Frankly Speaking - A Podcast on Responsible Business
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Frankly Speaking is a Frank Bold Podcast on responsible business - discussing the latest political, legal and business developments in the field of ESG, business and human rights and corporate reporting. Host Richard Howitt is a pioneer in the field of corporate disclosure and former Member of the European Parliament. He speaks frankly and personally about what moves policy makers, business and activists to make responsible business the norm and last but not least - redefine business!
60 Episodes
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Are companies saying one thing about sustainability, but doing something in their political lobbying that is very different?
A new report has just been published today by the sustainable finance pioneer, the Eiris Foundation, as part of a project called Social LobbyMap. It provides detailed and independent research on business lobbying on Europe's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The report is helping to provide the inside story of what was really going on in what was one of the most high profile political pressures on any piece of EU legislation.
To discuss this topic, Richard Howitt welcomes Peter Webster, Chief Executive of the foundation.
In this episode, you’ll hear more about:
Corporate lobbying and its contribution to watering down the CSDDD
The companies that do the right thing and how can companies contribute to being positive voices in sustainability
If trade associations are doing the “dirty work” on behalf of companies
How this research provides the data and the evidence that investors, civil society and companies themselves can actually use to align on these issues.
... and more!
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Is the role of the corporate chief sustainability officer at a crossroads?
According to the renowned Business for Social Responsibility’s latest report, it is. The report is based on detailed interviews with chief sustainability officers in 31 companies worldwide and represents 30 years of combined experience in responsible business from the report's authors.
To discuss the future of companies’ Chief Sustainability Officer, Richard Howitt welcomes Laura Gitman, one of the report’s co-authors and Chief Impact Officer at Business for Social Responsibility. BSR is the world's oldest sustainability consultancy, and is currently working with a network of 300 businesses.
In today’s Frankly Speaking episode, you will hear more about:
How has the profession evolved in the last 15 years
The turbulences that companies and Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) have been facing
If CSOs are really burnt-out?
The potential of CSOs to drive the business beyond compliance
The future of sustainability leadership within companies
... and more!
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How can and should you address entity-specific reporting?
What does a company do when something it thinks is important for its sustainability doesn't fit into a standardised reporting framework in the language of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)?
Today in Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt is joined by Piotr Biernacki who has been involved in the ESRS right from the beginning in 2020, first as a member of the Project Task Force and now as a member of EFRAG’s Technical Expert Group. Piotr is also ESG Reporting Fellow at Materiality, working with listed companies on sustainability reporting in Poland.
You’ll hear more about:
What are entity-specific disclosures and why extra information may be necessary for some companies
Piotr's advice when conducting ones materiality assessment and how to know that an issue is to be reported as an entity-specific information
How there's still room for companies to tell their sustainability stories in their reports without compromising quality data
How challenges companies face now regarding the ESRS will diminish over time
The state of sustainability reporting and sustainability performance of companies in Poland
... and more!
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Will there be a just transition?
How far does the climate crisis affect workers and businesses and what needs to be done about it?
Today in Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt welcomes Jason Judd, executive director of Cornell's Global Labor Institute.
They recently produced a set of 25 social indicators which it believes are measurable and impactful, and which can give certainty to social issues and corporate sustainability reporting. The Institute has also produced research on the impact of extreme weather events on the apparel or fashion industry to understand the real scale of change which is confronting us.
You’ll hear more about:
What are the impacts of extreme heat or flooding on workers in the apparel sector
What does it mean in practice and what are the needed investments in climate adaption
The path for due diligence in the US and in the rest of the world
How to measure supply chain due diligence and labour metrics
What would happen for sustainability if Kamala Harris wins?
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Do our ideas about what makes companies competitive actually hinder the shift toward sustainability?
What role do share or stock buybacks have in this?
And has the move towards sustainable finance actually succeeded in providing incentives for companies to change?
As former ECB President Mario Draghi made his own proposals for returning Europe to competitiveness and President von der Leyen reveals her new proposed team, we ask if there is enough money for sustainability and competitiveness. If yes, where is it?
To discuss these related issues, Frankly Speaking welcomes Myriam Vander Stichele, senior researcher at SOMO, the center for research on multinational corporations.
You’ll hear more about:
Competitiveness for long term resilience of the company is still the strongest argument
What are share buybacks, what is happening and what are the implications for business
How reality is catching up and how it's time to go back to an evidence-based debate to end polarisation
Myriam shares how Europe must be a leader and champion the role of cooperation rather than simple economic competitiveness
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1Welcome to the third season of Frankly Speaking!
We’re kicking it off strong with a crucial topic: trust and what can drive improving it in business?
To discuss this, Richard Howitt welcomes Alison Taylor, author of Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World. Alison is a clinical associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business, Executive Director of the organization Ethical Systems, and has been involved with some major consulting organizations, including Control Risks, Preventable Surprises and Business for Social Responsibility.
