Hetero Drugs (EcoVadis)

Client at a Glance

Hetero Drugs is a global pharmaceutical leader focused on moving from simple policy compliance to provable, high-performance ESG metrics. Operating in a sector with high scrutiny, the company targeted the EcoVadis Gold Rating, placing them in the top 5% of companies globally.

Recognising that international ratings require more than intent, Hetero partnered with Oren to transition from fragmented reporting to a board-governed, analyst-ready ESG architecture.

The Challenge: Bridging the "Evidence Gap"

Despite strong internal ESG practices, Hetero Drugs faced a gap between their performance and the rigorous documentation required for an EcoVadis Gold Rating. To bridge this gap, the organisation addressed four key hurdles.

• Validating Performance: Moving beyond mere intent, the company had to link high-level policies to verifiable actions and multi-year quantitative data.

• Centralising Documentation: Years of decentralised reporting led to scattered data. Hetero needed to unify this document sprawl to ensure transparency and clarity for analysts.

• Standardising Evidence: To prevent technical invalidation, all documentation was updated to meet strict criteria: proper branding, recency, and executive signatures.

• Operationalising Sustainable Procurement: To improve typically low procurement scores, the company moved beyond a basic Supplier Code of Conduct to implement active supplier monitoring and evidence-based assessments.

Oren’s Solution: A Multi-Phase ESG Operating Model

Hetero adopted an "Evidence-First" model. Oren functioned as the embedded advisory partner, redesigning how evidence was produced and presented.

Phase 1: Gap Analysis and Document Rationalisation

The first phase focused on moving away from volume toward precision.

• Question-Level Mapping: We conducted a granular analysis of every EcoVadis question against exact evidence expectations.

• Evidence Clean-up: We reduced document fragmentation by ~50%, ensuring every upload met the "3-Point Rule" for recency and signatures.

Phase 2: Building the Primary Evidence Spine

Focus shifted to creating a central source of truth to streamline the analyst review process.

• Centralised Reporting: Oren repositioned the Sustainability Report as the primary evidence carrier.

• Keyword Integration: Embedded specific EcoVadis keywords directly into narratives so analysts could locate proof in seconds.

• Data Integrity: Replaced manual tracking with 3-year quantitative trend data for emissions and labour KPIs.

Phase 3: Policy Upgrades & Value Chain Maturity

The third year shifted focus to deep-tier compliance and the supply chain.

• Policy Strengthening: Upgraded HR and Ethics policies to explicitly cover whistleblower protection, forced labour, and anti-corruption.

• Sustainable Procurement: Developed an active ESG assessment framework for suppliers, moving beyond signed codes to actual monitoring outputs.

• Internal Clarity: Established clear internal ownership of who provides specific training logs and risk assessment

The Outcome: A Resilient, Scalable ESG Ecosystem

The partnership transformed Hetero’s ESG disclosure from reactive to intentional.

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Complexities Managed

Building a gold-standard model for a pharma giant required navigating specific hurdles:

• Strict Evidence Rules: Navigating the rejection of generic templates by customising every document for the pharma context.

• Analyst Efficiency: Solving reporting fatigue by cross-referencing all policies and KPIs in one central report.

• Closing the Loop: Ensuring every policy was backed by a training log or a register to prove implementation.

Conclusion

The barrier to EcoVadis Gold is rarely a lack of activity but rather the "noise" of unstructured documentation. Volume does not equal credit, and reactive reporting often fails to satisfy the rigorous demands of global rating analysts

Oren replaced fragmented reporting with a high-precision evidence architecture. We built an analyst-ready ecosystem where every disclosure was intentionally mapped to scoring criteria, ensuring a lean and high-impact submission strategy.

This approach secured the Gold Medal, placing Hetero Drugs in the top 5% of the global pharmaceutical industry. The partnership successfully transformed ESG from a compliance burden into a verified competitive advantage.