Supply Chain Integrity and Sustainability with Nicole Sherwin of EcoVadis

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Modern Slavery and Corporate Accountability

This chapter examines the pervasive issue of modern slavery and forced labor in supply chains, emphasizing the role of technology in enhancing transparency and worker engagement. It further discusses the implications of the SEC's stance on climate disclosure, the intertwined relationship between corporate reputation and sustainability, and ongoing challenges within ESG practices.

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Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Our guest, Nicole Sherwin, Chief Impact Officer of EcoVadis, explains her ESG philosophy, and how her role as EcoVadis Chief Impact Officer works with sustainability, including climate-related risks, human rights, transparency in supply chains, and sustainability supply chain regulations. Nicole and Justin discuss each of these topics and how companies can improve their sustainability metrics. Nicole points out the incentives companies have to demonstrate to investors and institutions more transparency in their supply chains. She notes tools and frameworks companies can use for supply chain ESG and sustainability reporting. Listen for a perspective on adding sustainability compliance to your organization’s supply chain.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:14] Public registration is open for RISKWORLD 2025! RIMS wants you to Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow with RIMS at RISKWORLD from May 4th through May 7th in Chicago, Illinois. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD and the link in this episode’s show notes.

[:30] About this episode. We will discuss sustainability and supply chain risk with our guest, EcoVadis Chief Impact Officer Nicole Sherwin.

[:55] RIMS-CRMP Workshops! The next workshop will be March 19th and 20th. Register by March 12th. As part of our continuing strategic partnership with Purima, we have a two-day course coming up April 22nd and 23rd.

[1:12] LInks to these courses can be found through the Certification page of RIMS.org and this episode’s show notes.

[1:20] Virtual Workshops! “Managing Data for ERM” will be hosted by Pat Saporito. That course starts on March 12th, 2025. On March 26th, Pat will also host “Generative AI for Risk Management.”

[1:38] On April 16th and 17th, Chris Hansen will lead “Managing Worker Compensation, Employer’s Liability, and Employment Practices in the U.S.”

[1:51] A link to the full schedule of virtual workshops can be found on the RIMS.org/education and RIMS.org/education/online-learning pages. A link is also in this episode’s show notes.

[2:02] RISKWORLD registration is open. Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow, May 4th through 7th in Chicago. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. Also, remember there will be lots of pre-conference workshops being held in Chicago just ahead of RISKWORLD.

[2:20] These courses include “Applying and Integrating ERM,” “Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique,” “Contractual Risk Transfer,” “Fundamentals of Insurance,” “Fundamentals of Risk Management,” RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep, and more! Links are in the show notes.

[2:43] Between tariffs, climate threat, and geopolitical instability, now is a good time to reexamine your supply chain risk management practices, especially in front of April, which is Supply Chain Integrity Month.

[2:57] Joining us today to discuss the role that sustainability efforts can play in managing supply chain risk is Nicole Sherwin, the Chief Impact Officer at EcoVadis, a provider of business sustainability ratings and insights. There’s much to discuss about sustainability, ESG, and more!

[3:17] Interview! Nicole Sherwin, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:40] Nicole holds that businesses have a unique opportunity to magnify the positive social and environmental impacts of the things they do and where they engage.

[3:56] Nicole is especially passionate about sustainable supply chains and the B2B relationship between buyers and suppliers. Procurement, the function that works with suppliers, holds a lot of power, in deciding which suppliers to spend money with.

[4:13] Procurement wants to work with suppliers who can demonstrate they are strong partners in all senses of the word, but increasingly in managing their business’s sustainability.

[4:22] It can reduce risk, increase resilience, and open collaboration opportunities for procurement teams to drive growth and value for their business.

[4:35] Procurement can leverage sustainability innovations of products and services of their suppliers into the design and selling of their products and services, which helps them meet the demands of customers and unlock new markets. That excites Nicole.

