# What is the EcoVadis carbon scorecard, and what do its levels mean?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ecovadis-carbon-scorecard-levels

The carbon scorecard rates how well you manage emissions on five levels: Insufficient, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Leader. The level is based on your carbon governance, actions and reporting. Companies with 25 or fewer employees cannot get one.

## A separate scorecard from your sustainability score

Your EcoVadis sustainability scorecard gives a 0 to 100 score across four themes. The carbon scorecard sits beside it and grades only carbon management, with strengths and improvement areas listed. A buyer counting its Scope 3 emissions reads it to judge how far along you are in managing carbon.

You can get it through the full sustainability plans, or through a Carbon Rating plan that covers carbon questions only and is offered when a buyer invites you.

## Where companies actually sit

EcoVadis's 2026 analysis of about 56,000 companies rated on carbon shows the climb gets harder at each step. On reassessment, 43% of Insufficient companies moved up to Beginner and 32% of Beginners moved to Intermediate, but only 16% of Intermediate companies reached Advanced.

## What separates the lower levels

- Beginner: 81% of companies at this level have taken first actions on Scope 1 and 2, but only 9% have a target or plan.
- Intermediate: 68% have a carbon target or plan. In these figures, a written target is what most separates Beginner from Intermediate.
- Getting past Intermediate: EcoVadis found five actions that predict a breakthrough: tying management pay to emission cuts, working with your own suppliers on reductions, collecting primary Scope 3 data from them, adopting a dated transition plan and setting a budget for it.

## A realistic path for a 60-person unit

1. Measure: a full year of Scope 1 and 2 from electricity bills and fuel invoices, for every site, with the documents.
2. Act: record actions with dates and numbers, such as a solar rooftop, a boiler fuel switch or an LED retrofit with before and after units.
3. Commit: write a dated reduction target with a base year, signed by the owner.
4. Repeat: measure again next year and show the change. Your level is updated when you are reassessed.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible covers the Measure step: a year of Scope 1 and 2 by site and billing period, each figure tied to its bill. Its team can draft your carbon answers from those records, you review and submit, and EcoVadis alone sets the level.

- [Share figures your buyer can trace](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Do I have to pay for EcoVadis?](https://senseible.earth/answers/do-i-have-to-pay-for-ecovadis)
- [Carbon evidence EcoVadis asks for](https://senseible.earth/answers/ecovadis-carbon-questions-what-evidence)
- [CDP without an emissions target](https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-no-emissions-target-how-to-answer)
- [Questionnaire support](https://senseible.earth/esg-ratings)

Sources: [EcoVadis, the carbon maturity ladder (2026 Carbon Action Report findings)](https://ecovadis.com/blog/carbon-maturity-ladder/), [EcoVadis, plans and pricing for rated companies (Carbon Rating plan)](https://ecovadis.com/plans-pricing/)

Last reviewed 2026-10-29. Level distribution figures come from EcoVadis's 2026 Carbon Action Report; replace them when the next report is published, and re-check Carbon Rating plan eligibility.