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

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ecovadis-vitals-questionnaire

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](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)
- [Do I have to pay for EcoVadis?](https://senseible.earth/answers/do-i-have-to-pay-for-ecovadis)
- [Saying no to an EcoVadis request](https://senseible.earth/answers/decline-ecovadis-assessment-request)
- [Questionnaire support](https://senseible.earth/esg-ratings)

Sources: [EcoVadis, Vitals](https://ecovadis.com/solutions/iq/vitals/), [EcoVadis Help Center, What is the purpose and benefit of Vitals?](https://support.ecovadis.com/hc/en-us/articles/14962464927506-What-is-the-purpose-and-benefit-of-Vitals), [EcoVadis Help Center, Preparing documents for the EcoVadis Vitals questionnaire](https://support.ecovadis.com/hc/en-us/articles/14962929371922-Preparing-documents-for-the-EcoVadis-Vitals-questionnaire), [EcoVadis Help Center, How does EcoVadis review the documents I attached to the Vitals questionnaire?](https://support.ecovadis.com/hc/en-us/articles/14963174859282-How-does-EcoVadis-review-the-documents-I-attached-to-the-Vitals-questionnaire)

Last reviewed 2026-10-30.