Cultivating CSR bureaucracy instead of investing

Synopsis

His argument is that the new supply chain laws in Switzerland and the EU will not be of any real help in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals if they only lead to more bureaucracy for Europe's SMEs and less inclusive development in the South. A self-critical debate would be overdue, but probably also uncomfortable ...

Introduction by NZZ am Sonntag

"Corporate responsibility" (CSR) is the buzzword of the day. This sounds reasonable at first, but paradoxically often collides with the UN's sustainability goals.

Large international companies are currently preparing for the forthcoming tightening of laws on corporate responsibility and sustainability in the EU. In the future, these laws will oblige them to prove, through reporting in the corporate governance, environmental and social areas, that their supply chain is in line with the climate goals and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In Switzerland, the indirect counter-proposal to the corporate responsibility initiative ("Konzernverantwortungsinitiative"), which was rejected in November 2020, goes less far than the planned EU directive, but both actually pursue the same goal: multinational corporations should be held accountable if they simply ignore human rights violations elsewhere and destroy the environment.