De-Risking and Due Diligence: Anticipate Risks and Drive Sustainable Supply Chains with Ecocert
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
In a context of evolving social, environmental, and reputational expectations, companies have the opportunity to strengthen their resilience and transform their supply chains.
De-risking¹ —or risk reduction— has become a strategic lever to meet growing societal expectations and comply with upcoming regulatory requirements (CSRD, CSDDD, EUDR²).
At Ecocert, we support organizations in implementing tailored verification services, adapted to each supply chain, region, and specific challenge. Let us tell you more about this essential topic.
1. What Is De-Risking?
De-risking refers to the strategies adopted by companies to anticipate, mitigate, and prevent potential negative impacts related to their activities.
In supply chains, this involves a thorough risk analysis across several dimensions:
- Social: decent working conditions, fair wages, respect for human rights, inclusion, etc.
- Environmental: pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, etc.
- Economic: dependency on single suppliers, market instability, etc.
- Reputational: brand image, social acceptability, etc.
This analysis must be followed by concrete measures to manage and reduce these risks.
The approach aligns with the duty of vigilance, introduced by the French law of 2017, and due diligence, promoted by international standards and European regulations such as the CSDDD. Both frameworks require companies to map risks, implement preventive actions, and publicly report their efforts—focusing particularly on human rights and environmental protection.
They converge on the same imperative: to act responsibly and transparently by embedding social and environmental considerations into strategic decision-making. At Ecocert, we incorporate these principles into our bespoke verification programs to help organizations act responsibly and transparently throughout their entire value chain.
2. Why Is De-Risking a Priority Today?
This topic has become crucial for several reasons:
- Regulatory compliance: with the enforcement of regulations such as the CSRD, CSDDD, and EUDR, companies must now demonstrate their ability to identify and manage risks.
- Prevention of systemic imbalances: issues such as resource grabbing, marginalization of small producers, pollution, and the repression of human rights defenders are deeply interconnected. Addressing them proactively can strengthen financial stability, reputation, and legal compliance through responsible action.
- Increasing supply-chain complexity: growth in the number of suppliers, diversification of regions, and fragmented responsibilities. In response to these challenges, more and more stakeholders are transforming their supply chains to make them more responsible, traceable, and resilient.
3. How Does Ecocert Help Organizations Reduce Social and Environmental Risks?
To address these challenges, companies must adopt a structured, proactive approach rooted in the principles of due diligence. De-risking becomes an operational tool for assessing risks, prioritizing actions, and implementing solutions tailored to local realities, sector-specific issues, and regulatory requirements.
Ecocert supports this process by providing customized verification programs, whether for regulatory compliance, non-financial reporting, or transforming practices within specific supply chains.
Our approach is built around six key steps:
- Define the project framework
- Design a tailored verification program
- Conduct field assessments
- Engage suppliers
- Foster continuous improvement
- Steer progress through non-financial reporting
4. How Does Ecocert, as an Independent Third Party, Help Secure Companies’ Supply Chains? A Concrete Example!
Let’s first clarify what a “trusted third party” is: an independent entity, external to the relationship between two parties, whose role is to ensure the integrity, transparency, and fairness of a process. Neutral and objective, such a third party can act as a mediator, auditor, or certifier—validating, verifying, or monitoring actions.
A European company in the fruit and vegetable sector turned to Ecocert to assess the social practices of its suppliers. Seeking to uphold its code of conduct, particularly concerning decent working conditions for farmworkers and smallholders, the company wanted a clear and reliable view of on-the-ground commitments. A tailored evaluation program was developed, including the identification of verification criteria and the design of an audit framework aligned with the sector’s social challenges.
Field audits conducted by Ecocert generated performance scores for each supplier. These results formed the basis for targeted action plans and helped suppliers improve continuously. Armed with this concrete data, the company now manages its supply chain proactively, with more effective risk management. This example illustrates how de-risking can become a genuine competitive tool, securing supply chains while highlighting responsible commitments.
In Brief
De-risking—the proactive management of risks in supply chains—has become an essential strategic lever for responsible organizations.
With Ecocert’s tailored verification program, you will:
- Identify ways to reduce your risks
- Gain the tools to strengthen regulatory compliance
- Enhance your brand reputation
- Boost competitiveness
- Create shared value with partners …all while anticipating regulatory developments and reinforcing resilience in the face of crises.
Take the lead in managing the sustainability of your supply chains with us! 👉 Interested in learning more? Contact our team by clicking HERE.
¹ Derisking = Risk reduction
² CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSDDD: Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, RDUE: European Union Regulation on Deforestation and Forest Degradation
