- 1EcoVadis assesses CSR maturity; Bilan Carbone® measures GHG emissions.
- 2Without Bilan Carbone®, EcoVadis's Environment theme lacks quantified evidence.
- 3Footprint in year N, EcoVadis in N+0.5: the same collection feeds both.
- 4€25,000 to €55,000 excl. VAT in total over 3 years for the two combined approaches.
- Does EcoVadis replace a Bilan Carbone®?
No. On the contrary: a good EcoVadis score requires it.
- EcoVadis assesses CSR maturity through a questionnaire (4 themes, with climate carrying increasing weight).
- Without a formal Bilan Carbone®, the Environment score inevitably reaches a ceiling.
- The Gold / Platinum levels remain unattainable without a thorough GHG inventory beforehand.
A question we hear increasingly often is whether companies that already have EcoVadis also need a Bilan Carbone®. The reasoning seems plausible. In practice, the two tools serve very different purposes.
1What EcoVadis actually is
EcoVadis is a private CSR assessment platform established in 2007, now rating more than 130,000 companies worldwide. Its main use: major customers ask their suppliers to be assessed by EcoVadis and use the resulting rating to manage responsible purchasing.
Assessment uses a questionnaire + supporting documents across four main themes: Environment, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. Each theme is scored out of 100, with an overall score out of 100. Assessed companies receive a medal according to their performance percentile:
- Bronze - top 35% of assessed companies
- Silver - top 15%
- Gold - top 5%
- Platinum - top 1%
The percentile rank is calculated against all companies assessed by EcoVadis worldwide over the last 12 months: the point score corresponding to each medal therefore changes from year to year with the distribution of scores.
It is important to understand that EcoVadis does not measure emissions - EcoVadis assesses the maturity of the approach. Having a Bilan Carbone®, an action plan and quantified climate targets all count towards the rating, but EcoVadis does not recalculate the company's carbon footprint.
2The effect of Bilan Carbone® on the EcoVadis score
Under the Environment theme, EcoVadis awards points across several dimensions: policies, actions, results, reporting and indicators. Bilan Carbone® contributes at three levels:
How Bilan Carbone® unlocks the Environment score
Click a step to see its role, or start the guided demo.
It demonstrates climate policy. A company with an updated, published Bilan Carbone® proves that it has formalised the issue. Without a footprint assessment, climate policy remains declarative - limiting points in this dimension.
It proves action. Quantified decarbonisation actions (with tCO₂e avoided) are worth more than qualitative actions ("we raise awareness among our teams"). Bilan Carbone® allows actions to be quantified and therefore credited in the questionnaire.
It lends credibility to results and KPIs. EcoVadis particularly values companies publishing quantified indicators with historical data and targets. A Bilan Carbone® updated every 3 or 4 years provides exactly this data.
In practice, companies aiming for Gold or Platinum with EcoVadis without a Bilan Carbone® are extremely rare. The footprint assessment has become an implicit condition for a good environment score - rather than an explicit mention in the questionnaire, it is evident in the scoring.
3The respective strengths of the two tools
EcoVadis is better for... assessing a company's overall CSR maturity (beyond climate alone), positioning it against a sectoral benchmark, proving to a customer that it addresses social, ethical and responsible purchasing issues, and obtaining an internationally recognised marker for purchasing by large groups.
Two tools, two roles - never in competition
EcoVadis assesses the CSR approach. Bilan Carbone® measures the reality - one feeds the other.
Bilan Carbone® is better for... precisely measuring GHG emissions, building a quantified climate action plan, managing operational decarbonisation, meeting legal obligations (BEGES, CSRD) and technical requirements (B Corp, SBTi), and obtaining actionable data for R&D and purchasing.
Put plainly: EcoVadis is a maturity marker; Bilan Carbone® is a management tool. The two serve different uses, which is why they coexist well in most mature CSR approaches.
