Richard Howitt is Strategic Advisor, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Business and Human Rights, and Board member at the sustainability think-tank r3.0; and at the Eiris Foundation, championing sustainable investment. He is also Senior Associate at the public interest law firm Frank Bold LLP, for whom he hosts the "Frankly Speaking" responsible business podcast.
Richard Howitt
Richard Howitt is tagged in 14 stories.
UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, Day 3: Responsible Lobbying vs ‘Corporate Capture’
Marketing and Comms / For most readers, bribery or corruption aren’t part of your everyday experience — though they should be part of due diligence processes on your business partners and supply chain. However, the danger that one department says one thing and another does something different and inconsistent is clear in every company. - 2 months ago
UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, Day 2: A Compass for ‘Big Tech'
Walking the Talk / This is the second of three daily updates from the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 2022. Day two proposed redefining tech companies as part of infrastructure — similar to railways and supply chains — that govern people’s lives, and a new ‘UNGPs Compass’ aimed at doing that. - 2 months ago
The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 2022, Day 1: Holding Business to Account
Walking the Talk / This is the first of three daily updates from the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 2022. Day one started a week that focuses not on holding individual companies to account, but where the systems that will enable this are being framed. - 2 months ago
Attention, Business Leaders: Environmental Rights, Human Rights Inextricably Linked
Walking the Talk / Perhaps the takeaway of the week is that the ‘next 10 years’ of business and human rights coincide with the 2030 deadline for us to halve carbon emissions — and that environmental rights are now very clearly seen as human rights. Companies pursuing a net-zero strategy must make human rights central, too. - 1 year ago
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2021 a ‘Landmark’ for Corporate Human Rights Litigation
Walking the Talk / On day two of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, delegates discussed how environmental damage is being viewed as a human rights violation in a growing number of court cases around the world — and that the UN Guiding Principles may increasingly be criteria in court judgements. - 1 year ago
Where Is the New Roadmap for Business and Human Rights Taking Us?
Supply Chain / As delegates from the UN launched the roadmap at day one of this year's Business and Human Rights Forum, full respect for human rights by business was described as a strategic — not just an operational — issue, requiring a change of corporate culture and of business models. - 1 year ago
UN Business and Human Rights Forum, Day 3: Business Must Approach DEI Issues Through a Human Rights Lens
Organizational Change / The irony at this Forum is that so much of the conversation is about abuses in company supply chains, often far outside company walls. However, race discrimination is also close to home — taking place every day within the companies themselves. - 2 years ago
UN Business and Human Rights Forum, Day 2: What’s New in Mandatory Human Rights ’Due Diligence’ Law?
Supply Chain / Companies are obliged to monitor and manage environmental and human rights standards in their supply chains. This week saw major steps forward in support for enforcing human rights due diligence by law, as well as major debates in shaping the new laws. Here are my 10 takeaways from the debates. - 2 years ago
UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, Day 1: ‘The Most Vulnerable Are Always in Your Supply Chain’
Supply Chain / What links the two major themes to emerge from the day — COVID and climate — is the need for companies to take steps to assist vulnerable people in supply chains, and to ensure their needs are always taken into account. - 2 years ago
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How Business Can Avoid Fuelling Conflict and Work to Build Peace
Walking the Talk / On the third and final day at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, it was clear all businesses are being asked to address a fourth ‘p’ — peace. As well as helping to prevent conflict, companies are increasingly taking responsibility for sustaining peace. - 3 years ago
Anti-Corruption, Respect for Human Rights Are Part of One Holistic Business Challenge
Walking the Talk / What Legal Counsels and Chief Compliance Officers have to learn from sustainability and human rights experts is that this can never be a question of compliance alone. - 3 years ago
How Can Sustainability Professionals Uphold Mandatory Rules on Human Rights?
Supply Chain / While we’ve seen steady if uncertain progress on human rights — and more from business than from governments — there are dangers if the message heard by business is one of complacency. - 3 years ago
Global Leaders Convene to Identify Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Address the SDGs
Collaboration / Sustainability is at risk. And whilst the risks that go beyond climate change may be less well-understood, they are just as pressing. That was the message at the first meeting of the European Union’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 10 January in Brussels. - 5 years ago
Richard Howitt on a Sustainability-Inclusive IIRC: I'm Up for the Challenge!
New Metrics / This post is a response to a challenge posed earlier this year to new IIRC Chief Executive Richard Howitt by Dr. Mark W. McElroy and Martin P. Thomas, co-authors of The Multicapital Scorecard (2016). The goal to make Integrated Reporting the global norm in corporate reporting is indeed at a breakthrough moment. - 5 years ago
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