EcoVadis Platinum rating achieved — top 1% of suppliers worldwide

Name: Merch.com.ge
Address: GE

Independent audit on 21 sustainability criteria across environment, labour, ethics and procurement places Corp-Merch in the Platinum band with a score of 88/100, up from Gold in 2022.

Request the audit summary Sustainability programme

What EcoVadis measures and why it matters

EcoVadis is the most widely used independent sustainability rating in the B2B procurement market. The methodology covers four pillars — environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement — across 21 individual criteria, weighted by industry, size and country risk. The output is a score from 0 to 100 and a medal band: Bronze (top 50%), Silver (top 25%), Gold (top 5%) and Platinum (top 1%). The rating is used by procurement teams across the Fortune 500 and the FTSE 350 to pre-qualify suppliers before they ever enter a tender.

For a corporate merchandise producer the rating matters because corporate merch sits at the seam between marketing, HR and procurement. Marketing wants the brand mark to look right; HR wants the recipient experience to feel right; procurement wants the supplier to pass the third-party audit. A Platinum band removes the procurement objection and lets the brief move to the marketing and HR conversation. For buyers inside Georgia the rating is also a procurement precondition for any programme funded by an international donor (EBRD, EIB, World Bank, USAID) where the procurement rules require an audited sustainability posture.

The 2024 audit placed us in the Platinum band at 88/100, up from 80/100 in 2022 (Gold band). The improvement is concentrated in the environment and labour pillars — the points that the audit methodology weights most heavily for a producer in the textile-and-accessories industry. The audit summary letter is available on request to qualified buyers under NDA; the full scorecard is shared once a programme moves into commercial discussion.

How the score breaks down

The environment pillar (35 points possible) covers energy consumption, greenhouse-gas emissions, water management, waste management, biodiversity and environmental compliance. Our 2024 environment score is 32/35, the deduction being on water management in our dye-house partner facility where the closed-loop water-recovery system commissioned in 2023 is still in commissioning. The system is scheduled to reach steady-state in 2026 and the next audit cycle is expected to close that gap.

The labour and human rights pillar (35 points possible) covers employee health and safety, working conditions, social dialogue, career management, child labour and forced labour. Our 2024 labour score is 31/35, the deduction being on the formalisation of our supplier-side workforce contracts. We use two finishing partners for caps and beanies in the Adjara region and a knits partner in Guria; all three are now on the formalised contract template as of 2024 but the multi-year supplier score had not yet fully reflected the change at audit date.

The ethics pillar (20 points possible) covers corruption, anti-competitive practices, responsible information management and customer safety. Our 2024 ethics score is 18/20, the deduction being on the formal third-party whistle-blower channel. We have since implemented a whistle-blower channel hosted on a third-party platform and the next audit cycle is expected to close that gap. The sustainable procurement pillar (10 points possible) covers supplier environmental and social practices, and our score is 7/10. The deduction is on the share of suppliers with an ISO 14001 or ISO 45001 certification; we are working with the supplier base on this and the next audit cycle is expected to move the score.

Why we publish this on merch.com.ge

Sustainability ratings used to be the kind of thing a producer kept in the drawer until the buyer asked. The logic was that publishing the rating was a hostage-to-fortune: a buyer might still pick the cheaper option, and the producer might as well keep the marketing line vague. The market has moved. Procurement teams now require the rating disclosure as a precondition, and a buyer who cannot find the rating on the supplier's site moves on to one who has it. Publishing is the cheaper option for both sides.

We also publish because the rating is not the marketing line; it is the audit evidence. The audit letter is signed by EcoVadis and counter-signed by our CEO; the scorecard is hosted on the EcoVadis platform; the supporting documentation (energy bills, water bills, supplier contracts, whistle-blower channel terms of use) is held in our compliance vault and available for inspection under NDA. A buyer who wants to verify the rating can ask EcoVadis for the company file in our name; the platform will return the scorecard and the supporting evidence index. We do not need to argue that the rating is real because the third party already argues that for us.

For buyers in regulated industries — banking, insurance, government, education, healthcare, the EU/EEA donor-funded programmes — the EcoVadis rating is the audit trail that satisfies the procurement team's regulatory question. The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) in the EU and the equivalent disclosure regimes in the UK and Switzerland explicitly recognise EcoVadis and similar ratings as evidence under the supplier-engagement pillar of the double-materiality assessment. A Georgian corporate buyer who is itself subject to CSRD through its EU parent can hand our EcoVadis letter to its auditor as evidence of supplier due diligence.

Frequently asked questions

What does the EcoVadis Platinum rating actually mean in procurement terms?

It means a third party has audited us against 21 sustainability criteria and placed us in the top 1% of suppliers worldwide on the score. For buyers with internal sustainability-procurement gates (CSRD, donor-funded procurement, ISO 20400 sustainable procurement), the rating is the audit evidence they need.

Is Corp-Merch affiliated with EcoVadis?

No. EcoVadis is an independent sustainability ratings provider. Corp-Merch subscribed to the EcoVadis platform and was audited under the standard methodology. We are not a partner, sponsor or affiliate of EcoVadis.

Can a qualified buyer receive the EcoVadis scorecard?

Yes. The summary letter is available on request to qualified buyers under NDA. The full scorecard and supporting documentation are shared once a programme moves into commercial discussion; the same evidence is held on the EcoVadis platform and a buyer can also request it directly through EcoVadis.

How often is the rating renewed?

EcoVadis ratings are annual. Our next audit cycle is in 2026 and is expected to address the remaining deductions on water management, supplier ISO certifications and the third-party whistle-blower channel.

Corp-Merch is an independent corporate merchandise producer in Georgia. We are not a partner, sponsor or official supplier of EcoVadis, any audit body, conference, awards body, association or government body named anywhere on merch.com.ge.

Request the audit summary

Qualified buyers can request the EcoVadis summary letter under NDA. Send the procurement contact, the company name and the programme scope through the form; we will reply with the NDA and the summary letter inside two working days.