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Blog | Monday September 21, 2020

Transform to Net Zero and the Shift from Climate Ambition to Climate Action

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When the Paris Agreement was being completed in 2015, the watchword of the day was climate ambition. Ambitious national pledges are essential to reaching the Agreement’s goal to hold warming well below 2°C and pursue 1.5°C. And if we do not close the gap between pledged ambition and the Paris targets in this Decisive Decade, we will forego those goals and suffer the consequences.

Over the past five years, Paris-aligned ambition has become a de facto standard in sustainability. Not only do stakeholders expect companies to take climate action—as 1,350 companies with a market capitalization of US$25 trillion have done with the We Mean Business coalition—they expect companies to set Paris-aligned emissions reduction targets. The Science Based Targets initiative has commitments from nearly a thousand companies, and Business Ambition for 1.5°C counts nearly three hundred aligned with the Paris 1.5°C stretch goal. 

But if these ambitious climate targets do not feed a wider shift in the economy toward business success, better jobs, and shared prosperity, companies will not continue to implement them. And unless companies transform into net zero businesses, these targets alone will not persuade governments to make more ambitious national pledges. That is why we need—and we are beginning to see—a great shift from climate ambition to climate action. 

Collaborating across industries will also be essential to reduce emissions across the entire economy. Transform to Net Zero is a cross-sector group of leaders delivering an inclusive net zero economy through accelerated business transformation, innovation, and systems change.

This shift is exemplified by the corporate announcements made during the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, including the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a group of institutional investors aligning their portfolios to net zero emissions, and the Getting to Zero Coalition, dedicated to deploying commercially viable deep sea zero emission shipping vessels by 2030. These multistakeholder initiatives are implementing net zero goals in specific industries. And to reach net zero emissions, we will need many more of them to overhaul value chains across the economy.

Collaborating across industries will also be essential to reduce emissions across the entire economy. Transform to Net Zero is a cross-sector group of leaders delivering an inclusive net zero economy through accelerated business transformation, innovation, and systems change. By leading by example, they will demonstrate the transformation of corporate strategy and other company functions, innovate to remove barriers to net zero value chains, scale capital investment, and support ambitious public policies. BSR is proud, as the initiative’s Secretariat, to foster impactful collaboration with them.

Transform to Net Zero does not ask companies to announce yet another climate commitment; indeed, many of the companies involved already have extraordinary ambitions: take, for example, Microsoft’s commitments to be carbon negative across the value chain in just 10 years, to remove its historical operational carbon emissions by 2050, and to establish a US$1 billion climate innovation fund. Or Unilever’s recent announcement to achieve net zero emissions from all its products in less than 20 years and establish a EUR€1 billion Climate & Nature Fund. Instead of seeking new commitments, Transform to Net Zero enables all companies with net zero targets to implement them and all companies without such targets to act. To scale impact as widely as possible, all of Transform to Net Zero’s outputs are intended for the public domain.

In the Decisive Decade, this is the kind of collaboration that must flower—focused on transforming businesses and deploying all corporate functions to build net zero value chains.

This spike in company action is big enough now to dent the global emissions trajectory. Equally striking, it has taken place during a weakening regulatory environment. The G20 economies are conspicuously absent from governments intending to strengthen national targets at next year’s UN Climate Conference. This gap in national leadership makes business action, not just ambition, even more urgent as people around the globe suffer from increasingly devastating climate impacts.

In the Decisive Decade, this is the kind of collaboration that must flower—focused on transforming businesses and deploying all corporate functions to build net zero value chains. The day that net zero is not a press release but a business model is the day the Paris goals become achievable. Making this a business norm as soon as possible is critical because we have no time left.

Blog | Thursday September 17, 2020

Ensuring Circular Fashion is Good for People—as well as the Environment

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The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the fashion industry into disarray, leaving supply chain workers without wages and causing major global brands to file for bankruptcy. In the U.S. alone, 2.1 million retail workers lost their jobs due to the crisis. In Bangladesh, the garment sector is expected to lose over a million jobs by December 2020, with over 70,000 workers already laid off. While many of the underlying issues are not new to the industry, the unprecedented situation has made us acutely aware of the fragilities of our current economic system and of just how vulnerable people —especially workers and their communities—are to significant business disruption.