In this episode, you’ll hear more about:
Why Alison advocates for companies to say less and do more - and whether there's a danger in that
The challenge of balancing meaningful action with broader accountability
The crucial distinction between trust and reputation management
Why it's high time companies start treating people like human beings
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Today, Frankly Speaking welcomes Professor Michael H. Posner, director of the Centre for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business. He also served in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of State.
Throughout his career, Mike has played a key role in establishing some of the major global initiatives on responsible business, including the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the Fair Labor Association, and the Global Network Initiative, and he continues to be one of the leading voices on business and human rights in the United States.
You’ll hear more about:
How too much about business and human rights is still process, not outcome or performance.
Why companies must not abrogate responsibility
A strong call for standards on due diligence for genuine accountability for businesses on their conduct
The difficult political situation in the United States at the moment and how to respond to the ESG backlash
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This week, Richard Howitt welcomes Robert McCorquodale, professor of international law and human rights and current chair of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, to discuss their report presented last month to the 56th Human Rights Council on investor responsibility to respect human rights. You can read a summary of the report here.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
ESG is not the same as human rights: there must be a systematic integration or the consideration of human rights in relation to ESG
How investors should and can prevent 'rightswashing'
A call for the EU to look again in two years at including investment in the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
While soft law holds significant importance, it is the amendment of hard law that ultimately brings about substantial and concrete change
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Germany's NewClimate Institute has produced the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, evaluating the transparency and integrity of climate pledges of 51 major companies across different sectors and geographies.
Richard Howitt welcomes Frederic Hans and Thomas Day, co-authors of the report to discuss their findings and key recommendations to companies in their journey to net-zero.
In this episode, you’ll find more about:
Good business practices and what makes a business leader in climate action efforts
Checklist of things to avoid if companies want to try and do this better
If the ESRS and ISSB Standards are improving things and if companies can feel confident in following them?
The need for science-based targets and what SBTi should do next
What is green hushing and to what extent it can be dangerous
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In this week’s episode, Richard Howitt asks: can we believe the numbers on environment, social and governance (ESG)?
To address this, we welcome Richard Hardyment, author of Measuring Good Business: Making Sense of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Data. In it, he states that there is little or no evidence that ESG has and has had any positive outcomes for people and the planet in the real world. And yet he calls himself emphatically pro-sustainability.
After directing research at the World Benchmarking Alliance, he is now Head of Business Engagement at the Institute of Business Ethics.
In this episode, you’ll hear more about:
The secret about sustainability reporting numbers
The different ways in measuring social and environmental disclosures
What makes a good proxy?
How to pick up context in sustainability reporting?
Can we measure the goodwill of the business?
Listen in and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!
***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
We are a few days away from the European elections, and there is a frenzied atmosphere in Brussels for what the results might mean for the future of sustainability in the EU, Europe's Green Deal and for its implications for business.
In this week’s episode, Richard Howitt welcomes Antonia Zimmermann, trade reporter for Politico Europe, which reports on European politics and policy, and Anna Brunetti, experienced financial journalist and economy editor at Euractiv.
This conversation is going to guide you through what's happening and what might happen in the future. Together they discuss:
What caused the backlash against the Green Deal and the green agenda in Europe?
If Europe needs to play catch-up when it comes to financing the green transition
What is the tone of this EU Elections campaign?
Their predictions on the outcome of the 2024 EU elections
Despite the risks, the challenges, the fears and the dangers, will climate stay on the agenda in the upcoming mandate?
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
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In this Frankly Speaking episode, Richard Howitt welcomes MEP Heidi Hautala (Greens/ EFA), vice president of the European Parliament, founder of the EP’s working group for Responsible Business Conduct and former development minister of Finland.
This year, Heidi has declared that she will step down at the forthcoming European elections. As one of the foremost advocates of business and human rights in Europe and a lead campaigner for Europe's new corporate sustainability due diligence law (#CSDDD), who better and what better time to ask Heidi about what has been achieved and what still needs to happen.
A warm thank you to Heidi Hautala not only for coming on the podcast but most importantly for all the work done on the business and human rights agenda in the past 30 years.
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
** Note to the listeners: due to technical difficulties, we recommend listening to this episode on Spotify while the audio is being updated on all platforms. Thank you for your patience and for bearing with us while we fix this technical issue.
This week in the podcast, Richard Howitt welcomes one of the leading business voices on supply chain management in the world, Linda Kromjong, president of amfori, Global Business Association and a key advocate of open and sustainable trade in Europe and in the world.
Together they discuss:
Why is due diligence important for companies?
Why is the CSDDD a pro-business directive? Why is this good for business?
An insider view on what happened in the last moments before new and unexpected deals had to be done by Member States.
How environmental due diligence and human rights due diligence go hand in hand
Linda’s message to businesses about implementing the CSDDD
Listen in and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!
***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
This week in Frankly Speaking, we put the spotlight on a new report produced by the OECD and analysing the state of corporate sustainability reporting in the world.
To discuss it, we welcome Caio de Oliveira, policy analyst at the OECD, who's had major responsibility in producing the report and who leads the sustainability work streams at the OECD on behalf of the Corporate Governance Committee and the Financial Markets Committee at the organisation. Caio has previously worked for the Brazilian government's Economic Ministry and for the country's Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM).
