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Blog | Wednesday January 3, 2018

Children’s Rights Online: A Conversation with UNICEF

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Children’s rights often feature prominently when BSR assesses the human rights impacts of information and communications technology (ICT) companies. Over the past two years, UNICEF has developed significant new thinking about the protection of children’s rights online, which is increasingly important in the digital age. Dunstan Allison-Hope spoke to Brian Keeley, editor of UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children report, the latest edition of which examines the perils and possibilities of digital technology and connectivity for children, about UNICEF’s work on this issue.

Dunstan Allison-Hope: Children are spending more time online, and doing more online, than ever before. How is UNICEF addressing this trend?

Brian Keeley: As internet and digital literacy become a necessity for full social and economic participation, UNICEF wants to see as many children as possible go online—while simultaneously staying safe. The fact that The State of the World’s Children 2017 (SOWC), UNICEF’s flagship report, is dedicated to these issues is a testament to the organization’s commitment to ensuring children harness the opportunities and avoid the risks of life online.  

UNICEF is working on this in numerous ways, including by addressing children’s online safety, both globally and nationally. UNICEF is part of the WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online, which involves leading technology companies, international organizations, and 77 member countries. In addition, many UNICEF country offices run online safety campaigns and provide material support to national child safety and law enforcement agencies to keep children safe online. Across a range of areas, UNICEF’s Office of Innovation works to harness the power of technology and other innovations to best serve the interests of children. 

Allison-Hope: What does UNICEF recommend that companies do to address this issue?

Keeley: Businesses are involved in children’s lives in ways they weren’t in previous generations. An obvious example is the role that digital technology and social media now play in how children make friends and maintain friendships.

UNICEF believes businesses have a role to play in several areas. There are clear concerns over how businesses process and use children’s data, and UNICEF wants to see much more transparency in this area. It also wants businesses to take a more ethical approach to developing apps and software that meet children’s real needs. And it believes the private sector has a crucial role to play in supporting law enforcement efforts to combat online child sexual abuse.

UNICEF is working with companies to integrate children’s rights into their policies and processes, for example through the implementation of the Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection and by expanding the debate on key issues like the role of business in protecting and promoting children’s online privacy, freedom of expression, and online access and digital literacy. In early 2018, UNICEF will release an Industry Toolkit on Children’s Online Privacy and Freedom of Expression, which will offer a set of general principles for business, as well as a checklist for companies to assess their relevant policies and products with respect to child rights.

Allison-Hope: Many companies take action to protect children from harm and abuse online, but as you highlight, much less attention is given to empowering children as rights-holders online. What is meant by empowering children as rights-holders online?

Keeley: For children to exercise their rights online, we need to ensure they have the competencies, skills, and overall digital literacy to keep themselves safe, play and socialize, use online resources, and participate in their communities.

But there is only so much we can expect from children. They need to be supported by a full range of stakeholders, including governments, teachers, and parents. Given the role they now play in children’s lives, for example through social media, businesses must also carry a large part of this responsibility. For example, it is reasonable for companies to help build children’s digital literacy through the provision of training and support for education. Children will only feel free to speak up online—a key aspect of exercising their rights—if businesses play a full role in creating a safe environment, including stepping up efforts to safeguard children’s privacy and data. 

Allison-Hope: Online advertising enables many internet services to be provided for free. What are the implications of the massive growth of digital advertising for child rights online? 

Keeley: It’s a little misleading to describe these services as free. Users may not be handing over cash, but they are “paying” with their time and attention, which advertisers value highly. The SOWC highlights the ethical responsibility of businesses not to design apps and software with the sole intention of grabbing users’ valuable attention. 

There are other clear concerns over the impact of digital advertising on children. These include the potential impact of certain advertisements targeted broadly at children on sites they use heavily, such as ads promoting fast foods or other unhealthy products. More specifically in the digital world, there are real concerns that businesses are using children’s browsing histories and other online data to directly target behavioral advertising at them—a very unwelcome process that risks “commercializing” childhood. UNICEF will shortly be releasing a paper on this topic as part of its discussion paper series on Children’s Rights and Business in a Digital World, which we encourage you to read if you’d like to learn more.

Blog | Monday March 7, 2022

Applying the UNGPs to Technology: Our Point of View

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The UN Human Rights Council recently initiated an expert consultation on the practical application of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) to the activities of technology companies, and it sought formal input from stakeholders.

This consultation is very timely given the increasing relevance of technology to the realization of human rights in practice and the prominent role of the private sector in how technology is designed, developed, and deployed.

Over the past two decades, BSR has gained significant experience working with technology companies on human rights due diligence, including around 100 human rights assessments.