As our society looks to build back better by emerging from the crisis with a more resilient and sustainable system, many industries are planning to integrate circularity into their recovery plans. Indeed, even before the COVID-19 outbreak, circular economic models had been sprouting up at increasing speed in the fashion industry, both to counter its enormous environmental impact and to respond to economic opportunities. The textile industry alone produces 1.2 billion tons of CO₂ per year and accounts for around 20 percent of global industrial water pollution. Companies, brands, and designers are increasingly looking to circular fashion models, including resale, rental, and repair, to mitigate these impacts. A strong signal of the circular fashion opportunity: resale grew 25 times faster than the overall retail apparel market in 2019.

This current period of complex disruption presents a unique opportunity to leverage the shift to circularity to address some of the global fashion industry’s persistent and pervasive environmental and social issues.

While the potential positive environmental impact of a shift to circularity is enormous, few organizations are considering the social implications for the more than 60 million people in its value chain. Given the sheer size of the industry and the many ways people intersect throughout production and consumption, social implications, whether positive or negative, are unavoidable. Women, who comprise between 60 to 90 percent of total apparel workers, of whom an estimated 80 percent are women of color, will likely take the brunt of the impact due to their precarious working conditions and existing gender-based discrimination.

BSR’s new brief, Taking a People-Centered Approach to a Circular Fashion Economy, explores the potential social impacts that may emerge from a mainstream shift to circular fashion.

Informed by BSR’s research and stakeholder engagement supported by Laudes Foundation, an independent foundation tackling the dual crises of climate change and inequality, the brief proposes opportunities for businesses, policymakers, and advisors to design circular fashion business models to be inclusive and fair from the outset. In addition, we provide a set of guiding questions for companies and organizations to practically think through the social impacts of their shifts to circular fashion models, aiming to avoid and mitigate negative social impacts and more consciously target positive social impacts.

“The vision of ‘circular economy’ presents an economy that is compatible with nature, but we cannot take for granted that it will be inclusive,” says Megan McGill, Senior Programme Manager at Laudes Foundation. “BSR’s work is enabling us to ensure that in our pursuit for a regenerative and restorative economy, we are actively managing and promoting the rights and equity of people touched by the fashion sector.”

By taking a people-centered approach, we can build a more resilient industry and respond to the calls from stakeholders.

This current period of complex disruption presents a unique opportunity to leverage the shift to circularity to address some of the global fashion industry’s persistent and pervasive environmental and social issues. By taking a people-centered approach, we can build a more resilient industry and respond to the calls from stakeholders—through safer inputs that increase the health and safety of workers and production communities, enabling creative and dignified employment, and building inclusive models adapted to the needs of a diverse consumer base.

Supported by Laudes Foundation, BSR is continuing to explore the impacts of the shift to circular fashion on job opportunities and quality—a topic largely ignored in the circular transition to date and which we begin to delve into in this brief. Our current work aims to explore and develop responses to these impacts in collaboration with fashion companies and broader industry stakeholders. In addition, we will leverage strategic foresight in developing and testing practical recommendations with special focus on the U.S., Europe, and India.

This brief was developed by Cliodhnagh Conlon and Annelise Thim, with input from Laura Macias and Magali Barraja and with the support of Laudes Foundation. As we delve deeper into this topic, we are keen to hear feedback and learn from others who are working to ensure that the circular fashion transition delivers benefits for people.  If you are currently working on circular fashion or would like to learn more about our work, please reach out to connect with the team.

Reports | Thursday September 17, 2020

Taking a People-Centered Approach to a Circular Fashion Economy

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The fashion industry has long been called out for its major negative environmental and social impacts. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the instability of global fashion supply chains and the vulnerability of its supply chains workers, adding urgency to the calls for a more sustainable and ethical fashion industry. Even before the pandemic, many fashion companies were looking to circular economy models to reduce risks of business disruption and mitigate negative environmental impacts. However, few circular economy models have considered the potential impacts—both positive and negative—on the 60+ million workers in fashion supply chains or the billions of consumers worldwide.

In partnership with Laudes Foundation, BSR has developed a brief on the potential social impacts of a shift to circular fashion based on BSR’s research and stakeholder engagement. We introduce issues that may arise during the shift to a circular fashion for consumers and workers as well as wider societal concerns. In the brief, we explore the likely differentiated impacts of a transition circular fashion models—first, in the dynamics between production and consumption communities and second, for women and marginalized groups.

