ESG

Leveraging our integrity and compliance methodologies and ESG subject matter expertise, we support corporates, investors and public bodies to identify, assess and mitigate their exposure to ESG risks and to devise risk management processes in line with relevant regulatory frameworks and best practice.

Our ESG offering is centered around two key service lines: ESG Due Diligence and Human Rights Advisory Services.

ESG Due Diligence

In the context of investments and partnerships, we evaluate existing portfolio or partner companies and acquisition targets to benchmark their maturity and identify potential and existing ESG risks or deficiencies that may have a reputational or regulatory impact on the client. This may include honing in on any of the following topics: adherence to labour laws, equal employment and fair pay, community engagement, climate change and greenhouse gas reduction strategies, energy use, waste reduction, corporate governance, ethical business practice and adherence to accounting transparency.

Where required, our analysis goes beyond the company view to provide a more holistic risk assessment taking into account the supply chain and inherent risks linked to the industry, geography and/or products, and highlighting material ESG risks.

Our outside-in approach combines multilingual open source research, controversy screening (including ongoing monitoring throughout the lifecycle of the investment or partnership) and analysis of publicly available disclosures and policies, benchmarked against regulatory requirements and best practice.

As needed, we also leverage our broad network of partners on the ground to facilitate stakeholder engagement and/or gather intelligence, for example with a view to assessing the ethical track record of the Subject and  gauging their perception by local populations, communities, workers and regulatory bodies.

Human Rights Advisory Services

We offer a range of advisory services to support corporates, financial institutions and public sector bodies to asses, enhance and develop their human rights programmes, processes and disclosures in line with regulatory frameworks and best practice.This includes:

Reporting & Disclosures: reviewing, enhancing and drafting a range of human rights disclosures, including modern slavery statements.

Human Rights Maturity Assessments: a gap assessment of the organisation’s human rights and/or modern slavery programme and processes, against regulatory requirements, best practice and, where appropriate, its peers.

Salient Human Rights Assessment: identification and prioritisation of the organisation’s most salient human rights risks (across operations and value chain) to enable the application of a risk-based approach to human rights due diligence.

Managed services for supply chain due diligence: including designing and analysing supplier SAQs; reviewing and benchmarking policies and disclosures; tailored open source research; designing and delivery of due diligence reports.

Training: supporting the business to develop and deliver training on a range of human rights topics, including modern slavery.

Case Study

An impact investor tasked CRI with a review of an agri-commodity trader’s supply chain inWest Africa to ensure it was compliant with ESG requirements. CRI interviewed local government officials, investors, competitors and activist NGOs to form a nuanced picture of its business practices.
CRI conducted an ESG-focused review of a Latin American copper producer seeking to understand what had led to protests around one of its mines and how the company resolved a labor dispute; and to determine its potential ongoing liabilities relating to a historic spill which polluted a major river.
An investment bank requested an ESG-focused review on a Scandinavian energy company. CRI reviewed significant, adverse media dating to the early 2000s on its operating subsidiary in East Africa which included substantial allegations of human rights abuses against its local workforce which ultimately led to criminal proceedings. In addition to analysing the outcome and status of the litigation, CRI reviewed the ESG measures implemented by the company in recent years and conducted local enquiries to determine whether their impact has been felt on the ground.

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