It is commonly assumed that we read company reports to compare one company against another, but does this notion stand up to scrutiny?

Our focus on comparability may lead us to overlook another important reason for reading company reports: additionality.

Perhaps the collective whole of company reports—i.e., what a compilation of reports tells us in combination—is more important than comparing companies against each other?

Human rights assessments that examine broad themes, dilemmas, and topics—and which are not necessarily attached to a single company—should be pursued more energetically in today’s business and human rights context. This blog seeks to describe why.

The year 2025 is a special year for math(s). This is the only year in the 21st century where the year is a perfect square (45 x 45 = 2025); it also provides this neat equation: (20 + 25)2 = 2025

Unfortunately, I am a business and human rights consultant and not a mathematician, so I am left to calculate what might happen this year in the messy field of just and sustainable business instead. While the answers will be far less precise than math(s) equations, this blog sets out five questions I will reflect upon this year.

Photo: Equal Justice Initiative, National Monument to Freedom at the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama.

Our shared understanding of the actions companies should take to respect freedom of expression rights has advanced significantly over the past decade. However, what actions should companies take to respect cultural rights? This article summarizes company-related risks and opportunities in the field of cultural rights and sets out key questions for further exploration.

A new era for just and sustainable business will emerge in the second half of this decade when various forms of company assessment of impacts on people, society, and the environment are published.

What should we be looking for when these assessments become public?

I am generally positive about the field of just and sustainable business, but there is one aspect that has been of growing concern to me: the lack of progress on equity, inclusion, and justice in the field itself.

The field of just and sustainable business is predominantly white- and Global North-led, and this needs to change. We will never have the transformational impact that we seek until the field is led, shaped, and built by people with lived experiences far more directly connected to the issues we work on. 

The Meta Oversight Board is one of the most innovative and impactful corporate accountability initiatives that exists today. I have been pondering whether innovative approaches established by the Oversight Board could be applied to other difficult challenges in the corporate responsibility field, well beyond social media. If we removed constraints for a moment, and thought creatively, what could we create?

This paper sets out the lessons I have learned and the point of view I have developed during 20 years at BSR and 5 years at BT.

The paper contains 25 insights across 5 themes that represent those areas of greatest familiarity to me: business and human rights; technology and human rights; reporting and disclosure; public policy; and the field of just and sustainable business.

During my 20 years at BSR I published variety of reports with colleagues.

Here you can find links to a selection of the most recent and significant reports—especially those that have stood the test of time.

During my 20 years at BSR I published variety of blogs, both alone and with colleagues.

Here you can find links to a selection of the most recent and significant blogs—especially those that have stood the test of time.