Powering Performance

When the European Union embraced the concept of double materiality in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which mandated that investors consider risks corporations externalize onto people, the business and human rights movement notched a significant win. Now the notion of double materiality is also taking shape in a different guise beyond Europe:  Investor concerns around systemic risks, including inequality, are rising.

Signed into law by President Biden in December 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA, or “the Act”) establishes a rebuttable presumption that all goods manufactured (in whole or in part) in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are the product of forced labor, and not permitted entry into the United States. This rebuttable presumption will go into effect on June 21, 2022.

As our industry continues to evolve and expand, it’s become more critical than ever for companies to establish comprehensive human rights due diligence. Along with a growing, global demand to uncover all human rights abuses within the supply chain, recent and emerging legislation in both the U.S. and EU has also increased – further emphasizing the necessity of identifying and addressing these violations.