[4:59] EcoVadis is a purpose-driven company, as stated in its corporate bylaws. Its purpose is to guide all companies toward a sustainable world.

[5:14] Nicole’s role as Chief Impact Officer is similar to a Chief Sustainability Officer. Part of her role is responsibility for implementing best-in-class sustainability practices internally. Some of those practices are set science-based carbon reduction targets.

[5:31] EcoVadis runs a program with its suppliers to engage them in sustainable practices.

[5:35] The bigger impact EcoVadis can have is via its solutions and driving sustainability transformation with its customers. EcoVadis is dedicated to embedding sustainability data and intelligence into business decisions.

[5:50] EcoVadis has sustainability ratings and data it provides to help businesses benchmark themselves and improve their performance on environmental and social topics. It focuses on global supply chains and procurement organizations that engage their suppliers.

[6:08] The impact EcoVadis has is as an enabler to guide companies to improve their practices on decarbonization, working conditions, and human rights, to create stronger sustainability performance with more resilient supply chains.

[6:19] KPIs are important ways to measure. Action can be even more important. Don’t wait to get the right measurement or figure out how to measure. Get to action, maybe specifically on decarbonization, where some of the metrics and KPIs might be hard to get to.

[6:46] Nicole believes there are many risks to global supply chains. Some are geopolitical instability, tariffs impacting trade, and increased cyber attacks on critical infrastructure as things are becoming more digitalized.

[7:05] Nicole mentions four sustainability topics. The first is climate-related risks, including extreme weather events, natural disasters, and long-term climactic changes, like rising temperatures and sea levels. Climate impacts raw material availability or shortages.

[7:27] Droughts and changes in weather affect agricultural productivity. Weather could be linked to transportation and distribution disruption with infrastructure damages and closure of routes that impact business continuity.

[7:45] The second sustainability topic is human rights and forced labor risks. These can be hard to detect. EcoVadis customers, working with their supply chain, have a strong focus on identifying and remediating those risks.

[8:02] The third sustainability topic is the lack of transparency in the supply chain. Many companies are only scratching the surface of the potential risks as they engage their direct or tier-one suppliers. Behind the tier-one supplier are different products and raw materials.

[8:23] How do you understand who those suppliers are and what are their ethical standards for sourcing and labor practices?

[8:30] The fourth sustainability topic is ESG or sustainability supply chain regulations. Supply chains are complex. They’re global. They could go deep into the multi-tier. Getting supply chain data needed for compliance is also complex.

[8:45] The ESG regulation space is evolving. It’s a moving target, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Being late or not being prepared for these regulations is a risk.

[9:01] Plug Time! The Spencer Educational Foundation’s goal to help build a talent pipeline of risk management and insurance professionals is achieved in part by its collaboration with risk management and insurance educators across the U.S. and Canada.

[9:21] Since 2010, Spencer has awarded over $3.3 million in general grants to support over 130 student-centered experiential learning initiatives at universities and RMI non-profits.

[9:35] Spencer’s 2026 application process will open on May 1st, 2025, and close on July 30th, 2025. General Grant awardees are typically notified at the end of October. Learn more about Spencer’s Grants through the Programs tab of SpencerEd.org.

[9:54] Spencer Day is an annual virtual event where the risk management and insurance communities come together to celebrate the Spencer Educational Foundation and the incredible work they do to attract and retain talent in the risk management and insurance professions.

[10:10] It’s never too late to donate. You can send a belated Spencer Day card. This year, the Foundation is seeking donations of $46 in honor of Spencer’s 46th year of operations. Visit SpencerEd.org/spencer-day for more details and donate.

[10:34] Every contribution is an investment in the future of risk management. We appreciate your support.

[10:40] Let’s Get Back to Our Interview with Nicole Sherwin of EcoVadis!

[11:02] Organizations can focus on sustainable procurement, creating an end-to-end program with suppliers, identifying where the risk is, assessing the performance, closing the gaps, and driving improvements on ethical, social, and environmental topics. That’s a key foundation.

