Boston – Feb. 24, 2020 – Bain & Company today announced it has made a minority investment in EcoVadis, the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings for global supply chains. The collaboration will accelerate and deepen both companies’ offerings for improving the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of their collective clients.

Focused on creating “the highest levels of value” for its clients, Bain & Company notes a comprehensive emphasis on economic, social and environmental value in its aims. This indicates a growing acknowledgement across the firm and the global industries it serves —including private equity, consumer products, energy, finance, and technology—that the purpose of business must go beyond the singular focus of maximizing shareholder value.

Bain & Company will integrate EcoVadis’ sustainability ratings into its approaches to corporate strategy, supply chain and procurement. They will also seek to develop a focused approach around specific offerings for financial investors across fund strategy, diligence and post-acquisition. 

Bain & Company’s investment, coupled with EcoVadis’ recently secured c.$200m investment from CVC Growth Fund II, will enable EcoVadis to scale growth and maximize its impact on  enterprise supply chains, embedding sustainability into business decision-making and corporate performance.

“Recognizing that social and environmental challenges are growing, timelines for addressing them are contracting, and companies are moving quickly to adapt, Bain & Company is committed to our mission of creating value – economic, social, and environmental – for our clients,” said Jenny Davis-Peccoud, co-head of Bain & Company’s global Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility Practice.

Practice co-leader Jean Charles Van den Branden, commented, “Joining forces with EcoVadis, which has a strong presence and reputation, as well as access in the ESG space, directly supports our strategy and enables us to create a highly differentiated offering across our various practice areas.”

“Bain & Company’s investment represents another substantial milestone for EcoVadis. The investment is a strong testament to the value and business-critical role that sustainability plays in today’s market,” said Pierre-Francois Thaler, co-CEO and co-founder of EcoVadis. “We continue to see executives from all over the world share bold plans for sustainability and ESG transformation. Collaborating with Bain & Company and CVC equips us to reach, enable and impact more organizations and communities globally.”

“Environmental, social and governance issues are critical to business success, economic growth and societal improvement, and we are looking forward to working closely with two partners who rightly place these factors at the core of their business strategies,” said Aaron Dupuis, partner, CVC Growth Partners. “This collaboration with Bain & Company coupled with our recent investment is a real game changer for EcoVadis, and we are excited to back this new partnership with the full weight of the CVC network.”

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Editor's Note:

For Bain & Company: Dan Pinkney at dan.pinkney@bain.com or +1 646 562 8102

For EcoVadis: Tori Vichroski at ecovadis@corporateink.com or +1 617-969-9192

For CVC Growth Partners: Carsten Huwendiek, Global Head of Communications and Marketing at chuwendiek@cvc.com or +44 20 7420 4200

About EcoVadis

EcoVadis is the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools for global supply chains. Backed by a powerful technology platform and a global team of domain experts, EcoVadis’ easy-to-use and actionable sustainability scorecards provide detailed insight into environmental, social and ethical risks across 198 purchasing categories and 155 countries. Industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, L’Oréal, Subway, Nestlé, Salesforce, Michelin and BASF are among the more than 60,000 businesses on the EcoVadis network, all working with a single methodology to evaluate, collaborate and improve sustainability performance in order to protect their brands, foster transparency and innovation, and accelerate growth. Learn more on ecovadis.com, Twitter or LinkedIn.