Richard and Caio address:
The findings of the OECD’s Global Corporate Sustainability 2024 report
How much and to what degree is sustainability reporting going on by companies
The high levels of reporting of scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions compared to low levels of scope 3 indirect emissions reporting
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
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Many of us know that dependence of developing countries on raw commodities leaves them vulnerable to price volatility and sees profit made in countries where the commodity is imported and then processed, rather than where it is produced. It's often farmers in those developing countries who are at the end of the line. That problem has been specifically highlighted in the cocoa sector this year.
Today in the podcast we look at where cocoa prices have gone parabolic, rising from just over 2,000 USD a tonne in 2022 to over $10,000 a tonne in 2024. It’s seen not just companies and farmers in producer companies suffer, but major chocolate companies in the global North, which have seen costs multiply and their share prices plummet by up to a third.
To discuss what's happening here, our guest is Antonie Fountain, managing director of the Voice Network, watchdog and catalyst for a reformed cocoa sector. Antonie is also the co-author of the Cocoa Barometer, the biennial review of sustainability in Cocoa.
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
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In this new Frankly Speaking episode, we explore the question of human rights due diligence by companies by asking what should go in the contract. Due diligence approaches have been criticized as simply using contractual clauses to pass off risk and responsibility down the supply chain.
To address how this can be avoided and to discuss what should and shouldn’t be in the contract, Richard Howitt welcomes Professor Sarah Dadush, writer and teacher in business and human rights at Rutgers Law School in the United States. She is the founding director of the Responsible Contracting Project, the mission of which is to improve human rights in global supply chains through innovative contracting practices. Check out Responsible Contracting Project's website to access all their tools.
Together, they discuss the concept of "shared responsibility" and:
For companies committed to responsible business conduct, how should they contract with suppliers? What should and should not be written down in contracts?
How to avoid a culture of excessive litigation in corporate responsibility
The importance of transparency in supporting responsible contracting
How this all fits into human rights due diligence legislation such as the upcoming CSDDD.
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
In this Frankly Speaking episode, we explore how companies should undertake a materiality assessment when they tackle their sustainability report. The concept of materiality is derived from financial accounting in business and human rights, and very simply asks the question: does this information matter?
To guide us, we welcome back Filip Gregor, head of Frank Bold’s Responsible Companies section and member of EFRAG’s Sustainability Reporting Board, which draws up and recommends the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
Richard and Filip discuss:
How materiality is done in the ESRS and what does double materiality mean
How companies should start to think about assessing and measuring impact materiality
The logic behind the "traffic light" system for risk assessment in EFRAG's draft guidance on Materiality Assessment
Filip’s advice to companies that want to better understand financial materiality
What is the role of the stakeholder in relation to the materiality question
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
In this episode, Frankly Speaking explores the new climate disclosure rules just agreed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States and asks what are the implications both in the US and worldwide.
To answer those questions, Richard Howitt welcomes Tracey Rembert, Associate Director, Climate Change and Environmental Justice at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), and Alexandra Wright-Gladstein, founder and CEO of the climate-friendly investment fund Sphere.
Together they discuss:
If the SEC’s rules are a major advance in business sustainability or too big compromise
What are the positives of the new rules and potential challenges ahead
Whether companies are going to get on and start preparing to do this now?
If the ESG backlash is going to carry on unabated or does this decision change it in some way
Their advice to investors and companies to start preparing for these new rules
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
In this new Frankly Speaking episode, Richard Howitt and his guests ask what is really happening in Europe's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the proposed law on how companies identify, prevent and remedy human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains.
Given political agreement by EU governments and members of the European Parliament before Christmas 2023, some governments undertook a volte face and indicated they would not support the law at the final administrative stage, when it would normally be nodded through without even discussion.
To guide us on why this is happening and what will happen now, Richard is joined by Andreas Rasche, professor of Business in Society at Copenhagen Business School and author of the book Corporate Sustainability, and Julia Otten, Senior Policy Officer at Frank Bold and lead on the Responsible Companies’ work on Corporate Due Diligence.
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***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
Today, Frankly Speaking welcomes Veronica Poole, Global International Financial Reporting Standards and Corporate Reporting Leader at big four accountancy company Deloitte.
In that role, Veronica has been at the forefront of moves to set sustainability reporting standards for business to the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). She is both one of the leaders in the world with knowledge about the ISSB but also with responsibilities to help companies implement its recommendations.
In this episode you’ll hear Veronica’s views on:
Her historic role in the formation of the ISSB
The importance of enterprise value creation
The connection between broader sustainability issues and the material financial impact on the company
What is significant about new IFRS standards and which priorities should come next for the ISSB
Evolution of the assurance sector and if it’s ready for mandatory sustainability reporting
Listen in and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!
***Participate in our anonymous survey: Help us understand what you enjoy in the show, what you want us to do better, and who you want to listen to next!
https://forms.gle/xCkhhWrwf6qCiyJHA
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