Supporting the SDGs through corporate responsibility

Publication Date: 

Monday, 11 July 2016 - 2:13pm

Author: 

Measure What Matters

Prof. Dr. Roel Nieuwenkamp, Chair, OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct, sheds light on the “do no harm” side of corporate responsibility.

The private sector has an important role to play in economic and social development. Private sector growth can create jobs, contribute to human capital development and lead to innovative ways to tackle climate change, among other positive economic and social effects. Innovative businesses are needed to solve major sustainability challenges. However, businesses must also behave responsibly and avoid undermining the SDG’s by causing or contributing to negative impacts on the environment, human rights and working conditions.

This “do no harm” side of corporate responsibility is often neglected when discussing how business can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in favor of focusing on potential positive corporate impacts.  However a lack of adequate emphasis on the corporate responsibility to avoid and address harms could lead to a perception of greenwashing and undermine the contribution business stands to make to the SDG agenda.

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (the Guidelines), the multilateral agreement on corporate responsibility,directly support the aims of the SDGs. Some of the main complementarities amongst the OECD Guidelines and the SDGs are outlined in the annexed table. The Guidelines recognize that business have a responsibility to ‘’do no harm’’, and through due diligence guidance and a unique accountability mechanism, the OECD provides important tools to ensure that negative environmental and social impacts of business are avoided to the extent possible, and remediated where they do occur.

Risk-based due diligence related to the SDG’s

Risk-based due diligence is a process by which companies prevent and mitigate social and environmental harms throughout their operations and supply chains. This should be the first goal of companies seeking to contribute to the SDGs. Under the due diligence approach recommended by the Guidelines businesses are expected to go beyond sustainability reporting to integrate environmental and social risk management into their corporate DNA: the core internal management, operations, accounting and (financial) decision making systems.  The OECD has sector specific guidance for due diligence in the extractive, garment and footwear, agriculture and financial sectors which provide approaches to managing salient risks specific to these industries.[1]

National Contact Points: An Accountability Mechanism for the SDG’s

Countries (currently 46) that adhere to the Guidelines are legally obliged to establish a grievance mechanism, the National Contact Points (NCPs) for responsible business conduct, where parties can bring complaints about company behavior.  This globally active complaints mechanism promotes corporate sustainability and directly supports objectives under the SDGs by mediating issues regarding corporate responsibility in the context of climate change, biodiversity, slave and child labor, health and safety of work, among other issues. NCP mediations have achieved important outcomes. For example in 2014 the UK NCP resolved a complaint involving activities of Soco, an oil exploration company, in Virunga national park, a world heritage site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The mediation resulted in Soco agreeing to cease its operations, to never again jeopardise the value of another world heritage site and to conduct environmental impact assessments and human rights due diligence in line with international standards. In another case concerning the Tazreen factory fire in Bangladesh, Karl Rieker, a garment company, committed to improve the fire and building safety standards in its supplier factories. Measures included reducing of the number of supplier factories, establishing long-term supplier relations, close supervision by local staff, and signing the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. These results directly support the agenda of the SDGs.

Over 360 cases related to sustainable development have been brought to the NCP mechanism since 2000. From 2011 to 2015 about half of all complaints brought which were accepted for mediation, resulted in an agreement between the parties. Human rights, labor and employment and the environment represent the most common themes treated by the mechanism. This accountability mechanism will play a significant role in advancing the SDG’s.

Annex 1: Examples of alignment between SDGs and the Guidelines

Sustainable Development Goals

OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

Promoting sustainable business practices

Ensure sustainable consumption and production. (SDG 12)Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. (SDG 12.6)Ensure sustainability in :·         agricultural (SDG 2.4)·         fisheries ( SDG 14)

·         tourism ( SDG 8.9)

·         infrastructure (SDG 9)

Enterprises should contribute to economic, environmental and social progress with a view to achieving sustainable development. (OECD Guidelines, General Policies)Chapter III of the OECD Guidelines deals with Disclosure. Provisions 33 and 34 of the Commentary promote integrating sustainability information in their reporting cycle. Biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts are mentioned as examples.OECD and FAO have developed specific guidance for supply chains responsibility for the agricultural sector.[1] OECD is developing due diligence guidance for garment and footwear supply chains.

Managing environmental impacts

Reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air water and soil pollution and contamination. (SDG 3.9)Improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals.  (SDG 6.3)Prevent and signi­ficantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds; sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts. (SDG, 14.1 & 14.2)Ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems […] in line with obligations under international agreements. (SDG, 15.1)Promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests. (SDG, 15.2)

Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species. (SDG, 15.5)

Establish and maintain a system of environmental management (OECD Guidelines, Chapter VI. 1)Enterprises should assess, and address in decision-making, the foreseeable environmental, health, and safety-related impacts associated with the processes, goods and services of the enterprise over their full life cycle with a view to avoiding or, when unavoidable, mitigating them. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter VI. 3)Enterprises should continually seek to improve corporate environmental performance, at the level of the enterprise and, where appropriate, of its supply chain. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter VI. 6)

Contributing to resource efficiency  

Increase renewable energy and improvement of energy efficiency (SDG 7.2&3)Improve global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. (SDG 8.4) Enterprises should encourage activities such as development and provision of products or services that have no undue environmental impacts; are safe in their intended use; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; are efficient in their consumption of energy and natural resources; can be reused, recycled, or disposed of safely. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter VI. 6(b))

Combatting discrimination and violence against women  

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. (SDG 5.1 and 5.2) Enterprises should respect human rights, which means they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter IV.1)Enterprises should not discriminate against their workers with respect to employment or occupation on such grounds as race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, or other status. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter V.1(e)).

Promoting labor rights and employment

Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value. (SDG 8.5)Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers. (SDG 8.8). Generally:OECD Guidelines, Chapter V on Employment and Industrial Relations, aligned with the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.Specifically:Enterprises should take adequate steps to ensure occupational health and safety in their operations. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter V, 4(c)).Enterprises should encourage local capacity building through close co-operation with the local community. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter II.A.3).

In their operations, to the greatest extent practicable, enterprises should employ local workers and provide training with a view to improving skills, in cooperation with worker representatives and where appropriate relevant government representatives. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter V. 5).

Take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, eradicate forced labor.  (SDG 8.7) Enterprises should contribute to the effective abolition of child labour, and take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter V.1(c)).Enterprises should contribute to the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour and take adequate steps to ensure that forced or compulsory labour does not exist in their operations. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter V.1(d)).

Respecting human rights

End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children (SDG 16.2) Enterprises should respect human rights, which means they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter IV.1)

Combatting corruption and illicit financial flows

Substantially reduce corruption and bribery. (SDG 16.5)Reduce illicit ­financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime. (SDG 16.4) Generally:OECD Guidelines, Chapter VII on Combating Bribery, Bribe Solicitation and Extortion.

Enterprises should comply with both the letter and spirit of the tax laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate. (OECD Guidelines, Chapter XI, 1)

 

[1]See OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains (2016), available at: http://www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/rbc-agriculture-supply-chains.htm


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