6 steps to operationalize sustainability

• Proposed SEC rules could accelerate sustainability data collection

• How inflation, supply chain and sustainability could drive efficiency gains

• ABB on sustainability: Just get started

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief (former)

Larry Dignan is the former Editor in Chief of Celonis Media. Before joining Celonis, he was Editor in Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine.