Why EcoVadis is Lindt’s Secret to Supplier Risk

Lindt & Sprüngli is embedding sustainable sourcing into the core of its procurement operations.

With direct integration between the analytics platform Sievo and sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis, the company is reworking how it manages risk, supplier relationships and long-term supply chain resilience.

For Lindt & Sprüngli, supplier sustainability is not a side consideration.

Julia Laveissierre, Head of Responsible Sourcing at the Swiss chocolate maker, explains how the company’s use of EcoVadis ratings inside its Sievo procurement system allows it to make decisions that balance cost, quality and environmental or social performance.

This integrated setup removes the need to switch between platforms, giving procurement teams a direct view of supplier sustainability as part of the buying process. The Sievo-EcoVadis connector links supplier spend data with sustainability ratings, creating what Julia calls a "data lake" – a centralised space where buyers can manage every aspect of a sourcing decision, including sustainability.

"Sievo is acting like a data lake," she says. "Suddenly, in one place, the buyer can manage sustainability as they manage the rest."

It is this simplicity that allows the company to maintain what Julia calls “one source of truth” across procurement. A buyer can request a sustainability scorecard, view whether a supplier has completed an assessment and immediately review the results. These insights are directly available within Sievo, without requiring any additional manual processes.

The result is not just improved access to information. With 76% of Lindt & Sprüngli’s supplier base now covered by EcoVadis ratings, the company has a near-complete view of its supply chain from a sustainability standpoint.

Procurement data that works in practice

For Lindt & Sprüngli, integrating EcoVadis into Sievo created more than technical efficiency.

It gave structure to what Julia describes as “unstructured data” by standardising how supplier information appears. With supplier names, categories and sustainability scores now uniform across the platform, procurement teams are able to identify and act on supplier risks earlier.

This kind of visibility allows sustainability to become part of regular commercial discussions with suppliers, not just an annual compliance task. Buyers using the platform can check spend performance, sustainability scores and supplier risk in one place, enabling faster, more informed decisions.

"The beauty of that is, because this tool is highly adopted for a long time, the buyer suddenly also has access to sustainability and it becomes fully integrated into discussion with suppliers, into category reviews, risk management, that was the beauty of that," Julia explains.

Supplier scorecards are no longer background information – they are part of the live conversation. This has improved internal efficiency while encouraging suppliers to engage more actively in sustainability programmes.

Resilience built through supplier dialogue

Procurement teams are under growing pressure to demonstrate due diligence and meet stricter environmental and social standards.

For Lindt & Sprüngli, tools like EcoVadis help meet those expectations. When a supplier is flagged as high-risk, its sustainability score can provide evidence to support due diligence requirements.

This approach plays a central role in the company’s supply chain resilience. Julia is clear that sustainability is not only a business requirement – it’s a long-term strategy to weather supply shocks and changing global expectations.

Sustainable procurement means asking more of suppliers, but Julia also emphasises the need for collaboration. Suppliers cannot make changes in isolation, and Lindt & Sprüngli sees innovation as a shared responsibility.

"To be able to be resilient, you have to do business differently than you do today, and your partners or suppliers can't do it alone,” she says.

“We cannot just ask suppliers to do things. We need to partner with them - it's a virtuous circle where you create innovation, you can invest and help them to change."

By embedding sustainability into tools its buyers already use and making those insights part of routine supplier interaction, Lindt & Sprüngli is building procurement processes that can adapt with the times.