My buyer sent an EcoVadis Vitals questionnaire, not a full rating. What is it?

Vitals is EcoVadis's free, short risk questionnaire. It covers Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement, takes about 30 minutes, and gives your buyer a risk level, not a score or a medal. Your answers stay confidential; the buyer sees the risk level and the documents you attach.

Vitals or a full rating: what is different

• Cost: Vitals is free for you. A full EcoVadis rating needs your own paid subscription.
• Time: Vitals takes about 30 minutes, and every question is mandatory. Progress saves, so you can stop and come back.
• Result: a company-specific sustainability risk level, with how well you meet your buyer's requirements. No 0 to 100 score, no medal, no badge.
• What the buyer sees: your risk level and the documents you attached. Not your individual answers.
• Reuse: you can update the result and share it with another buyer who invites you.

The documents Vitals asks for

Attaching documents is optional, but EcoVadis says they can significantly improve your result, because each one is reviewed after you submit.

• Environmental policy, and ISO 14001 or EMAS certificate.
• Labor and human rights policy, employee health and safety policy, and ISO 45001 or SA8000 certificate.
• Sustainable procurement policy, and FSC or PEFC chain of custody certificate.
• Ethics policy, and ISO 27001 or ISO 37001 certificate.

Why a document gets ignored

• Wrong type: an ISO 50001 certificate attached where the question asks for ISO 14001 or EMAS is not counted.
• Company name only in the logo. Put the name in the body text.
• A policy more than 8 years old, or a certificate past its expiry date.
• A file of 30 MB or more. EcoVadis recommends PDF, PNG, JPG or JPEG.
• A long document with no page range showing where the relevant part is.

After you submit

The result appears on your Vitals dashboard shortly after submission. EcoVadis describes Vitals as a high-level screen and the full rating as the deep assessment, so a buyer may later invite you to a full rating. Keep the documents you prepared; they are the base of a full rating.

A 40-person Rajkot casting supplier checks its documents

• ISO 14001 certificate valid to 2027, company name printed in the text: attach.
• Health and safety policy dated 2016: over 8 years old in 2026, so reissue it with a 2026 date and sign it.
• No ethics policy: write a one-page code covering bribery and gifts, dated and signed, or answer honestly without one.
• Quality manual of 120 pages that includes the environment policy: attach it with the page range, for example pages 14 to 16.

An example of the checks; EcoVadis's review decides what counts.

What Senseible does here

Vitals asks for policies and certificates, not emission figures, so Senseible has little to add here. If your buyer follows up with a carbon data request or a full rating, Senseible turns your bills into Scope 1 and 2 figures with the bill behind each one.

• Get your carbon number from bills
• Do I have to pay for EcoVadis?
• Saying no to an EcoVadis request
• Questionnaire support

Sources: EcoVadis, Vitals, EcoVadis Help Center, What is the purpose and benefit of Vitals?, EcoVadis Help Center, Preparing documents for the EcoVadis Vitals questionnaire, EcoVadis Help Center, How does EcoVadis review the documents I attached to the Vitals questionnaire?

Last reviewed 2026-10-30.