One year ago, Monument’s U.S. team was celebrating a Bronze EcoVadis status, achieved with no prior experience with the process. But in addition to our “high fives” and celebrations, we also set our sights on becoming even better — in true Monument fashion.

That vision quickly became action, and this year, it also became a reality. Monument has earned a Silver Medal from EcoVadis for our U.S. sites (joining our Belgium team, who earned silver status in 2018). This is a recognition awarded to the Top 15% of all companies assessed. The achievement elevated us from the 49th percentile to 91st, with a score increase of 20 points. 

This status proves a commitment across four main pillars scored by EcoVadis: Environmental Stewardship, Labor & Human Rights, Ethical Operations, and Responsible Procurement.

Given it was our second time going through the process, we’ve become even more in tune with what it takes to achieve the highest standards within the industry and how to hold all of our partners to the same caliber. And since we love sharing our knowledge and experiences with our customers and partners, we’ve outlined the top five lessons from our EcoVadis efforts — lessons that apply to working toward any collective sustainability business goal.

#1: Welcome an Outsider's Perspective

It’s impossible to improve without first acknowledging the areas that are holding you back. And often, that’s not so easy to see from within the trenches. Just because something is working well, doesn’t mean there aren't ways to make it better.

In this case, since our goal wasn’t simply to maintain our bronze status from last year. To achieve even higher, we went directly to the people setting the industry benchmarks and holding the red ink to understand where our attention needed to be.

“We collaborated with EcoVadis to get direct feedback on what components they were specifically looking for us to improve,” Rick Caines, Executive Consultant, explained. “We went through the gaps in last year’s score to understand what may have been overlooked or needed clarity or refinement. They conveyed very clear policies and KPIs that they wanted to see, so we’re using that input to set targets that allow us to maximize our time in the right places.”

Our team already knew Responsible Procurement was going to be our focus based on last year’s score, but we needed to understand what exactly had to be done to get us to that next level. And when it came to establishing our Sustainable Procurement policies, one of the largest pieces of that was developing a Supplier Code of Conduct. Which brings us to #2…

#2: Hold Your Partners as Accountable as You Hold Yourself

Like the old saying goes, you are the company you keep. While it’s always been part of the Monument standard to work with only the most established and reputable supplier partners, continually holding them accountable as the industry evolves is equally as important.

“In order to ensure our supplier partners are operating and providing products at the same standards, we established a comprehensive Code of Conduct, which outlines our requirements based on specific EcoVadis standards,” Gloria O’Bannon, HSSE Compliance Coordinator at Monument Chemical, explained. “We know the efforts we’re making internally to continuously improve our ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) standards are only as good as our partners, so our focus can’t simply be on our own products, but also on those of our suppliers and on the supply chain from end to end. We first identified 25 top-tier suppliers across our business and did a deep dive into their internal business ethics, from sustainability to labor and human rights.

“Then, we took EcoVadis’ recommended actions to ensure regulatory compliance in every relationship we have — from creating a Supplier Code of Conduct, modifying the terms in our POs, and developing responsible procurement policies. Moving forward, if any of these vendors aren’t able to sign off on our Code of Conduct, they’re not going to be on our list. This will allow us to much more confidently and officially vet our partners to meet these global standards.”

#3: Keep Continuous Improvement at the Forefront

Based on the feedback from EcoVadis, we knew we had to develop formal procurement policies that not only proved to EcoVadis that we’re continuing to meet their ESG requirements, but also helped us unify our efforts across all locations and key areas of the business. Because while losing an EcoVadis status is much easier than earning one, we also weren’t content with simply hitting the same mark again.

So to get to that next status in the future, we’re creating a team of cross-functional leaders and subject matter experts to provide clarity into all of our operational areas. With dozens of policies and action items required within each of the four main pillars, all of which have to be extremely specific, we’re recruiting the people who know each unique area of our business the best — to better understand what we need to outline and improve.  

“In our business, there are so many touch points within the process that all need to be considered and held to the standards we’re putting in place,” Rick shared. “We’re getting diverse perspectives across our operations to figure out how to address the key points of each pillar. As the grading itself continues to change, that also means making sure everyone is aware of the new legislation coming, so we can be proactive in our planning and execution to hit every moving target.”

#4: Practice What you Preach

If there’s one thing the EcoVadis assessment process has reinforced for us, it’s that actions speak louder than words. It’s one thing to say you prioritize sustainability in your business practices, and it’s another to prove it — which is what EcoVadis is all about.

And when we’re looking at our sustainability impact as outlined under the Environmental Stewardship pillar, we’re not only putting hard targets on greenhouse gas emissions in our operations, but also actively producing more lean carbon fuels to help others around the world do the same. 

“One of our biggest accomplishments within this process was a Scope 1 & 2 GHG carbon footprint assessment that allowed us to create a Carbon Footprint baseline,” Sarves Peri, Business Leader, Monument Renewables & Fuels, shared. “This outlined our footprint from all of our emissions — water usage, electricity, company vehicles, etc. We’re now able to track it more closely, and have even seen a 2% reduction in our carbon footprint by doing so.

“But it’s more than just the impact our processes have or the resources we use; it’s also in the products and tolls we create. Through our newer renewable fuels business at our Port Arthur and Kallo locations, we’ve been heavily moving to the production of more bio-based carbon lean fuels, and our ISCC certification is a testament to that. We are actually helping to reduce the global carbon footprint by providing these services to our partners and customers.”

#5: Collaboration is a Beautiful Thing

While improving Bayport’s individual certification was a major accomplishment in itself, it’s only part of a long-term mission to elevate Monument's ESG strategy across the entire company. While last year, the U.S. team leaned on Kallo’s experience with EcoVadis to help guide their process, this year, with Europe’s assessments being performed later in the year, we’re utilizing our learnings to help them prepare for theirs.

But the current collaboration is also part of a long-term goal to bring Monument together under one singular score globally. “We’re focused on creating a one-team approach, where all of our action items and KPIs are completely aligned across our global locations,” Rick emphasized. “This was all still fairly new to us, but we have come such a long way in a short time. Moving forward, we plan to turn the support and collaboration between U.S. and the Kallo teams into a completely unified effort that not only really shows our aggregate efforts toward a more sustainable future, but also strengthens our entire company as a whole.”

Monument also put that promise to paper by signing the Global Compact Commitment, which endorses our support of the United Nations’ Ten Principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. This requires Monument to provide an annual submission outlining the company’s efforts to implement the principles in our business strategy, culture, and operations.

At Monument, no celebration of success is complete without setting new goals!

Because when we earn a certain status or receive recognition, we’re always thinking about what’s next. Monument’s Silver Medal from EcoVadis not only helps prove our commitment to protecting our planet and creating better communities to live and work, but also drives us to continue to be a leader in our industry in doing so.

Regardless of your sustainability goals or objectives, we encourage you to remember to hold yourself and others accountable, rely on the people that know best, lead by example, and know there is always an opportunity to be or do even better.