The complex disruption by the COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to leverage the shift to circularity and address many of the global fashion industry’s persistent and pervasive environmental and social issues. Seizing this opportunity requires us to first understand the impacts of innovation by identifying what those impacts are and who will be impacted. To that end, we propose a set of guiding questions for companies and organizations to think through the social impacts of their shifts to circular economy models on diverse groups and how projects might influence such impacts. We also provide several actions for companies and organizations to inform the design and implementation of circular business models, aiming to avoid and mitigate negative social impacts and more consciously target positive social impacts.

This brief represents an initial exploration of this topic. However, we are keen to receive feedback and learn from others who are working to ensure a shift to circular fashion that delivers benefits across production and consumption communities, aims to redress existing inequalities in the fashion industry, and contributes to a just transition for all to a low-carbon economy. For questions, comments, or to learn more, please reach out to our team at connect@bsr.org.

Reports | Thursday September 17, 2020

Digitizing for Inclusion: Insights from Wage Digitization in the Garment Sector

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The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has emphasized the need for global supply chains to move away from a predominantly cash-based system. It is clear that now is the time to scale up the use of digital financial services, not only because they are more efficient and effective than cash, but—perhaps even more importantly—because of the role that digitization plays in advancing greater financial inclusion and security, particularly for vulnerable populations.

As the transition from cash to digital financial services accelerates around the world, greater understanding is developing on how to manage this shift, what is needed to deliver impact, and the importance of increased collaboration across private and public sectors.

Since 2018, BSR’s HERproject has partnered with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to leverage the HERfinance Digital Wages program to scale up wage digitization for ready-made garment factories and workers in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Cambodia, with a focus on gender equality. This report shares five lessons and insights from this partnership and from across the Digital Wages program that can be valuable to everyone working collectively to scale digital financial services across multiple use cases, including wages and government payments.

Blog | Tuesday September 15, 2020

Building Resilient Supply Chains to Meet the Moment—and the Future

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The COVID-19 crisis has exposed how efficiency in global supply chains came at the cost of resilience. A persistent push for efficiency and cost competitiveness has spawned increasingly complex and opaque supply chains. Already facing disruptions such as natural disasters, trade wars, and human rights issues, the COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that for many companies, inadequate visibility and understanding of the situation within their supply chains—and by their procurement operations—hamper an effective, coordinated response to external shocks.   

Companies rely on an ever-growing network of organizations to deliver their goods and services. Yet many businesses have an insufficient understanding of the players involved and the risks and opportunities these bring.

Based on its extended enterprise risk management survey, Deloitte suggests that ecosystems have been growing across organizations at a rate of ~15 percent a year. Recent research from Refinitiv found that 43 percent of third-party relationships are not subject to any form of due diligence. In short, more complexity and more opacity.

Clearly, it is time to build more robust and resilient supply chains—understanding, valuing, and incorporating resilience for the buyer, suppliers, and the workers across the value chain.

The Resilience Starting Point

Any resilience strategy starts with understanding the supply chain, the risks it faces, and the factors that affect the resilience of the nodes and connections throughout the value chain. Often, this starts with simple enterprise risk management. It is worth noting that companies with proactive management of extended enterprise risk record bottom line improvements of 2-3 percent. Such competitive advantage will then likely become the baseline, the norm, and the only way to proactively compete in the near future.

Facing up to Future Challenges

What issues will your supply chain face in the future? The list of potential issues is long, and it’s likely that your company will face one or more of the following: natural disasters, climate impacts, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, availability of input materials, health issues, trade tensions, a carbon tax, legislated due diligence requirements, seizure of product by customs due to forced labor-related conditions of production, lack of fossil resources, etc.

Each of these has the potential of significant impacts on your supply chain operations and thus on your general business. The impact could be on price (e.g. a carbon tax), legal risk (e.g. due diligence regulations), product availability (e.g. input scarcity), or just the continued growth and complexity of your supply chain as it morphs of its own accord to try to "get around" these issues instead of dealing with them appropriately.

Building a resilience strategy means understanding the full scope of risks to which you are exposed as well as those generated by current internal procurement practices. It will also require mapping company supply networks and improving visibility and traceability in order to identify and tackle the risks. Both sustainability and risk teams have long advocated for such practices because this knowledge better equips procurement teams for contingency planning. Each of these elements works together with the others to allow full understanding, risk integration, and the strategic sourcing choices facing a company: Should we move our sourcing to location X with supplier Y for costs Z?