We have also led collaborative efforts (such as facilitating the creation of the Global Network Initiative, Responsible Business Alliance, and Technology Against Trafficking) and published research (such as Human Rights-Based Approaches to Content Governance in the Social Media Industry).

We’ve drawn upon this experience to make a submission to the consultation, which is available in full. We hope the submission provides a thoughtful contribution to the application of the UNGPs to the activities of technology companies. The key points are summarized below:

Human Rights Risks in Business Models

The need to understand the human rights impacts arising from company business models has rightly grown in focus over recent years. However, human rights due diligence practitioners can further define what human rights due diligence of business models means in practice, and the venture capital industry—an essential gatekeeper for technologies making it to market—requires more attention.

Human Rights Due Diligence and End-Use

Reports | Tuesday April 15, 2025

Building Financial Resilience of Women Workers in the Shea Industry

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Women involved in shea collection and production face numerous challenges that limit their economic opportunities and stability—many have limited access to resources and training to enhance productivity and income, all the while having to balance unpaid work and household care. Earnings from collecting and processing shea nuts are seasonal, which can pose a challenge for financial stability. Therefore, financial resilience is key for empowering women workers in this industry.

With the support of the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, BSR developed, piloted, and scaled a bespoke financial resilience training program to reach and empower women in shea cooperatives in Ghana. The program reached approximately 8,000 women shea nut collectors and processors and resulted in positive changes both for these women and their communities.

Notable changes include improved income management and savings, additional access to income generation opportunities, increased self-confidence, and shifts in community and family attitudes, factors that can contribute to an improvement in women’s living standards. The program demonstrates the value of investing in women workers, which not only contributes to improving their livelihoods but also builds increased supply chain resilience for buyers and partners, as demonstrated in the learnings report and toolkit presentation published here.

Following the implementation of this program, BSR launched a toolkit for organizations interested in replicating the trainings. We strongly encourage buyers, suppliers, and NGOs operating in the shea sector to use these resources to amplify financial resilience of women workers. The toolkit includes:

• Learnings Report - Read this report to learn more about the program’s background, successes, and impacts
• Toolkit Presentation - This resource walks you through how to replicate the financial resilience program, including a description of all the resources needed, as well as how and when to use them.
• Training Resources (ZIP file, 140MB) - This folder contains all of the resources you will need to coordinate and deliver the trainings from end-to-end, including the implementation guide, the financial resilience curriculum, the kick-off deck, the assessment surveys, and the radio episodes.
• Social Media Guide -  This resource provides guidance on communicating about the program outcomes and impacts on social media platforms.

Blog | Monday August 20, 2018

Is This the Beginning of the End for Impunity?

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Wherever you live, and wherever you stand on the political spectrum, you probably believe that a significant share of the political elite in your country is irredeemably corrupt and unethical. And wherever you work, it is also likely that you know some senior leaders who do a poor job of conveying tone at the top and do not model or respect the organization’s stated values. There is plenty of evidence that once people attain power, they are more likely to engage in unethical behavior. The effects of power can even be compared to a form of brain damage: Power makes people less risk-averse, more impulsive, and less skilled at reading people and situations.

Nonetheless, impunity seems to be a fact of life. The human need for cognitive consistency goes a long way toward explaining why toxic organizational cultures and abuses of power can persist. A psychological mechanism known as the “just world” phenomenon inclines us to ascribe virtue to the powerful while assigning negative traits to the poor and powerless. 

Impunity is a daily issue in the lives of many who work in governance, risk, and compliance. Investigating your boss is usually a career-limiting move, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to sustain an ethical culture without the remit or tools to hold senior members of the organization accountable. This contradiction has been driving efforts to amplify the independence, seniority, and remit of chief compliance officers.

But today, something interesting is happening. The structures supporting impunity seem to be growing less reliable.

The structures supporting impunity seem to be growing less reliable.

In politics, corruption has become an issue of far greater concern to voters than it was 20 years ago. A recent report in Foreign Policy found that more than 10 percent of the world’s nations have undergone leadership change in the past five years as a direct result of corruption investigations. In 21 countries, leaders have either resigned or been removed from office before their terms were scheduled to conclude. In many additional countries, incumbents are facing electoral defeat amid the perception that they are corrupt. 

To be sure, this hopeful scenario is not playing everywhere.  Allegations of corruption, whether true or false, are frequently used by political candidates to gain advantage. But the increasing use of this technique in itself demonstrates that concern about the integrity of political officials may be at an all-time high.

The business world, too, shows signs that impunity is no longer predictable. The removal of chief executive officers for ethical lapses remains infrequent, but such instances increased by 36 percent from 2007-11 to 2012-16. This trend is most pronounced among North American and European companies with high market capitalization. Researchers believe this suggests an overall improvement in governance and accountability to the public. 

