Why conduct human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD)?

Today, more and more organisations are conducting ongoing human rights and environmental due diligence to identify and prevent risks, and where necessary, to remedy adverse impacts. This is in response to the increasing number of mandatory due diligence laws in Europe, the United States and other major markets. Some of these laws are issue specific (batteries, child or forced labour, deforestation, etc.), while others apply to all human rights and environmental risks in the value chain. 

New directives concerning non-financial reporting and consumer protection imply similar due diligence obligations for in-scope companies. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Green Claims Directive both require evidence-based and verified disclosure. Although these laws initially target large companies, the risks lie mainly in the value chain and so the burden of identifying and preventing risk will be shared by their business partners and suppliers along the chain. In addition to these due diligence laws, consumer and market expectations about the social and environmental impact of business are changing. Regardless of size, resources or capabilities, companies are expected to conduct business in a responsible and sustainable manner.

No matter where your company operates in the value chain, having actual human rights and environmental performance data to show that you meet or exceed legal and market expectations gives you a clear competitive advantage. That data allows buyers, investors, financial institutions, consumers, suppliers and business partners to make informed decisions that reward your lower risk profile and enhanced sustainability performance. 

How can we help?

The Equiception Due Diligence Platform

With our online due diligence platform, you can meet your moral and legal obligations to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence while developing the readiness and capacity of business partners, producers and suppliers to identify, prevent, remedy and disclose salient risks. When a brand or buyer needs to perform due diligence, be it for fiduciary, legal or ethical reasons, Equiception provides the organisation with the necessary tools to do so.

Traceability

Through a simple online onboarding process you can connect all your business partners and suppliers to get full visibility over your value chain.

Transparency

Promote transparency in your value chain through the easy sharing of relevant information.

Risk Assessments

Assess the human rights and environmental performance and risks associated with your value chain actors in and provide them with capacity building recommendations.

Capacity Building

Accompaniment services in provision and implementation of capacity building recommendations and capacity building supporting materials on demand.

ESG Reporting

Facilitate reporting efforts through the disclosure of relevant performance KPIs and standards, such as GRI and ESRS.

Emissions Calculator

Use our integrated tool to calculate and disclose the scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse (GHG) emissions of the organisations in your value chain.

The Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Process

The Equiception Due Diligence Platform’s online self-assessments cover key topics in the social, environmental and governance (ESG) dimensions and provide you with data and actionable insights regarding the maturity of the risk management systems used by business partners and suppliers along your value chain. This tells you how capable and effective they are in preventing and managing risk, issue by issue, and allows you to quantify and monitor that risk.

Our HREDD process consists of a series of human rights and environmental due diligence assessments accompanied by ongoing capacity building to improve your organisation’s ESG performance. The initial step is a Readiness Assessment through which gaps and risks are identified and ranked in order of priority. This is followed by ongoing capacity building, a Baseline Assessment, Alignment reviews and yearly Outcomes and Impacts Assessments.

I. Readiness Assessment

Initial human rights and environmental needs assessment to identify gaps and weaknesses in an organisation’s ability to identify, prevent, mitigate and manage risks.

II. Baseline Assessment

Approximately six months after the initial needs assessment and capacity building, we perform a Baseline Assessment. This provides precise performance levels off which to measure progress.

III. Alignment Reviews

Alignment is reached when the assessed entity reaches the target level of maturity that indicates they are fully aligned with their due diligence obligations.

IV. Outcomes and Impacts Assessments

Approximately two years after the initial assessment we start to measure the outcomes and impacts of the organisation’s human rights and environmental performance. This becomes a regular exercise, taking place at least once a year.

>> Click here to see examples of our data visualisation dashboard: example 1 and example 2

Learn more about the Equiception Due Diligence Platform and our packages

Our due diligence platform can be customised to meet client data gathering, processing and reporting needs. 

The platform has been designed and built by practitioners with decades of experience working on human rights and environmental standards in global value chains.

The platform is available as a white label product that can be installed behind your firewall, or as an online service.

Limited run pilots can be arranged. Contact us for a private demonstration or test.