As companies face major supply chain disruptions, it becomes necessary to look to build more flexible and dynamic supply chains. Investor, consumer, and external stakeholder expectations remain high, and growing resource constraints necessitate that sustainability remains a priority for company supply chains and is an imperative for long-term business prosperity.

BSR’s Supply Chain Resilience Assessment

Building on our experience and expertise working on supply chain sustainability, BSR’s newest offering, the Supply Chain Resilience Assessment, helps companies evaluate their current supply chain resilience status, incorporating current (and future) understanding, policies, risks, strategies, and imperatives. 

Based on internal engagement, external benchmarking, and a dynamic assessment, BSR helps companies identify their current strengths and weaknesses on key aspects of the procurement organization, understand industry practices and opportunities, and build a resilience enhancement roadmap for their supply chain.

Preparation today will enhance the resilience of supply chains for the future, helping to anticipate the unexpected next crisis and throughout this decisive decade. We look forward to connecting with you to work to build a stronger, more resilient supply chain—please contact us to learn more.

Blog | Monday September 14, 2020

Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change: A Call For Action to Build Resilience Post-COVID

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From the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 to extreme weather events like the wildfires in Australia and the Amazon, 2020 severely tests the resilience of Indigenous Peoples across the globe. On the commemoration of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), we recognize that there is still much to be done to prevent, mitigate, and remedy the current and forthcoming adverse impacts of climate change to which Indigenous Peoples are particularly vulnerable.

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement targets requires a just transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy—with the involvement of all stakeholders. To align with those goals and the corporate responsibility to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples stated in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all companies have a role to play in achieving climate justice by embracing a human-centered approach and safeguarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples that are now particularly threatened. Resilience to future shocks can only be achieved by putting people, in particular Indigenous Peoples, at the core of long-term COVID recovery strategies.

Climate Impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Are Exacerbated by COVID-19

Climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ rights are inextricably linked. Depending on geography and location of living (i.e. small islands, high altitudes, coastal regions, deserts, polar areas etc.), they are vulnerable to climate change because they sit on the frontlines of the physical effects of the climate-driven extreme weather. Rising global temperatures create a series of impacts (i.e. wildfires, heatwaves, storms, flooding and drought and sea level rise) felt disproportionately by Indigenous Peoples, magnifying the systemic inequalities they already face.

Indigenous Peoples’ fundamental rights to life, health, water, food, adequate standard of living, land, cultures, and traditions are undermined both by the climate crisis and by the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Right to water and sanitation: In some regions of the world, climate impacts continue to drive water scarcity, preventing access to clean water and sanitation for Indigenous communities which is crucial for handwashing and containing the spread of the virus.
• Right to land, natural resources, and preservation of cultural heritage: Environmental destruction from climate impacts, soil degradation, biofuel plantations (soy, sugar cane, jatropha, palm oil, etc.), illegal land seizure during lockdowns, among others, has affected Indigenous Peoples’ right to land and natural resources resulting sometimes in their livelihoods, cultures, and traditions being destroyed, thus increasing their vulnerability during the pandemic.
• Right to food and adequate standard of living: Indigenous Peoples are heavily dependent on lands and natural resources for their basic needs and livelihoods, but due to a combination of loss of biodiversity caused by extreme weather and deforestation, their food security and traditional livelihoods are now highly threatened.  

To Build Resilient and Inclusive Business Strategies to Address the Climate Crisis in Post-COVID Planning, Put Indigenous Peoples at the Center

Business contribution to climate justice can only be achieved through the implementation of inclusive mitigation and resilience measures in post-COVID- planning. These measures should aim to reduce GHG emissions, while minimizing vulnerabilities of Indigenous Peoples to the adverse effects of climate change by building on their traditional knowledge and practices.

1. Ensure protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights in times of crises when building post-COVID recovery plans

Climate change and COVID-19 crises exacerbate the underlying systemic injustice faced by Indigenous Peoples. The vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples to social, economic, and environmental shocks linked to climate change can be significantly reduced by recognizing and securing Indigenous Peoples’ collective rights to lands, natural resources, culture heritage, and free, prior, and informed consent to prevent land grabbing. Companies should consider conducting human rights due diligence to identify potential adverse impacts of climate change mitigation projects on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, in particular in the context of renewable energy expansion, biofuel production, large-scale agriculture, or construction of hydroelectric dams.