Company boards have also become more willing to state publicly that a CEO was fired for misconduct, rather than enabling him or her to slip into early retirement. The #MeToo movement has occasioned significant turnover at a growing number of media organizations and consumer-facing companies, and it seems to have positively influenced corporate culture in some cases. A growing number of companies has even made a point of proactively disclosing challenges, rather than responding only to media investigations or internal whistleblowers. Voluntary disclosure facilitates the rebuilding of reputation and trust.

The longer-term consequences of these trends are, as ever, uncertain. The ability to replace disreputable leaders does not necessarily mark a sustained power shift in organizations. Still, today’s corporate leaders are on notice that immunity from consequences is no longer the status quo.

All of this reflects deeper, more profound societal shifts. The most important is hyper-transparency, which makes it exponentially harder for companies to keep their inner workings confidential. Leaked revelations about offshore tax avoidance, soft lobbying, and other standard corporate practices have helped spur concern and distaste over self-serving corporate agendas. Data leaks and hacks have also been embraced by unhappy employees as powerful whistleblowing tools that can help them subvert or sidestep non-disclosure agreements. 

Employees in some companies, particularly in the tech industry, feel empowered to demand that the C-suite focus on better alignment between corporate principles and personal values, and companies are listening intently. Indeed, the new trend in corporate activism on social issues is, in large part, being driven by the voices and will of employees—to a surprisingly greater extent than by those of customers or investors.

As societies across the world call for leaders who can demonstrate that integrity is as important to them as personal advantage, the pendulum seems to be swinging away from venerating wealth and power for its own sake and toward valuing integrity and social conscience. This is great news for honest leaders—and for everyone who seeks to drive sustainable, ethical behavior in a public or private organization.

Blog | Friday April 10, 2020

COVID-19 and Our Future World

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BSR has partnered with Polecat since 2017 to deliver real-time corporate reputation and ESG intelligence from global online and social media discourse.

Yasmin Crowther, Polecat's VP of Strategic Insight, collaborated with Charlotte Bancilhon, Associate Director, BSR, to analyze the top ESG Issues and Sectors arising in global discourse about COVID-19 over the last fortnight. This blog post draws on the key findings:

1. Procurement of medical supplies is the top online media topic, followed by concern for impacted workforces and labor practices. Public opinion on social media indicates high expectations of businesses to play a positive role in the COVID-19 response, including to protect employees, provide fair benefits, and pay taxes.
2. Social media is also focused on potential healthcare solutions, but pays acute attention to issues of diversity and inclusion, with strong responses to the stigmatization of ethnic minorities and characterization of COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus."
3. The industrial sector receives most online scrutiny for the economic impacts of COVID-19 as well as for the ways in which business models are pivoting to provide solutions. Firms across sectors are making investments to support communities—from access to IT to ensuring food security and emergency relief.
4. Conversations about climate change have not been hampered by COVID-19 but reframed. The depth and scale of the current pandemic is being compared to the climate crisis, with a renewed focus on building resilient communities and businesses.
5. There is a new focus on biodiversity with growing attention to how wildlife carries infectious diseases and the risks of destroying natural habitats which force animals into ever closer proximity with humans.

Coronavirus coverage across leading ESG Topics and Sectors for the two weeks to 8 March 2020

The main headline in the Financial Times this weekend read: "Global economy set for sharpest reversal since Great Depression." Although businesses are not all equal in face of the crisis, it is clear from our review of online and social media discourse that businesses are being scrutinized for how they are considering the welfare of their employees, communities, and partners before profits. A recent survey found that 90 percent of respondents expect businesses to partner with governments and relief agencies to address challenges, while long-standing debates on climate and stakeholder capitalism are being powerfully reframed. There is an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to show leadership and purpose:

Response to Medical Imperatives

We are glimpsing what is possible when urgent social need comes first—when the imperatives are the procurement of ventilators, face masks, vaccines, and testing kits. Around the world, auto manufacturers like Ford, GM, Fiat, and Nissan are collaborating with healthcare specialists to deliver tens of thousands of medical ventilators in a matter of months. The pharma sector is investing billions to co-fund vaccine research and clinical testing, and some of the world’s best-known beauty brands and beverage companies, like Estee Lauder, LVMH, L’Oréal, and Pernod Ricard, are turning their facilities to the production of hand sanitizer for frontline medical staff. Meanwhile, the fashion industry, from luxury brands to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are making facemasks, and household names like Unilever are donating hundreds of millions of dollars of soap, sanitizer, bleach, and food to support health organizations globally.

Support for Communities

After the medical imperatives, come the community concerns of ensuring care for vulnerable people in their homes; that we all have enough food and that we have the digital infrastructure – the networks, connectivity and data—vital to working from home and maintaining contact with family and friends whom we may not see for months. Food companies like Mondelez are donating tens of millions in financial aid and in-kind support to community partners advancing critical food stability and emergency relief. Retailers are setting aside dedicated time every day for the elderly to shop and providing free home deliveries for the most vulnerable. Tech companies are lifting data caps and promising not to cut off supplies if payments are overdue or missed.