[11:22] This can be done with on-site audits, online questionnaires, certifications that can be collected, and verification technology. Companies are deploying targeted engagements with suppliers that align with their corporate sustainability goals.

[11:39] Decarbonization of the supply chain is a key sustainability goal. It starts by understanding a supplier’s carbon footprint.

[11:47] A vast majority of the supply chain is small-to-medium companies (SMEs) in emerging markets. They don’t know where to start calculating their Scope 1 and Scope 2 indirect emissions. There are a lot of carbon estimators that can support suppliers to calculate those.

[12:03] These estimates can be used by procurement organizations to calculate their Scope 3 emissions.

[12:11] Nicole talks of transitioning to renewable energy sources, energy-efficient buildings, and manufacturing equipment, depending on the industry, optimizing transport, and localizing sourcing. Can you get closer to the source from the suppliers you’re working with?

[12:34] Look for eco-friendly materials that can be reused and recycled at the end of life. Use life-cycle assessments (LCA). Some tools can be used to support sustainable product design.

[12:58] Life cycle assessments require a level of expertise. Tools and technologies for LCA are becoming much more advanced and make it easier for SMEs to adopt at-scale deployments across multiple product areas.

[13:26] Dimensions of ROI can be incorporated into sustainability. The centerpiece of sustainability is looking at the environmental and social impacts of materials. Figuring ROI on a sustainability initiative is complex.

[14:12] EcoVadis did a report with Bain, “ESG Financial Performance.” Companies at the forefront of working on sustainable procurement have a profitability margin of three percentage points above those who don’t focus on their suppliers’ environmental and ethical practices.

[14:32] That research also showed that companies in natural resources, transportation, or industrial goods that had a high EcoVadis rating on their sustainability performance had higher EBITDA margins.

[14:53] Nicole says, succeeding with sustainability means thinking about it as an integrated approach to solving these core business challenges. Sustainability can reduce risk, increase resilience, and drive innovation and sales revenue through the offering of sustainable solutions.

[15:24] Plug Time! RIMS Webinars! On March 13th, our friends from Global Risk Consultants will return to discuss “How to Make Your Property Insurance Submission AI-Ready”.

[15:30] On Wednesday, March 26th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, members of the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council will extend the dialog that began in the recent RIMS Executive Report “Understanding Interconnected Risks”.

[15:53] On Thursday, March 27th, Descartes Underwriting will make its RIMS Webinar debut with a session about parametric insurance. On April 10th, Audit Board will present, “What Non-CISO Risk Executives Should Know about Cyber Risks in 2025.”

[16:09] Following the success of their recent webinar, HUB International returns for the next installment of their Ready for Tomorrow Series, “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach”. That session will be on April 17th.

[16:24] More webinars will be announced soon and added to the RIMS.org/webinars page. Go there to register. Registration is complimentary for RIMS members.

[16:36] The Conclusion of My Interview with EcoVadis Chief Impact Officer, Nicole Sherwin!

[16:51] Nicole shares some sustainability plan pointers. Having a data-driven approach is key, using accurate, verified data to measure progress and inform decision-making. EcoVadis issues a Sustainable Procurement Barometer every three years. It was updated at the end of 2024.

[17:10] Companies that were showing a high level of maturity in sustainability and ESG were more than two times more likely to engage key stakeholders strategically with data. The C-Suite cares about KPIs. Being able to show performance and outputs catches their attention.

[17:33] Taking a data-driven approach, even if it’s starting with a small set of data from proof of concept of deployment can be a way to get their attention and bring in additional investment. Cross-department collaboration is key. Sustainability is a responsibility across the organization.

[17:55] We increasingly see that sustainability is integrated into performance bonuses, not just for senior executives, but also for managers across departments. It’s a company-wide initiative to drive sustainability.