2. Support the active and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples

To ensure respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and protection of their already fragile livelihoods, business strategies and programs to mitigate climate change impacts across their value chains should be designed and implemented following a strong and inclusive consultation process with the affected Indigenous communities and need to consider including them in the decision-making of climate change solutions. Companies can play a key role in setting up permanent dialogue spaces and strengthening the access to mechanisms for participation that take into consideration Indigenous Peoples’ languages and traditions as well as equitable gender representation.  

3. Consider Indigenous Peoples as key partners and agents of change

Companies should consider Indigenous Peoples not simply as victims of climate change but also as active partners and agents of change who are able to offer effective solutions for the climate crisis thanks to their specific knowledge and techniques.  Their traditional lands guard over 80 percent of the planet's biodiversity and their capacity to adapt to environmental change is rooted in traditional knowledge and in-depth understanding of the land. Indigenous Peoples may therefore be uniquely positioned to help enhance the resilience of biodiversity and soil quality in some regions while at the same time contribute limiting material climate risks to businesses. This is particularly important for climate change mitigation and adaptation for which companies can build on Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and climate-smart agriculture techniques to increase the effectiveness of the corporate solutions to major environmental changes.

Looking Ahead

As the UNDRIP turns 13 and the virus continues to wreak havoc worldwide, it is clear that for companies, the pandemic can be a turning point to better prepare for crises—including climate change and future pandemics. Business can use this inflection point as an opportunity to build back better by securing Indigenous Peoples’ collective rights and strengthening indigenous traditional knowledge and ecosystems, further contributing to building inclusive business strategies that are more resilient in the face of an uncertain future.

Blog | Thursday September 10, 2020

A 21st-Century Social Contract Must Include a Just Transition to a Net-Zero Economy

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Drawn front and center and exacerbated by the many crises the world faces today—the COVID-19 pandemic, climate impacts, economic inequality, and the racial justice movement—it is clear that the current social contract is not fit for purpose. The ways in which institutions and individuals interact, including the way we do business, do not reflect reality, and they do not take into account the fundamental systemic inequalities, inequities, and discrimination that many across the globe face today. As Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, wrote earlier this year: “The social contract is broken! Workers want a New Social Contract that delivers decent work for all.”

In June 2020, BSR released its report, The Business Role in Creating a 21^st-Century Social Contract, which presents clear principles and actions business can take. One of the principles discussed in the report is: A Just Transition to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions.

Put simply, we need to enact large-scale systemic changes to combat global climate change—and as the transition to a net-zero GHG emissions economy takes place, we need a social contract that addresses the impact on workers and their communities, especially those facing systemic inequities. Achieving the decarbonization targets must be done in a way that creates decent work and supports broad prosperity by maintaining strong economies and thriving communities.

We know that addressing the climate crisis will require a massive shift across systems in the ways we operate, physically, economically, and socially to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. The necessary change will simultaneously create new jobs and opportunities; it is estimated that up to 65 million jobs and US$26 trillion in economic opportunities could be created by the transition to a net-zero GHG emissions economy in the next ten years. At the same time, the transition will unfortunately also spur significant job displacement and new migration patterns. In the U.K. alone, more than 2.2 million workers may need retraining and/or reskilling in order to meet the Paris Agreement goals. While the greatest impacts of this transition will be felt widely, the localized impacts on people and communities, if not managed justly and fairly, will be great for those that already face systemic inequities.

What can business do?

Business action, supported by government action through regulation, investment, and incentives, is needed to create high-quality green jobs and to procure renewable energy in order to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. Business will need to consider other factors in this process, including upholding human rights, achieving racial and gender equity, and adhering to global labor standards through appropriate due diligence.

In addition, partnerships will be key to successfully bringing those most affected along in a just transition—business and government should partner to ensure that the shift to a net-zero GHG emissions economy can be a powerful engine for job creation, business innovation, and strong and resilient economies.

As we build recovery plans to address the current COVID-19 crisis, business and governments alike must include elements that address the multiple crises we face today holistically. This includes tackling the many systemic inequities that specific populations face today, including access to green, healthy jobs, access to healthcare, and ending structural racial and gender discrimination.

