"Where next for The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark?", 16 Mar 2017

In an age of increasing populism, nationalism and short-term expediency, corporate responsibility really matters…particularly when minorities and groups are neglected or…targeted by their national governments.  The “social license” of business and its activities is becoming increasingly material to investors, governments and consumers…The CHRB…measures companies on what they are doing – whether or not they are reporting through sustainability or annual reports…[T]here is a wealth of data now available on these first 98 companies approaches to human rights…but there is…more analysis possible to draw out…fine grained examples of leading practice and gaps to fill…we will be collecting feedback from this initial ranking…There will be…learning about…the scoring system…and…issues that differentiate strongly performing companies from the laggards.  [T]he…existing industries will be ranked again in 2018…looking at, at least, one additional industry...We are particularly interested to examine how CHRB influences the behavior of investors…and the leverage and incentives this might…build within companies…we hope that CHRB is a tool embraced by those looking at how human rights can be best integrated into public procurement or export credit decision-making...[and] that consumer groups will start to use CHRB to produce materials and tools that will allow consumers to reward companies directly…