Flexible work forces

At the same time as businesses strive to pivot to the realities of a world in lockdown, the longer-term consequences will reshape work life within many sectors. Employees around the world are being asked to adapt to working from home or being furloughed. A recent ILO report found that more than 4 out of 5 people (81 percent) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial workplace closures. But while some sectors, such as airlines, are registering massive layoffs, others, such as retail, are hiring. Around 40 percent of the world’s passenger jet fleet is now in storage, with firms like Air New Zealand reporting an expected contraction of at least 30 percent over the next year, as its revenue falls from just under US$6bn to US$500m. In the U.K., laid-off airline cabin crew with first aid training are being pursued by the NHS to work in support of nurses and doctors in hospitals across the country. It is hard not to wonder if the experience will compel a permanent change in career as the perceived value of frontline workers is set to soar, with UK political conversation on the need for better pay already igniting. Meanwhile in the U.S., the reduction in emergency departments and routine hospital programs to cope with COVID-19 means some frontline staff are actually getting pay cuts.

Science at the Center

Perhaps most powerfully, coronavirus has put expert opinion and scientific fact center stage. We do not want or need the opinion of literati—we care mainly for the epidemiologists, virologists, and medics who tell it as it is. Twitter has redefined its definition of harm to address content that "goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information" and is removing tweets that spread dangerous misinformation about COVID-19. Facebook is investing an additional US$100 million in local journalism to support reporting on the pandemic.

Climate Change at the Fore

There is much that is positive, but what does it all bode for how we think about the future more widely? Many articles use the lens of climate change to consider future possibilities—balancing the immediate enforced environmental benefits of cleaner air and birdsong with longer-term choices. As The New York Times writes:

The efforts to revive economic activity — the stimulus plans, bailouts and back-to-work programs being developed now — will help determine the shape of our economies and our lives for the foreseeable future, and they will have effects on carbon emissions that reverberate across the planet for thousands of years.

In an interview with New Scientist, Greta Thunberg said:

If one virus can wipe out the entire economy in a matter of weeks and shut down societies, then that is proof that our societies are not very resilient. It also shows that once we are in an emergency, we can act and we can change our behaviour very quickly.

Reframing of Biodiversity and Disease

Conversations about climate change and biodiversity haven’t been killed by COVID-19, but they are being reframed. Tigers with COVID-19 make the front page, along with wide-ranging discourse about potential threats to and from other animals. Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme, has cautioned on the proximity of wild animals to humans as a cause of disease—with 75 percent of all emerging infectious diseases coming from wildlife. Her message is that failing to look after the planet is a failure to look after ourselves: global warming and the destruction of habitats for farming, mining and housing all drive wildlife into contact with people in ways that increase risk of cross-infection. Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard School of Public Health has said:

The separation of health and environmental policy is a dangerous delusion. Our health entirely depends on the climate and the other organisms we share the planet with.

The emerging imperative is for more joined-up thinking and fewer artificial silos, for business strategies to go beyond just cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the delivery of resilience in the face of a global crisis.

The Battle for Hearts and Minds

The political message to societies in lockdown is that we are "all in it together"—that our individual sacrifices are essential for the greater good and to safeguard the vulnerable. On social media, there are strong reactions to behaviors that undermine diversity and inclusion, particularly when it comes to stigmatizing minorities and characterising COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus." Online, the emphasis is largely that "we are all in it together." We are, but there is also an abyss being observed between the experiences of haves and have-nots. Social isolation in a roomy home with a garden is very different from lockdown in a high-rise block, let alone the difference between established and emerging economies. COVID-19 is shining an unforgiving light on how we are all the same and also how lives are so different and that we turn our backs on one another at our collective peril.

Our Post-COVID-19 World

The tension that seems to be strongly in play when it comes to imagining a world after COVID-19 is whether the impetus to collaborate and put science and society first endures or whether more protectionist and nationalist policies assert themselves. Conversations to build back better are emerging, as demonstrated by the group of French parliamentarians who have launched a national consultation to prepare “the day and the world after” COVID-19 under the hashtag #LeJourdAprès, in reference to the Hollywood hit The Day After Tomorrow. BSR is inviting member companies to engage in thinking ahead to build a different future.

Already, multiple corporate conversations are trying to scope the future landscape, with speculation that flexible working and reliance on digitization will not spring back to the status quo—that the future has somehow been rapidly accelerated—and that new priority and investment will need to go towards ensuring more inclusive and resilient economic strategies if we are not to bear the cost of more damaged societies.

