KPMG, the Swiss SGS SA, the German TÜV and 45 other auditing firms have ignored or simply missed environmental damage caused by their clients. The recently released report, Deforestation Inc. by the ICIJ, sheds light on the challenges of assuring ESG data and the impact it has on people and the environment. How can auditing…
“They [the auditing industry] get all obsessed with their audit tools and their reports and they miss the goal which is to uncover the abuses.” This quote is from an auditing industry expert in a new report by Human Rights Watch: Obsessed with audit tools, missing the goal. In summary, the main findings are: –…
Why do human rights abuses by investee companies persist? And what can be done about it? In a Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, working paper, Willem Schramade and I explore these questions and we propose two new institutions in the investor ecosystem: 1) dedicated human rights data gatherers; and 2) dedicated human rights investors….
The long awaited Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative by the European Commission will be published on the 23rd of February. This initiative aims to require companies active in the European Union to implement human rights and environmental due diligence. The European Parliament Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct is organising a webinar to present and discuss…
In January 2021 the WWF launched a new report DEFORESTATION FRONTS: Drivers and Responses in a Changing World. The report covers 24 ‘deforestation fronts’ and analysis deforestation by connecting drivers and responses globally. This new report focuses on the tropics and sub-tropics, which accounted for at least two-thirds of global forest cover loss from 2000…
The Local Impact Hub connects global value chains with local experts allowing companies to improve their responsible business conduct. On the first of March, the Local Impact Hub is officially launched. A new initiative that brings local insights from the ground to companies operating in global value chains to improve their responsible business conduct. The…