[18:06] In the Sustainable Procurement Barometer, 45% of the suppliers say that they see sustainability as important to their customers and are engaged about it as partners. However, 46% see it as important to their customers but don’t find it in their relationship.

[18:28] Sometimes Procurement can see a risk in the supply chain we see as important but they don’t have enough of a program around embedding collaboration with a supplier.

[18:40] Collaboration can be putting it in contract clauses, setting sustainability targets to where they want to see them improve, and running capability building and training in decarbonization.

[19:13] Forced labor can lie under the surface if you don’t look for it. EcoVadis customers are looking to understand where human rights and forced labor are happening in the supply chain.

[19:29] One effective technology is engaging workers through automated worker surveys and grievance mechanisms, directly to workers through SMS or WhatsApp. It’s been extraordinarily powerful, allowing companies to work on remediation efforts.

[20:47] Nicole thinks the SEC’s decision to pause indefinitely its Climate Disclosure Rules will have an impact on corporate accountability. Companies are not being mandated to disclose on climate. However, from an investor perspective, the demand for disclosure is still there.

[21:08] For investors, these regulations are seen in a positive light for those assessing climate-related risk, and wanting to accelerate investment toward a more sustainable economy. They want standardized and comparable data to manage these risks and impacts.

[21:27] Companies face a potential loss of investment opportunities if they don’t disclose climate impact data in a common format.

[21:36] Companies will have to decide if they’re going to voluntarily disclose climate-related information or not. They will have to if they want to be considered by investors, or even financial institutions, who are increasingly requesting this kind of information for lending or underwriting.

[21:54] There are international standards that continue to emphasize consistent reporting. The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is one. The Sustainability Standards Board offers The Climate-Related Risk Disclosure Framework.

[22:15] Companies can voluntarily report their climate-related risk using the available frameworks.

[22:27] Companies know that there is a reputation risk to transparency. For some companies, up to 90% of their carbon footprint is in their supply chain. Getting that data and driving reductions in their supply chain is complicated.

[22:52] The economic driver of investors and access to finance are incentives for companies to disclose climate-related risk data. Each company has to decide.

[23:41] Nicole thinks that ESG is under fire in the U.S. However, she believes that the ESG frameworks supported by the risk community help businesses anticipate and manage risks. That’s not going anywhere. There’s a business imperative here.

[24:17] Companies that get this understand and have the experience of how sustainability interconnects to core business goals of risk, resilience, competitiveness, and unlocking new market share, driving new sales with demand for sustainability solutions and products.

[24:38] The market’s focus on long-term resilience will keep it at the forefront. Those companies that are committing to it will be able to demonstrate resilience and transcend other companies that drop ESG for now.

[24:49] We’re ending on a hopeful note. Nicole, it’s been a pleasure, of course, and it’s very insightful to get a glimpse into your mind and perspective. Thank you so much for joining us here on RIMScast! Happy Supply Chain Integrity Month to you!

[25:11] Special thanks again to Nicole Sherwin of EcoVadis for joining us here on RIMSCast! Links to RIMS resources about sustainability and supply chain risk are in this episode’s show notes.

[25:24] We’ve got more supply chain coverage coming up ahead of Supply Chain Integrity Month in April. Stay tuned!

[25:31] More RIMS Plugs! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes.

[25:59] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let’s collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information.

[26:17] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information.

[26:34] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today’s risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more.

[26:50] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management.

[27:04] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org.

[27:12] Thank you all for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!

Mentioned in this Episode:

RISKWORLD 2025 — May 4‒7. | Register today!

RIMS Legislative Summit — March 19‒20, 2025

Nominations for the Donald M. Stuart Award

Spencer Educational Foundation — General Grants 2026 — Application Dates

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP)

RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy

RIMS Risk Management magazine

www.EcoVadis.com

RIMS Webinars:

RIMS.org/Webinars

“How to Make Your Property Insurance Submission AI-Ready” | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company | March 13, 2025