Businesses can specifically do the following:

• Act: Generate inclusive low-carbon employment opportunities and manage the impacts on workers transitioning from high-carbon roles.
  • Commit to and implement science-based climate targets that align with a 1.5°C future with a just transition element. For example, companies can commit to the Business Pledge for Just Transition and Decent Green Jobs.
  • Complete the necessary due diligence to ensure workers and communities are not left behind and human rights are upheld within climate strategies and projects.
• Enable: Advocate for policies that enable the generation of high-quality low-carbon jobs and that enable for those displaced from high-carbon roles to shift to new livelihoods.
  • Participate in dialogues with governments to help set inclusive policies.
  • Advocate for laws that protect jobs and ensure social equity while advancing the Paris Agreement goals (e.g. strong social protection programs and financial support to help dismissed workers retrain and find new jobs, policies to protect vulnerable groups, support for skills development for green sectors, and opportunities for early retirement packages for older workers).
  • Advocate for COVID-19 economic recovery plans that prioritize the shift to a net-zero GHG emissions economy and that embrace a just transition.
• Influence: Work toward a just transition for people and communities through social dialogue and stakeholder engagement.
  • Assess, identify, and disclose the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)-aligned transition risks and opportunities affecting communities.
  • Engage in dialogue with workers, communities, and their representatives to enable transition and mitigation of economic and social impacts.
  • Work with government to ensure that the cost of the transition is not passed to low-income populations
  • Consider ways to focus specifically on Black, Indigenous, People of Color and other marginalized groups that are impacted by the energy transition

The 2020s are the decisive decade in which we can change the way we do business, fundamentally transforming it to address the embedded systemic and structural flaws, including how we have been and will address the climate crisis. The urgency we face is now. The essential role that business must play in shaping and implementing this new 21^st-century social contract starts now.

Now is the time to build a better, safer, and truly inclusive future that protects those most affected by crises, including through the tools of the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy.

Primers | Friday September 4, 2020

10 Human Rights Priorities for the Healthcare Sector

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Human rights are inherent to all human beings. They are defined and established in more than 80 international legal instruments and include fundamental protections of human dignity, needs, and freedoms, such as food, housing, privacy, personal security, and democratic participation. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, the responsibility to protect human rights has primarily fallen on governments. Beginning in the early 2000s, however, it became increasingly clear that the freedoms enshrined in the human rights framework could also be violated—and promoted—by the private sector.

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles), the first international instrument to assign companies the responsibility to respect human rights. The Guiding Principles state that governments must put in place good policies, laws, and enforcement measures to prevent companies from violating rights; that companies must refrain from negatively impacting rights even when governments are failing to create or enforce necessary laws; and that victims of corporate abuses must have access to effective remedy. As part of this responsibility, the Guiding Principles require companies to undertake due diligence to identify and manage their negative human rights impacts.

This brief identifies the 10 most relevant human rights impacts for businesses operating in the biopharmaceutical industry (“pharma companies”). This information is gathered from BSR’s direct engagement with pharma companies, as well as our 25 years of experience helping companies in all sectors manage their human rights risks. This primer was drafted before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis and has been enhanced with insights collected as the crisis unfolds.

In addition to the range of human rights relevant in general business operations (e.g., workplace rights, community safety), the right to health is particularly relevant to pharma companies. In recent years, society’s expectations for pharma companies to advance this right has broadened. Launched in 2008, the Access to Medicine Index ranks pharma companies’ efforts to expand access to medicine in low- and middle-income countries and has gained the support of investors as a key indicator of such efforts. The right to health also underpins a number of other rights. For example, the right to health sets the stage for the right to an adequate standard of living, because good health is key to securing and maintaining a job. In contrast, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the protection of public health risks infringing on the right to privacy, as personal data is collected in an effort to identify and track people who are sick. These interconnections raise additional human rights risks and opportunities for the pharma industry, with some of the most salient covered below.

Blog | Friday September 4, 2020

How Healthcare Companies Can Meet the Moment and Respect Human Rights

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The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of people across the world, disrupted business, and thrown the global economy into recession. The pandemic has also emphasized the need for a resilient healthcare sector—one where the entire value chain is strong, innovative, and able to absorb shocks as severe as the one we are currently experiencing.

In all sectors, we are seeing the value of a human rights approach. Companies that respect the rights of their employees, customers, end users, and community members are better positioned to restart business in a way that fosters resilience by ensuring that the people involved with and affected by the business can cope more effectively in future crises. Forward-looking businesses will play a crucial role in rebuilding a global economy where the rights of all people are respected: a society where people from all walks of life have access to healthcare, as well as to the education, employment, and healthy environments that underpin good health; and a society where the collection and use of sensitive personal data contributes to public health research and innovation without compromising privacy, political participation, and rule of law.

