Large companies must take their responsibilities in the transition towards a greener economy and more social justice. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive will give us the possibility to sanction those actors that violate their obligations. It is a concrete and significant step towards a better place to live for everyone.
In February 2022, the EU Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. The initiative is also known under the name "sustainable corporate governance". The aim of this Directive is to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour.
To comply with the Directive, companies need to anchor human rights and environmental considerations in their operations and corporate governance.
The Directive establishes a corporate due diligence duty throughout global value chains. Companies will be required to identify adverse impacts of their activities on human rights, such as child labour and exploitation of workers, and on the environment, for example pollution and biodiversity loss. Companies will also be required to prevent, end or mitigate adverse impacts.
The duties for the directors include setting up and overseeing the implementation of the due diligence processes and integrating due diligence into the corporate strategy.
Several countries, including France and Germany, already have laws requiring companies to perform supply chain due diligence processes. The CSDDD is intended to harmonise supply chain due diligence requirements across the EU. Thus, the directive will create a level playing field throughout the EU internal market.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires companies to perform due diligence in accordance with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
The OECD Guidelines are recommendations on responsible business conduct, addressed by governments to multinational enterprises operating in or from the countries that adhere to the Guidelines.
According to the suggested requirements, due diligence should include six steps:
House of Control's cloud-based solution is tailored to help you meet the requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
The software has already been live since 2022 to help Norwegian companies comply with the Norwegian Transparency Act. It is a law similar to the CSDDD, but it applies also to medium-sized businesses with fewer resources to manage the compliance requirements. Thus, the software is designed to make due diligence processes easier and more efficient.
The starting point is a full overview of all suppliers, subsidiaries and other partners. With the software, you map conditions and identify conditions with a potentially negative impact on human rights, working conditions and the environment.
This solution includes, among other things:
Important information about the company's suppliers and other partners is often spread across different departments, subsidiaries and locations. It is usually difficult to keep the information up to date.
With our solution for the CSDDD, you can maintain and update central data about suppliers. These can be, for example, contracts, audits, confirmations and due diligence assessments - as well as changes to these.
The solution makes it easy for you to have control over due diligence assessments that have been made as well as to comply with other obligations that follow from the directive.
We have made it easy and efficient to send questionnaires to suppliers as part of the due diligence assessments.
The software includes ready-made templates with questions about human rights, working conditions, the environment and other important topics.
You can add topics and build new questionnaires as needed.
It is easy to distribute the questionnaire because contact persons, e-mails and other data are already registered on the supplier card in the solution.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will make it more important than ever to work with suppliers, subcontractors and partners to map and understand potential risk.
With the software, you track who has responded to surveys, send reminders and confirm that requests for documentation have been answered.
Answers and files are easy to find on the platform. Data from the surveys can be exported to Excel with a few simple clicks.
