ESG

GRI, Sweden Push for Corporate Reporting on SDGs

May 11, 2018

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and the Swedish International Development Agency have entered a new partnership through which they will seek action from businesses, including through public reporting, contributing to the fulfillment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Consultancy: UK Companies Fail on Labor Reporting

May 09, 2018

Consultancy Sancroft has published a report alleging that nearly half of the top 100 UK government contractors failed to meet legal requirements on their efforts to rid their "large and highly complex supply chains" of forced labor and calling on Britain to incentivize these companies to do more to end "modern slavery."
CPA Guide Seeks Corporate Action on SDGs

May 02, 2018

Showing the breadth of civil society's pressure on corporations to help fulfill the comprehensive UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants has published a guide describing how accountants should encourage corporate contributions to the SDGs, including through public reporting.
Jewelry, Watch Companies Face Demands for Reporting

April 24, 2018

Human Rights Watch has called on jewelry and watch companies participating in the Baselworld Fair in Switzerland to publicly disclose the source of materials in their products and perform impact assessments to help civil society activists determine whether they are associated with human rights violations and environmental damage.
NGO Criticizes Lack of Reporting on Palm Oil

April 24, 2018

Greenpeace International has released a report criticizing consumer products companies for failing to take sufficient steps to publicly report on the steps they are taking to address environmental harm in their global palm oil supply chains as set out in a 2010 pledge to "eliminate deforestation" caused by palm oil sourcing by the year 2020.
UN-Backed Study Promotes Business Action on SDGs

April 23, 2018

The UN Global Compact and consulting firm Accenture Strategy have released a study signaling the unanimous support among UN officials for promoting public-private partnerships that would place pressure on businesses to help the international organization fulfill its comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Article Seeks Rights-Oriented Reform of NetzDG

April 20, 2018

Ben Wagner of the Centre for the Internet and Human Rights argues that the German legislators should reform the so-called NetzDG law, which fines social media companies that fail to remove "hate speech" from their platforms, by placing more responsibility for content removal in the hands of independent regulators and setting standards for public reporting of hate-speech removal.
World Bank Funds Extractives Transparency Project

April 17, 2018

The World Bank has outlined its broad financial support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a group that promotes public reporting by oil, gas, and mining companies and governments of the countries in which they operate on finances and governance, as part of the wider agenda of requiring corporate transparency on an array of social and environmental issues.
India Initiates Legal Action on CSR Spending

April 16, 2018

According to a report by Dhana Kumar, the Indian government is pursuing penalties against nearly 200 corporations for their failure to abide by a law requiring them to spend part of their average net profit on activities related to corporate social responsibility (CSR).
NGO Rates Corporate Embrace of "Sustainability" Agenda

April 16, 2018

Environmental activist organization Ceres has published a report on its Roadmap for Sustainability assessing how over 600 US companies are positioned in achieving a set of global standards requiring the embrace of environmental and human rights goals in their operations and supply chains.