As Arundhati Roy wrote in the Financial Times over the weekend:

The Pandemic is a portal. We can choose to walk through it with our dead ideas. Or we can walk lightly, ready to imagine another world.

This blog was written and produced in collaboration between Polecat and BSR.

Reports | Monday January 17, 2022

Corporate Action to End Gun Violence

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BSR’s Toolkit for Corporate Action to End Gun Violence was developed in collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety. Gun violence is a national issue in the US. Due to the pervasiveness of gun violence, businesses, their employees, business partners, and customers are all likely to have been impacted by the issue at some point. While many companies see the issue of gun violence as falling outside their sphere of responsibility and influence, companies can and should take action to protect their employees, consumers, and the communities they operate in. This toolkit puts forward a framework for corporate action to end gun violence. The framework features a business case on the importance of ending gun violence, industry deep dives for retail, financial services, media and social media, and tech sectors, and includes many case studies and examples from companies across industries and sectors that have taken action to end gun violence.

What You Will Find in the Toolkit

This Toolkit for Corporate Action on Gun Violence was developed to guide companies as they work to address gun violence, both internally in their own operations and externally in the communities they are linked to. The Toolkit is split into three sections: the business case, framework, and industry deep dives.

1. Business Case: Demonstrate how business is interconnected with gun violence and show the importance of company action on gun violence.
2. Framework: Provide examples of potential actions for companies and connect with useful resources on advancing strategies against gun violence.
3. Industry Deep Dives: Demonstrate for specific sectors detailed case studies, actions, and key learnings for business action on gun violence.

How Companies Can Use the Toolkit

Companies can use the toolkit in three ways: to make the business case for action, to assess where their company intersects with gun violence, and to identify opportunities to integrate actions to prevent gun violence in with existing strategies.

Blog | Wednesday May 12, 2021

Beyond #StopAsianHate: Building an AAPI-Inclusive Workplace Culture

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“Our community is being attacked. We are dying to be heard.”

In February 2021, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen went viral. In a social media video—which has received more than 52,000 likes—she called on mainstream media networks to cover violent attacks on elderly Asian Americans.

It worked.

Major news outlets drove attention to the spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans over the past year, noting that advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate received reports of more than 3,800 hate incidents since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet as the #StopAsianHate movement garnered support from business, policymakers, celebrities, and the wider public, the violence continued. In March, a shooting rampage in Atlanta targeted Asian-owned businesses and killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.

Groups have attributed the sharp increase in hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in part to the xenophobic rhetoric of former U.S. President Trump. However, AAPI racism is not new.

As the U.S. celebrates AAPI Heritage Month this May, there is an opportunity for business leaders to learn more about the AAPI experience and help to build a more just, sustainable, and inclusive world—beginning in the workplace.

Understanding the Diversity within the AAPI Community

Employees are one of the most important stakeholder groups to any business. While you may list AAPI staff in just one or two boxes in the EEO-1 documents, it’s important to remember how broad and far-reaching the term AAPI is.

The term AAPI accounts for more than 24 million people in the U.S., whose origins span East Asia, Southeast Asia, the South Asian subcontinent, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. AAPIs can include first generation immigrants or those whose families have been in the U.S. for generations, and come from varied income levels and education backgrounds. It’s also important to remember that AAPI experience in the U.S. will be different than those of Asian or Pacific Islander colleagues based in other countries.

Recognizing this diversity of cultures and experiences is necessary to connect and engage with colleagues, clients, and community members of AAPI descent. When crafting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to working with AAPIs.

Confront Existing Biases about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

As the past year has brought to light, there is a long way to go to achieving racial justice in the U.S. And as the recent hate crimes have demonstrated, many communities suffer from racist violence.

Most companies have systems in place to deal with overt discrimination and racist acts. Creating truly inclusive workplaces, however, involves confronting individual bias—even those that could be perceived as ‘positive.’ The model minority myth—the belief that Asian Americans have overcome discrimination and are more successful than other ethnic minorities—is problematic for multiple reasons.

Primarily, it perpetuates many of the stereotypes that lead to microaggressions in the workplace: they excel at science and math, they are good workers but not leadership material, and there are expectations around being quiet and docile. Other common workplace microaggressions include the constant questioning over “Where are you really from?” and “How do you speak English so well?” or confusing Asian employees for one another.

Learning about these biases is important not just for leadership and managers, but for all colleagues to understand any stereotypes or prejudices they may have about AAPIs. Without this shared understanding about implicit biases, it is impossible to make meaningful progress on social and racial justice.

Apply a Lens of Equity and Inclusivity across Sustainable Business Practices

A company’s commitment to racial justice does not exist in a vacuum, separate from business strategy or sustainability practices. In fact, a business can only fulfil its commitment to racial justice if it takes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) action beyond its human resources practices.