This is even more true of companies in healthcare.

To help leaders in the healthcare industry better identify how they can protect and promote human rights, today BSR is publishing a primer on the top human rights priorities for the healthcare sector. Gathered from BSR's direct engagement with biopharmaceutical companies, this brief summarizes the most relevant, urgent, and probable human rights impacts for the healthcare sector and opportunities for positive impact.

In a world where both a return to normalcy and our ability to weather future crises depends in large part on innovation in the healthcare sector, healthcare companies, particularly those in the pharmaceutical industry, have a crucial role to play in ensuring respect for human rights throughout their own operations, supply chains, and business relationships. Core to this is the identification, prevention, and mitigation of actual and potential adverse human rights risks.

Our new primer discusses a range of risks which have become pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

• Affordability and accessibility of medicines and vaccines: The high price of medicine can bar people from accessing healthcare even in high-income countries. Companies developing, manufacturing, marketing, and distributing pharmaceutical products face increasing scrutiny of their pricing policies and their role in making medicines more accessible and affordable for all patients.
• Privacy: The proliferation of digital health tools and systems have introduced risks associated with the sharing of patient information in the healthcare system. These risks have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as health and other personal data is collected in the workplace and in public, often via integration with facial recognition and other biometric technologies. This fuels concerns about security of data storage, future use and misuse of data, and the risks of empowering authoritarian government.
• Pharmaceutical supply chains: The high degree of complexity in pharmaceutical supply chains makes it difficult to monitor suppliers’ labor standards, particularly in emerging markets where the workforce is cheaper and where health and safety regulations are not properly enforced. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified these risks as demand has spiked, while also raising the question of supply chain disruption and business continuity, as major drug manufacturers rely on a handful of countries for active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Despite these risks, healthcare companies are poised to strengthen the human rights – the physical, economic, political, and social well-being – of the people they touch in myriad ways. In addition to the development of therapies for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 and many other diseases, healthcare companies can play a critical role in promoting patient-centered care, improving working conditions and environmental standards in their supply chains, and enabling wider access to healthcare. By directly improving the health of people across the globe, the healthcare sector can make all of us stronger, ready to face whatever tomorrow may bring.

The Healthcare primer is the latest in a series of primers on human rights priorities for different sectors, including Transport and Logistics, Extractives, and Information and Communications Technology.

Blog | Wednesday August 19, 2020

Respecting the Rights of Vulnerable Groups

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In the almost six months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the most vulnerable and marginalized have been and will continue to be the hardest hit amid increasing infection rates and deepening economic recession. Indeed, the pandemic has exposed the ever-widening gap between rich and poor across the globe. In addition, recent events, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following the brutal killing of George Floyd by four police officers in the United States (U.S.), have shone a spotlight on the long-standing racial injustice and discrimination faced by people who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), not just in the United States but in many other parts of the world.

It is therefore no surprise that BIPOC communities, especially in the U.S., United Kingdom (U.K.), and Latin America, have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. This is further exacerbated by socioeconomic and health disparities which create barriers to the realization of their right to health. We have also seen a surge in anti-Asian rhetoric and abuse worldwide as well as social stigma against specific groups due to misinformation about COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. The devastating impacts of the pandemic on the most vulnerable in society are inarguably linked to systemic racism, income inequality, and unequal healthcare systems—issues which cannot be tackled in isolation.

During this health crisis, the business community can play a leading role in protecting the most vulnerable in their operations and supply chains, including their employees and customers, by identifying ways in which they may be impacted and designing approaches to mitigate against potential negative harms. In order to meet the standards established by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), companies are expected to identify the most vulnerable stakeholders in the context of their operations, supply chains, and products and services to understand specific areas of vulnerability to effectively respond to the unique attributes of each vulnerable group.

To support businesses in upholding this responsibility, BSR has released a primer, featuring a three-step approach on how companies can identify vulnerable groups, including BIPOC, and respect their rights in the context of COVID-19.

1. Identify Potentially Affected Groups and Understand Their Areas of Vulnerability

As part of any stakeholder engagement process, companies should proactively identify the most vulnerable. Vulnerable groups are most exposed to harm or are at higher risk of experiencing harm, impacted directly and indirectly by company operations, supply chains, products, and services—and BIPOC fall into this category.

BSR has developed a framework, based on the UNGPs and international standards, to help companies to identify vulnerable groups based on four dimensions: practical discrimination, formal discrimination, societal discrimination, and hidden groups.

