EU in push to enhance corporate sustainability

Last year, the European Commission proposed a Corporate Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) as a legislative framework to oblige companies to demonstrate what actions they are taking to protect the environment and human rights.  

Bartosz Kwiatkowski, director of the Frank Bold Foundation in Poland.

Photo: Danuta Isler/Radio Poland

If adopted, the CSDDD would introduce requirements for companies to identify and prevent, end or mitigate the impacts of their activities on the environment and on human rights abuses. It would also oblige them to conduct due diligence on their own operations.

"Due diligence is not a new concept," Bartosz Kwiatkowski, director of the Polish chapter of Frank Bold, an NGO specializing in environmental law, told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler. "It was introduced in 2012 in the UN Guidelines for Business and Human Rights."

He added: "It is also a part of the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises. Unfortunately, Polish companies are not really aware of these guidelines."

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