As BSR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director L. Simone Washington has written, DEI is “a philosophy that permeates throughout a company’s business operations,” and business should apply “a critical lens to its policies, practices, and programs and to identify how it can be more inclusive and create opportunities for those who are systematically marginalized.”

This can include ensuring that business climate plans advance climate justice solutions, assessing how products and operations may disproportionately impact a group of people, applying intersectional approaches to gender equality programs, and more.

What’s Next

Over the past year, we have seen companies across all industries make statements in support of racial justice—from #BlackLivesMatter in June 2020 to #StopAsianHate in March 2021. Some have even put forth commitments related to hiring, promotion, investment, and sourcing to advance diversity and equity goals. Still, there is more work to be done—to address systemic racism, to build Black wealth, to destroy the model minority myth.

One immediate action business can take to support the Asian-American community is to support federal legislation to address anti-Asian American hate crimes. The bill passed in the U.S. Senate in April and is expected to face a House vote this month.

As BSR continues to work with member companies, the business community, and partners to build a more just, sustainable world, we seek to actualize a vision for equity and inclusion. We hope you will join us.

Blog | Thursday June 5, 2025

Four Tips for Authentic Business Leadership During Pride 2025

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This June’s Pride celebrations will occur as LGBTIQ+ equality advocates and inclusive business practitioners confront ongoing challenges to hard-earned progress that have raised the stakes of private-sector engagement.

This is especially true in the U.S., where federal research programs benefitting LGBTIQ+ people have already been cut by nearly a billion dollars. The future of preventative health care programs supporting LGBTIQ+ people is at risk, given longstanding efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and legal rights and protections related to dignity, safety, and healthcare of transgender people are being litigated in U.S. courts.  

Some companies have limited their public communications or otherwise ended voluntary LGBTQI+ programs, including philanthropic grants, event sponsorships, and promotion of voluntary performance standards, efforts that were increasingly commonplace prior to the recent resurgent wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ political advocacy. Furthermore, social media campaigns driven by conservative “influencers” have undercut some business relationships with their core consumers, attacking brands for their inclusive advertising and/or retail choices. Special interest groups have instigated legal challenges to business’ DEI programs, creating unfavorable media attention and leading to uncertainty on company commitment to building organizations, products, and services that can meet the needs of their diverse consumers and stakeholders.  

Still, there’s evidence that LGBTIQ+ equality and inclusive business practices remain a business priority even as some companies scale back. Participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index increased over the last year in spite of some high-profile withdrawals from the effort in the fall. More and more, business shareholders have voted to uphold diversity programs and underscore the importance of inclusion despite recent legal flashpoints and an effort by federal officials to cripple these programs through executive orders and allegations of illegality. Though company sponsorship of Pride festivals is expected to lag overall, a majority of corporations have recently reported little to no change in their expected participation.

In this landscape, business actions on LGBTIQ+ equality efforts appear to be fueled less by sector-wide alignment and more by each company’s unique operational posture and the media/risk tolerance of its leaders. It is understandable, then, that many business practitioners, including communication, inclusion, human resources, and government affairs leads alike, may be questioning what current expectations or best practices they might advance within their company. Considering the risk-averse environment in which many business practitioners may find themselves, we share four practical tips for LGBTIQ+ engagement for the 2025 Pride season and beyond.

