Company
Niedax, an industrial manufacturer under client pressure
Niedax manufactures cable trays and fixing systems for the building and industrial sectors. The company employs between 250 and 499 people and works with clients like Rexel and Vinci, who have committed to scope 3 reduction programmes and are pushing requirements upstream to their suppliers. The EcoVadis assessment has become a market access requirement, and carbon data on products is increasingly requested.
Niedax had completed a carbon footprint assessment about ten years earlier, under a previous name (CTS). The people who had driven the topic internally left, and the programme stopped with them. When Jérôme Hennebelle joined the company in late 2023 as Environment Technician, the CSR approach had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
There was a loss of internal expertise, client pressure was real, and there was a fairly urgent need to get all these programmes back on track.
Julie Gay
Quality Director
Challenges
A CSR approach to rebuild, with clients who wouldn't wait
In 2024, Niedax sits at 63/100 on EcoVadis, a Bronze medal. A decent starting point, but not enough to remain competitive in tenders that are getting stricter every year. Distributors want concrete answers on product carbon footprints. A major trade show is coming up in the autumn (Rexel). And on the banking side, CSR criteria are entering financing assessment grids.
The company faces three simultaneous priorities: supplying clients with the carbon data on products they are requesting more and more systematically, structuring existing CSR initiatives into coherent policies and reports, and embedding this approach for the long term.
Without a clear method or available internal expertise, the risk is spending months fumbling through a subject that now demands real technical knowledge. A bank recommendation points the company towards Carbo for the carbon footprint. In parallel, Ditto is identified to structure and steer the CSR approach as a whole.
From carbon footprint to EcoVadis Gold medal: the step-by-step guide
Niedax's full journey, the steps to replicate their method, and practical advice from their Carbo + Ditto programme.