4How much each costs in 2026
EcoVadis: the annual subscription varies with company size, typically from €1,000 excl. VAT/year for a micro-business to €5,000-€8,000 excl. VAT/year for an SME, and more for mid-cap companies. It includes the assessment, platform access and a reassessment cycle. Note that this cost does not include internal time preparing the questionnaire (several working days) or studies and deliverables to provide as evidence.
Complete Bilan Carbone®: €10,000 to €30,000 excl. VAT for an SME as a privately commissioned service, depending on complexity, or €6,000 excl. VAT with Diag Décarbon'Action.
Total for an SME taking both issues seriously over 3 years: around €25,000 to €55,000 excl. VAT combined (annual EcoVadis + Bilan Carbone® every three years), or €21,000 to €30,000 excl. VAT using the Diag for the footprint assessment.
5When to do one, the other or both
Prioritise Bilan Carbone® if: you have legal obligations (BEGES, CSRD), are preparing for B Corp certification, have an SBTi commitment in mind, your activity has a significant carbon issue (industry, logistics, cosmetics, textiles, food), or a major customer specifically requests your carbon footprint.
Prioritise EcoVadis if: your major customers use it as a supplier prerequisite, you sell extensively to the public sector or large international groups, you want an overall, recognised CSR marker without in-depth carbon assessment, or you are a service provider for whom emissions are not the central issue.
Do both, in an order that makes sense: most SMEs responding to demanding tenders eventually need both. The sensible order depends on deadlines - if a customer requires EcoVadis in 6 months, start there. If the first customer expects a Bilan Carbone®, start with the footprint assessment. Ideally, the footprint assessment comes before EcoVadis because it feeds the EcoVadis score, but practice is rarely as neat.
6Common pitfalls
Pitfall 1 - Believing a good EcoVadis score proves actual decarbonisation. A Gold or Platinum company has demonstrated the maturity of its approach - rather than its concrete emissions results. Investors and NGOs understand this and are starting to request additional evidence (footprint, SBTi pathway, etc.). An EcoVadis score is not a permanent passport.
Pitfall 2 - Outsourcing EcoVadis to an agency without a Bilan Carbone® behind it. Some SMEs pay an agency to "complete the EcoVadis questionnaire" without having the raw material (footprint, plan, KPIs). The result: a score that hits a ceiling, because the agency cannot invent indicators the company does not have. Last year, we saw a food-sector SME that had invested €7,000 excl. VAT in EcoVadis preparation to obtain 52 points - after a complete Bilan Carbone® carried out 8 months later, the same company reached 71 points on reassessment without doing any further preparation. The footprint assessment provided the material the agency had been desperately trying to invent. It is the sequence that is wasteful, rather than the tool.
Pitfall 3 - Believing EcoVadis and Bilan Carbone® conflict. They are two complementary tools that reinforce each other. A company combining them intelligently benefits: the same Bilan Carbone® data feed EcoVadis reporting, the B Impact Assessment for B Corp, the CDP questionnaire and the CSRD report for companies still subject to it. This is the most underestimated CSR economy of scale.
7The sequence to follow: Bilan Carbone®, then EcoVadis
EcoVadis is the thermometer; Bilan Carbone® is the building being measured. One assesses the maturity of the CSR approach, the other measures emissions - and you cannot heat with a thermometer. Substituting one for the other deprives the Environment theme of quantified evidence. To aim for Gold or Platinum, Bilan Carbone® is not explicitly mentioned but has become an implicit condition: Gold companies without a footprint assessment are extremely rare. The most effective sequence: footprint in year N, EcoVadis in year N+0.5 - the same collection work feeds both, and reassessment can use quantified indicators.
The right response when a customer requires EcoVadis: first check whether a Bilan Carbone® is planned within the year, and schedule EcoVadis after the footprint assessment if possible. Otherwise, you pay for EcoVadis preparation twice - once to obtain Bronze, once to renew it with the material you should have had from the start.