1. Celebrate LGBTIQ+ Pride, even if it means doing so less publicly or with fewer resources. Like other cultural, civic, and social commemorations, LGBTIQ+ Pride is an opportunity for businesses to underscore its inclusive values and appreciate broader business success in the context of the contributions of its diverse leadership and workforce. It also offers businesses a chance to showcase positive impacts in communities where they are headquartered and operate more broadly. This remains true despite current sociopolitical headwinds. Indeed, even some companies that have made headlines for reported cuts to these engagements have privately indicated their intent to support Pride observances through more local sponsorships, events, and gatherings, yet with less budget, public fanfare, or formality. Ultimately, your company might choose to observe this Pride season with fewer resources and with greater awareness of potential scrutiny and/or worker safety risks. Still, these concerns should not preclude your company and your workers from engaging in lawful activities that help promote a culture of inclusion and positive impact, even if such activities are tailored to your specific circumstances and operational footprint.
2. Share updated communications and policy materials, acknowledging your company’s responsibility for ensuring a workplace free from LGBTIQ+ discrimination and harassment. Include relevant global and local policies that guide your company’s efforts to uphold that responsibility. Your current employees and teams likely include LGBTIQ+ individuals or individuals who have loved ones who are directly impacted by social, legal, and cultural debates and/or shifting policies focused on LGBTIQ+ equality. Via diversity, legal, or communications officers, ensure clarity about your company’s nondiscrimination and harassment expectations and policies, as well as the processes/infrastructure that are in place to manage potential issues. The UN Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination Against LGBTIQ+ People offers guidance for global businesses navigating wide-ranging expectations, and sometimes conflicting jurisdictional laws, for LGBTIQ+ workplace, marketplace, and community standards. 
3. Invite leaders of regional/local business headquarters and workforce volunteer coordinators to uplift local direct service/volunteer organizations providing general support to LGBTIQ+ workers and their families in communities touched by your business’ operations. Data from past few years, including the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professional’s Annual CSR Insights Report, has repeatedly indicated that employee volunteerism and issue-focused pro-bono engagement is both a norm and increasing throughout the private sector. Just as donation drives like Giving Tuesday raises billions in annual donations to nonprofits around the globe, Pride is a great opportunity for businesses to highlight employer benefits, including paid time-off for volunteerism, matched donations, and other community-sponsored activities that may benefit LGBTIQ+ community members, including your company’s workers and their families. Indeed, some of your workers may be especially keen to find volunteer activities or donation drives given the current climate. Driving awareness for such opportunities through regional/local leaders who may be able to share vetted information may be a great way to ensure your company enables its teams to align their efforts with local dynamics in place of overcompensating for broad-based concerns that may be best navigated at the corporate level.
4. Create informational resources that can help address how your company may respond to various LGBTIQ+-related cases expected from the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks. In the coming weeks, several Supreme Court decisions are anticipated on litigation that will directly/indirectly affect LGBTIQ+ individuals and families. From national coverage of preventative care treatments, including HIV and breast cancer medications, to the scope of certain healthcare programs available to transgender youth, some cases may lead to questions about the consistency or coverage provided in employee benefits and healthcare plans. Here, your company’s human resources team might host or commission an informational webinar, develop FAQ documents, and/or establish a small team/individual as the main point of contact for inquiries on any legal changes affecting LGBTIQ+ workers. 

There is a lot of room for ambitious leadership for business engagement on LGBTIQ+ equality efforts, not only in the U.S. but globally as well. For more information on how your company can support LGBTIQ+ workers and communities, please reach out to BSR’s Inclusive Business team and explore the team’s latest insights on the BSR Member Portal.

Blog | Friday March 17, 2017

Evolution in Private Equity ESG: From Policies and Efficiency to Impact

Preview

The evidence and impetus are powerful for integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in private equity investing. In response, the sector is doing important work to protect against risk, enhance value, and improve sustainability. But it’s also time for a reality check: Swapping in energy-efficient light bulbs is important and necessary, but it is not sufficient to address the most pressing challenges facing the sector’s business and societal impacts. To address those challenges and stakeholder concerns—including from asset owners, media, employees, and regulators—the sector is evolving toward a more integrated and strategic approach to addressing sustainability impacts, such as good jobs, inclusive economy, sustainable solutions, and transparency.

ESG management practices are increasingly the norm among top U.S. firms and are spreading to the middle market. At BSR alone, we’ve seen an explosion in the number of advisory projects we conduct to support ESG integration, including projects to develop policies and strategies, conduct ESG diligence, and implement ESG at the portfolio level. This growth reflects several factors; chiefly, attention from limited partners (LPs) that invest in private equity firms, requests to portfolio companies’ customers, and the recognition that ESG factors are linked to effective long-term management and value creation.

Most U.S. private equity firms’ efforts focus on management of ESG basics at individual companies—and that makes sense. Efficiency and risk management projects on topics like water use and health and safety offer enormous opportunities to protect and create value while creating tangible sustainability benefits and demonstrating the “business case.”

As important as the focus on ESG basics is, though, it risks missing the forest for the trees. As the U.S. presidential election demonstrated, the public is deeply concerned—even angry—about the relationship among capital, business, and society. Gallup ranks confidence in big business at 6 percent, second-to-last on a list of American institutions; on a subsequent poll on attitudes toward business, the “banking” sector ranked 19 out of 25.

Whether or not it’s fair, private equity often gets the brunt of that negative perception and press due to a number of factors, including full ownership of portfolio companies, a history of limited transparency, complex remuneration structures, and headline-ready examples; it seems not a month goes by without a major media article on the negative impacts of a private equity deal.

These perceptions affect private equity firms in three particular ways. First, asset owners are increasingly concerned about ESG management and reputational risks. Major public pensions, such as in California, France, and Sweden, have adopted policies mandating attention to topics like climate change and human rights. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) notably divested from a private equity investment in firearms following a school shooting. University endowments are increasingly taking action in response to student concerns over climate and social impacts.

