How the EcoVadis Silver Medal Affects the Printing Supply Chain

EcoVadis is a third-party ESG rating system for corporate suppliers. It now covers more than 135 countries and over 130 industries worldwide, and multinational groups such as L'Oréal, Nestlé, and LVMH use it to audit the sustainability performance of upstream suppliers

Ratings are divided into four levels: Bronze, from the 25th to 44th percentile, Silver, from the 45th to 64th percentile, Gold, from the 65th to 84th percentile, and Platinum, the top 1%. The assessment covers:

・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 ability to manage its own supply chain

A first assessment usually requires completing a questionnaire of about 70 questions and uploading related policy documents, energy reports, and third-party certificates. The whole process takes about three to six months

Silver means the company ranks in the top 55% of assessed businesses. For many major brands, that threshold is already acceptable, but top-tier customers, such as European luxury groups, are starting to treat Gold as an entry requirement

Asahi Photoproducts is a major supplier of flexographic photopolymer plates. Printers in high-end flexible packaging and corrugated color boxes around the world use their plates at scale. In April 2026, the company completed its first EcoVadis assessment and earned Silver

The real point is the fact that it received Silver on its first attempt. In most cases, first-time assessments only reach Bronze because the documentation system has not yet been built. Asahi’s direct move to Silver shows that it already had a fairly systematic sustainability management framework at the company level, instead of rushing to organize materials just to pass an assessment

Behind this is a long-term strategy: Asahi’s “Leading the Way to Solvent ZERO” program, which aims to reduce solvent use in flexographic printing by shifting to water-wash plates, AWP, Aqueous Washable Plate. These plates do not require solvent washout, which cuts VOC emissions and reduces the environmental burden of waste liquid treatment

In other words, its ESG rating was not created through document packaging. It is an external recognition of actual changes in the production process

In the past, when Taiwanese printers went through customer ESG audits, the questions usually focused on “your own factory”: electricity use, wastewater treatment, whether you had FSC certification, whether you had ISO 14001. That boundary is now expanding outward

I recently spoke with several packaging printers that export to Europe, and they said audit questionnaires from European customers have already started to include questions like this: “Please list the main consumables suppliers you use, and state whether they have EcoVadis or equivalent ESG certification.”

This is not an isolated case. The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, CSDDD, is pushing brand customers to take responsibility for the entire supply chain. That means they must be able to trace upstream ESG performance, not just manage their own factories

For Taiwanese printers, this creates two practical questions:

・Do the suppliers of the plates, inks, and solvents you currently use have any ESG rating? If not, how will you explain that to customers?

・If suppliers do not have ratings, do you have alternatives, or are you able to help them complete an assessment?

This will not become a hard threshold in the short term, but when bidding for high-end brand orders, these details are already starting to affect scores

Many small and midsize Taiwanese printers hear EcoVadis and think, “That’s for big companies.” Not really. The cost of applying for an EcoVadis assessment varies by company size, from about one thousand to several thousand US dollars per year. Small and midsize manufacturers fall into the lower fee range, and a first assessment mainly takes time and document preparation, not extra hardware investment

A few things you can start doing now:

・Take inventory of your main consumables suppliers and confirm which ones already have EcoVadis or equivalent ratings, such as ISO 50001 or carbon inventory reports

・If you already have ISO 14001 or ISO 9001, those documents can be used directly as supporting evidence in the EcoVadis questionnaire, which greatly lowers preparation costs

・Check with plate suppliers, such as Asahi, Kodak, and Flint, to confirm whether they have ESG ratings. Prioritize certified raw materials, since this becomes a plus in customer audits

・If your customers already require supply chain ESG data, proactively confirm which standard they use and prepare the matching document format in advance

There is no need to chase Gold on the first attempt. If the first assessment earns Bronze and establishes a system, the next round of improvements will have a clear direction

Over the past year or two, “supply chain carbon emissions traceability” has clearly become a hotter topic in the industry. Brand customers do not just want to know how much carbon your factory emits. They want to know the total carbon footprint of a printed product across paper, plates, inks, and postpress processing

Asahi’s EcoVadis Silver medal is one node in that chain moving into position early. Next, you can expect ink makers, paper suppliers, and finishing plants to follow, because their customers, the printers, will ask sooner or later

The opportunity for Taiwanese printers is here: if you start building a supplier ESG list now and collect environmental data for plates and inks, you will be prepared when discussing supply chain carbon disclosure with brand customers. If you wait until customers make an explicit demand, it is usually too late

FSC certification also moved from “only big companies need it” to “standard equipment for small and midsize companies.” EcoVadis is heading down the same path. The only difference is that it is moving much faster

・Asahi Photoproducts earned Silver in its first EcoVadis assessment, showing that the ESG performance of printing consumables suppliers has entered a traceable system

・EcoVadis is not a paperwork game. Its Silver medal corresponds to the top 55% of assessed companies worldwide, and it requires real production process improvements behind the scenes

・The supply chain audit boundary of international brands is extending upstream. Sooner or later, customers will take the supplier lists of Taiwanese printers and compare them

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

・Building a supplier ESG database now is a prerequisite for continuing to take international orders two or three years from now

For small and midsize Taiwanese printers, the most direct action is this: before the next purchasing contract renewal, ask plate and ink suppliers about their EcoVadis rating status, and add that field to your supplier evaluation form. This step costs nothing, but it helps you identify supply chain ESG gaps early

For brand design and procurement teams, the Asahi case is a practical reference point. When you ask printers to provide sustainability certifications, you can go one step further and ask them to show the ESG ratings of their main plate suppliers. That moves your audit from the “factory level” to the “supply chain level” in a real way

In this context, the value of MINDS, a mid- to high-end fully custom commercial printing provider, lies in helping customers confirm supplier certification status during print procurement, so sustainability is not just a slogan but a condition that can be checked

・EcoVadis Silver for Asahi Photoproducts