The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched Human Rights Due Diligence and the Environment: A Practical Tool for Business (November 2024). The tool provides guidance for companies on how to incorporate environmental factors into human rights due diligence.
Human Level’s Take:
- Human rights and environmental impacts are deeply interconnected. Businesses that approach these topics holistically can better identify overlapping risks and develop effective solutions. This guide provides insights on how that can be done in practice by suggesting how to integrate environmental factors into HRDD processes.
- The guide outlines overarching principles and specific recommendations for incorporating environmental, climate, and transition-related perspectives into the four HRDD components: identifying and assessing impacts, taking action, tracking progress, and communicating. Key principles and actions highlighted include breaking down internal silos; engaging external experts, especially rights-holders; consulting with affected communities; prioritising action for the most severe impacts; leveraging Indigenous knowledge and partnering with Indigenous communities on environmental protection; combining environmental, social and health factors into HRDD; and conducting integrated due diligence on an ongoing basis.
- The guide also highlights how companies' transition plans (e.g., shifts in land use, increased demand for transition minerals, job displacement) and adaptation to climate change (e.g., through infrastructure development, addressing heat stress) can have significant human rights implications. This is a perspective on the scope of HRDD that we too have shared, including in our recent briefing note on Navigating the Just Transition: Practical Steps for Business Leaders. We are particularly pleased to see it taken on by UNDP.
- In addition, the guidance highlights that a long-term perspective is essential for environmentally-informed HRDD: businesses should assess potential impacts beyond traditional planning cycles, considering effects through 2030 or 2050, even if these impacts are not immediately apparent. Again, we are pleased to see this aligns with our existing advice on this matter.
- Cumulative environmental impacts are another key consideration also contemplated by the guide, which we strongly agree with. Companies are encouraged to examine how their actions interact with those of other entities to address combined effects on communities and ecosystems.
- Is this HRDD+E approach just about compliance? While legislation increasingly mandates integrated HRDD+E approaches, this holistic perspective is also driven by stakeholders, including NGOs, rights-holders, investors, and consumers who are increasingly holding companies accountable for environmental, climate and transitional impacts on human rights.
Some key takeaways:
- What is human rights due diligence with environmental dimensions, and why integrate them?: Although the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights (UNGPs) don’t explicitly mention environment, they do recognise that businesses should use human rights due diligence (HRDD) to prevent and mitigate impacts on human rights. Since the adoption of the UNGPs, key international human rights conventions have been interpreted to acknowledge that environmental harms interfere with the exercise of human rights. UN Member States have also recognised the right to a healthy environment. From a normative perspective, it's clear that environmental considerations should be integrated into HRDD. There are many other drivers for this integration, including government requirements and due diligence legislation; pressure and environment and human rights lawsuits from NGOs and rights-holders; investor questions about risk management; competitive drivers from the private sector; consumer and end-user interest; and pressure from trade unions and employees.
- Cross-cutting guidance for companies: The tool highlights seven areas of cross-cutting guidance for companies as they undertake HRDD with environmental dimensions. (1) Break down internal silos related to human rights and the environment, for example by establishing a platform for regular and systematised collaboration and learning. (2) Draw on external expertise from across disciplines, especially in complex contexts. This could include engaging rights-holders and experts. (3) Directly engage with affected and potentially affected rights-holders throughout HRDD by conducting meaningful consultations, communicating results, and jointly designing actions to address human rights impacts from environmental harm. (4) Adopt a risk-based approach to prioritise human rights impacts from environmental harm, by focusing on impacts that are most severe based on scope, scale and remediability. (5) Leverage traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples when conducting due diligence. This could include involving Indigenous Peoples in impact assessments and designing and carrying out environmental protection, restoration and improvement. (6) Incorporate environmental, social and health assessments into due diligence processes in order to streamline processes and identify areas that span across multiple functions within the business. (7) Carry out HRDD with environmental dimensions proactively and on an ongoing basis, in comparison to environmental, social and health assessments that are often time-bound and project-related. This helps track and address risks and impacts as they emerge and evolve over time.
- What the guide contains: The guide focuses on four essential components, each with cross-cutting guidance, deeper dives on key topics and tools. Part 1: Identify and Assess covers mapping the value chain; diving into geographical locations; identifying (potentially) affected rights-holders; drafting a list of (potential) adverse impacts; finalisation of the list of (potential) adverse impacts; and creating an ongoing process. Part 2: Act covers prioritisation of (potential) adverse impacts for response; involvement in and response to (potential) adverse impacts; creating an action plan; building leverage; and continuing or ending business relationships. Part 3: Track covers identifying indicators of effective human rights and environmental due diligence; effectiveness of the response across other entities and parties; and effectiveness verification. Part 4: Communicate covers preparing to communicate; communicating with (potential) affected rights-holders and other relevant stakeholders; and formal reporting.