Second, the sector and its portfolio companies are in a fierce fight for talent, especially as more professionals with MBAs are drawn to Silicon Valley. Dustin Clinard, managing director at Universum Global, a firm that tracks employer popularity, noted: “MBA grads are placing an increasing amount of importance on companies that have an inspiring purpose. They do more than simply make money. They make money with a purpose of greater good to it.”

Finally, regulators and politicians at the U.S. federal and state level have put heavy scrutiny on the industry. In a rare moment of agreement in the 2016 U.S. presidential debates, both candidates expressed a desire to eschew the favorable tax treatment of “carried interest.”

Stakeholder concerns are not focused on whether private equity portfolio companies have health and safety policies or use water-efficient toilets. They are focused on more fundamental concerns about what types of companies private equity invests in, what they do with those companies, and what the impacts are on stakeholders. As a result, the sector’s challenges require more fundamental and strategic ESG thinking. While some firms are already making strides, the sector needs to become more broad, consistent, and bold in asking tough questions, such as:

• Which stakeholders are affected by our investment in a company and how?
• How do we create better jobs that benefit employees, communities, and investors?
• When we feel we must perform layoffs, how can we lessen the negative impacts? (To start, companies can learn from my colleague Susan Winterberg’s research on Nokia’s Bridge program.)
• How can we be more transparent and provide public information on our impacts and efforts, like Apax Partners, The Carlyle Group, Oak Hill Capital Partners, and others?
• How can we harness private capital to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges, which firms like Bain Capital, KKR & Co., and TPG and are exploring?

In many ways, the evolution from efficiency and policy-driven approaches to more strategic, holistic sustainability integration parallels shifts in the broader corporate sustainability field. Other sectors like technology and consumer products began shifting from strategic philanthropy to sustainability efficiency to integrated approaches years ago. The private equity sector is on a similar path, with a lot of opportunities to advance.

The private equity sector has a powerful and positive role to play in deploying capital toward a sustainable, inclusive economy. While ESG professionals in private equity should remain focused on direct value creation, it is imperative to begin asking broader questions and developing strategic answers. If the investment sector wishes to talk the talk of fueling innovation, growth, good business, and societal benefits, it must also walk the walk—to employees, investors, communities, regulators, and the public.

Blog | Friday November 2, 2018

All the Ways to Follow Us at #BSR18

Preview

On Tuesday, we’re kicking off the BSR Conference 2018 in New York City. Over the course of three days, we’ll hear from thought-provoking speakers on how we can create a new blueprint for business. This year’s Conference comes not only at the time of the U.S. midterm elections—the results of which will be woven into conversations throughout the week—but also at a time when cultural shifts, disruptive technology, political divisiveness, and the impacts of climate change are making it even more pressing for us to create a global economy that delivers on the promise of prosperity for all.

It all starts Tuesday evening with opening remarks from BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer and the launch of new scenarios for doing business in 2030, followed by a special presentation and #ThatsHarassment short film screening from actor, director, and producer David Schwimmer and a plenary spotlight with Asher Jay, creative conservationist and National Geographic explorer.

On Wednesday morning, we’ll hear from C-Suite executives—Emanuel Chirico of PVH Corp., Marie-Claire Daveu of Kering, and Beatriz Perez of The Coca-Cola Company—as well as best-selling author Anand Giridharadas. In the afternoon, Novartis Chief Executive Officer Vasant Narasimhan will discuss access to medicine, and a panel of human rights experts—including John G. Ruggie—will highlight the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On the final day, New York Times reporter David Gelles will speak to business, politics, and the culture wars, and Etsy CEO Josh Silverman will update us on the company’s impact strategy. We’ll close the Conference with a keynote address from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times investigative reporters who broke last year’s Harvey Weinstein story, igniting the #MeToo movement.

Whether you’re joining us in person or online, here are the best ways to follow along:

1. Catch the livestream.

We’ll broadcast most plenary sessions in a live video feed. Visit the livestream registration page to sign up and join in.

2. Get social.

No matter your favorite social media platform, we’ll be there:

• Twitter: We’ll live tweet the entire event from @BSRnews using the hashtag #BSR18. 
  
  
  
   
• Instagram: Follow our Instagram account, @bsrorg, for exclusive, behind-the-scenes looks at the Conference. Post your photos using #BSR18—and don’t forget to tag us!
  
   
• And more: Explore the biggest launches and best photos from the week on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr.

3. Ask questions. 

We’re opening up some of our plenary sessions for questions from Twitter—while you’re watching the livestream, ask our keynote speakers about their experiences using #BSR18.

4. Follow up.

We’ll have videos, wrap-ups, and other content available after the event, so be sure to visit the BSR blog, our YouTube channel, and the BSR Conference website.

Single-day passes are still available, so if you’re in the area, join us! Whether you’re with us in the plenary hall or participating virtually this week, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on #BSR18.