Behind the EcoVadis Silver Medal: When a Platemaking Supplier Earns an ESG Rating, Your Supply Chain Qualification Criteria Change Too

EcoVadis is a third-party ESG rating system for corporate suppliers, now covering more than 135 countries and over 130 industries worldwide. Multinationals such as L'Oréal, Nestlé, and LVMH rely on it to audit the sustainability performance of their upstream suppliers

Ratings fall into four tiers: Bronze (25th–44th percentile), Silver (45th–64th percentile), Gold (65th–84th percentile), and Platinum (top 1%). The assessment covers four dimensions:

・Environment: energy, carbon emissions, waste, biodiversity

・Labor and Human Rights: workplace safety, wages, anti-discrimination

・Business Ethics: anti-bribery, data security, transparency

・Sustainable Procurement: the company's own supply chain management capabilities

A first-time assessment typically requires completing a questionnaire of roughly 70 questions and uploading relevant policy documents, energy reports, and third-party certifications. The entire process takes approximately three to six months

A silver medal means ranking in the top 55% of all assessed companies. For many major brands this threshold is sufficient, though top-tier clients — such as European luxury conglomerates — are increasingly setting gold as a prerequisite for supplier approval

Asahi Photoproducts is a leading supplier of flexographic photopolymer printing plates, widely used by high-end flexible packaging and corrugated carton printers around the world. In April 2026, they completed their first EcoVadis assessment and came away with a silver medal

What stands out is the fact that they achieved silver on the very first attempt. First-time participants often earn bronze simply because their documentation systems have not yet been established; reaching silver immediately indicates that Asahi already had a genuinely systematic sustainability management framework at the corporate level — not a last-minute document scramble ahead of the assessment

This is backed by a long-term strategic commitment: Asahi's 'Leading the Way to Solvent ZERO' program, which aims to eliminate solvent use in the flexographic printing process by shifting to Aqueous Washable Plates (AWP). These plates require no solvent for washout, reducing VOC emissions and cutting the environmental burden of waste liquid disposal

In short, their ESG rating was not manufactured through paperwork — it is external recognition of genuine process change

When Taiwanese printers have faced ESG audits from clients in the past, the questions have typically focused on their own facilities: electricity consumption, wastewater treatment, FSC certification, ISO 14001 status. That boundary is expanding

In recent conversations with packaging printers that export to Europe, I've heard that European client audit questionnaires now include questions such as: 'Please list your primary consumables suppliers and indicate whether they hold EcoVadis or equivalent ESG certification.'

This is not an isolated development. The EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is pushing brand clients to take responsibility for ESG performance across the entire supply chain — meaning they must be able to trace upstream ESG records, not just manage their own factories

For Taiwanese printers, this creates two concrete problems:

・Do the plates, inks, and solvents you currently use come from suppliers with any ESG rating? If not, how will you explain that to clients?

・If your suppliers have no rating, do you have alternative options — or the capacity to support them through an assessment?

In the short term this is unlikely to become a hard disqualifying criterion, but when bidding for orders from premium brands, these details are already beginning to affect scoring

Many Taiwanese SMEs hear 'EcoVadis' and assume it's something only large corporations need to worry about. That's not accurate. EcoVadis assessment fees vary by company size, ranging from roughly one thousand to several thousand US dollars per year; smaller manufacturers qualify for the lower fee tier. And a first-time assessment primarily demands time and document organization, not additional capital investment

A few things you can start doing now:

・Audit your list of major consumables suppliers and confirm which ones already hold EcoVadis or equivalent ratings (such as ISO 50001 or published carbon inventory reports)

・If you already hold ISO 14001 or ISO 9001, those documents can serve directly as supporting evidence in the EcoVadis questionnaire, significantly reducing preparation costs

・Check with your plate suppliers — such as Asahi, Kodak, and Flint — whether they carry ESG ratings. Prioritizing certified raw materials is a genuine plus when clients conduct audits

・If a client has already asked you to submit supply chain ESG data, proactively confirm which framework they are using and prepare your documentation in the corresponding format ahead of time

You do not need to aim for gold on the first attempt. Earning bronze and establishing a documentation system gives you a clear direction for continuous improvement

The topic generating the most discussion in the industry over the past year or two is supply chain carbon traceability. Brand clients no longer just want to know how much carbon your factory emits — they want to know the total carbon footprint of a finished printed piece across the entire chain: paper, plates, ink, and post-press processing

Asahi earning an EcoVadis silver medal represents one node in that chain stepping up first. You can expect ink manufacturers, paper merchants, and finishing suppliers to follow in sequence, because their customers — printers — will eventually ask

The opportunity for Taiwanese printers is this: if you start building a supplier ESG inventory now and collecting environmental data on plates and inks, you will come prepared when brand clients sit down to discuss supply chain carbon disclosure. If you wait until clients make a formal demand, you will almost certainly be too late

FSC certification followed the same path — from 'only large printers need it' to 'standard for mid-sized printers too.' EcoVadis is traveling the same road, just considerably faster

・Asahi Photoproducts earning a silver medal on its first EcoVadis assessment signals that the ESG performance of printing consumables suppliers has entered a traceable, auditable framework

・EcoVadis is not a document game. A silver medal places a company in the top 55% of all assessed organizations globally, and it must be underpinned by real process improvements

・The supply chain audit boundary of international brands is extending upstream. Sooner or later, clients will benchmark your supplier list against ESG ratings

・For printers that already hold ISO 14001 or ISO 9001, the document preparation cost for a first EcoVadis application is lower than most people expect

・Starting to build a supplier ESG database now is a prerequisite for continuing to win international orders two to three years from now

The most immediately actionable step for Taiwanese small and mid-sized printers: before your next procurement contract renewal, proactively ask your plate and ink suppliers about their EcoVadis status, and add that field to your supplier evaluation form. This costs nothing, but it helps you identify supply chain ESG gaps before they become a problem

For brand designers and procurement teams, the Asahi case is a practical reference point. When you require printers to provide sustainability certifications, you can go a step further and ask them to show the ESG ratings of their primary plate suppliers — extending your audit from the factory level to the genuine supply chain level

In this context, the integrated services that MINDS can provide help clients confirm supplier certification status in parallel with their printing procurement decisions, making sustainability something verifiable rather than merely aspirational

・EcoVadis Silver for Asahi Photoproducts