BIPOC in some countries are more vulnerable as a consequence of socioeconomic and health disparities linked to practical, formal, and societal discrimination. As an example, Indigenous peoples account for 15 percent of the poorest people on the planet, lack proper access to health resources and information, including lack of access to water, fall outside formal social protection systems, and face discrimination in accessing healthcare facilities and treatments, making their communities more vulnerable to COVID-19 impacts.

Given the intersectionality of discrimination, vulnerable groups may be further stigmatized by other factors, for example, sexual or gender orientation or even health status.

2. Understand How Each Vulnerable Group is Impacted Differently by the COVID-19 Pandemic  

While vulnerable groups are affected disproportionately by the pandemic, they are not impacted identically. The impacts on BIPOC, however, cannot be understated.

• In the U.K., the Office of National Statistics reported that in England and Wales, BIPOC are at greater risk of dying of COVID-19.
• In the U.S., CDC data show that Black Americans account for more than half of infections and around 60 percent of deaths, despite comprising only 14 percent of the population.  
• Brazil has recorded more than 100,000 deaths linked to the pandemic. Structural racism has been a contributing factor to the higher death rates among Black and Brown Brazilians, especially those living in poverty, more so than other populations. Additionally, at least 22,300 indigenous people have been infected, and 633 have died. Voluntary self-isolation in remote regions, such as the Amazon Basin where healthcare services are limited, is therefore critical for cultural survival of determined Indigenous groups who have weaker immune systems.
• In Native communities in the U.S., where health care systems are already underfunded, there are over 9,000 positive COVID-19 cases—a significant number for a community that is just less than 2 percent of the population. In fact, the Navajo Nation has surpassed New York and New Jersey for the most cases per capita.
• Alongside the very serious impacts that COVID-19 could have on their lives and health, some Indigenous peoples are also facing two additional threats: the targeting of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders and illegal land seizure of their traditional lands as consequences of lockdowns and increased military presence in rural areas.

3. Take Appropriate Actions to Minimize Adverse Impacts on Vulnerable Groups

Companies should consider the following actions to prevent negative impacts on the rights of vulnerable groups:

• Take a human rights approach to guide internal decision-making: Since vulnerable groups, including BIPOC, are being hit the hardest, it is necessary to implement inclusive and accessible human rights-based responses to the pandemic while continuing company operations. This involves providing healthcare benefits, free access to testing, personal protective equipment in the workplace, hand sanitation areas, and paid time off if workers experience symptoms and allowing for remote working where appropriate. During this crisis, it may be necessary to make decisions quickly, which is why we released our Rapid Human Rights Due Diligence Tool, intended to guide companies in thinking through pressing challenges.
• Adapt corporate responses to meet the needs of vulnerable groups: Given that BIPOC are overly represented among frontline and essential workforce, companies should proactively and directly engage while it is safe to do so and without putting them at further risk. Engagement must be inclusive, culturally appropriate, transparent, and participatory. For example, many companies are reaching out to their most vulnerable stakeholders through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). For businesses with operations in close proximity to BIPOC communities, particularly Indigenous communities, companies should prioritize health and safety as well as respect the voluntary self-isolation of high-risk groups. Companies should also ensure the opportunity for Indigenous peoples’ representatives to participate and be consulted on measures that may affect them directly. Companies should provide support to BIPOC workers and ensure that within the decision-making process, BIPOC circumstances and perspectives are considered. Since the trauma of COVID-19 further compounded by racial inequality, companies should also consider enabling access to mental health support and counselling.
• Work collaboratively to design responses to specific areas of impacts on human rights: At BSR, we recognize that these challenges cannot be tackled in isolation but will require multi-stakeholder collaboration. Companies should consider advocating for fairer systems and developing joint action plans with government, the business community, civil society, and affected stakeholders to  mobilize support for the most vulnerable. This could include supporting BIPOC-owned businesses and contributing to health and emergency response funds.

As COVID-19 continues to accelerate and the search for a vaccine continues, businesses have an opportunity to prioritize the most vulnerable and address some of the long-standing disparities and inequalities that have afflicted BIPOC communities for generations. Taking action not only means identifying and executing short-term plans and solutions—it also means working toward building a new social contract where no one, including the most vulnerable, will be left behind.

For more information on identifying and respecting the rights of vulnerable groups across your activities and supply chains, please download our primer and reach out.