Just Transition and Modern Slavery

Authors

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  Kelly Metcalf

  Manager, Human Rights, BSR

  

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  Kelly Metcalf

  Manager, Human Rights, BSR

  

  New York

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  Kelly works with BSR member companies to develop sustainability strategies, assess human rights impacts, and engage rightsholders. Her areas of expertise include modern slavery and anti-human trafficking and the rights of workers and communities in the energy transition. Kelly works with companies across industries, including renewable energy and extractives and consumer products.

  Prior to joining BSR, Kelly worked as a consultant on various human rights projects, including issues of modern slavery and labor rights in global supply chains. Kelly has also worked extensively on women’s rights, including two years leading a women’s economic empowerment program in Surkhet, Nepal and four years working with the United Nations Foundation on international reproductive health and rights.

  Kelly holds an MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University.

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  Jenna Kowalevsky

  Manager, Energy, Extractives, Industrials, and Transport, BSR

  

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  Jenna Kowalevsky

  Manager, Energy, Extractives, Industrials, and Transport, BSR

  

  Paris

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  Jenna brings 15 years of experience working in human rights, sustainability, and stakeholder relations at global companies to her work with BSR member companies. She manages BSR’s Just Transition Collaborative Initiative, focusing on the energy sector’s transition to net zero.

  Prior to joining BSR, Jenna held a senior role at Suncor Energy, advising the company on integrating sustainability into business processes, ensuring projects managed social and environmental impacts and risks, and leading their human rights efforts. Previously, she worked at Repsol, where she developed and implemented their global community relations, Indigenous Peoples and human rights approach, and management system. She held multiple ESG roles at Talisman Energy, where she led the global ethics program, implemented a supplier code of conduct and risk assessment process, analyzed company-wide safety and environmental performance, and conducted land and stakeholder consultation. Jenna also held a key role at Interpol, advising the organization on its strategic direction and was instrumental in developing its new organizational strategy.

  Jenna holds an MBA and a Graduate Diploma in Social Performance Management from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Commerce in Petroleum Land Management from the University of Calgary.

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  Ouida Chichester

  Director, Energy, Extractives, Transport, and Industrials, BSR

  

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  Ouida Chichester

  Director, Energy, Extractives, Transport, and Industrials, BSR

  

  San Francisco

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  Ouida leads BSR’s Energy and Extractives practice. She applies her experience in international development to her work at BSR, where she advises global corporations across industries, but particularly extractives companies, on human rights; sustainable communities; inclusive economy; diversity, equity and inclusion; and women’s empowerment.

  She also previously supported BSR's HERproject.

  Prior to joining BSR, Ouida worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Belize, where she developed and contributed to projects on water governance, gender equality, and disability rights. She also has worked at Community Partners International, a nonprofit dedicated to the well-being of the people of Myanmar. Ouida helped build New Global Citizens, an organization dedicated to engaging U.S. youth in global philanthropy and activism. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, she worked closely with youth, women, and grassroots organizations. She is fluent in Spanish.

  As a Rotary World Peace Fellow, Ouida obtained an M.A. in International Relations from the Universidad del Salvador. She also holds a B.A. in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College.

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To plan for and achieve a just, equitable, and inclusive transition, business has a responsibility to ensure its efforts to transition to net zero that does not place people at risk. To this end, BSR’s Energy for a Just Transition collaboration explored the modern slavery risks associated with the energy transition and identified ways to address these risks.  

Affected communities and impacted populations, including workers, must be engaged in dialogue and decision-making processes to ensure the impacts of the transition on their social and economic well-being are considered. It is crucial to ensure that social protections for workers and communities and the rights of workers are upheld. 

Business can proactively manage modern slavery risks by: 

• Outlining expectations on ethical business practices 

• Increasing understanding of modern slavery 

• Identifying and assessing risks 

• Engaging suppliers 

• Providing remedy and supporting survivors 

• Collaborating

The team would like to thank Andrey Pertsov and Claudio Formisano for their contribution to the report.