“Will corporate human rights reports become the norm?”, 28 Jul 2015

…[L]arge multinational companies are now in the early stages of implementing what is considered the most clear-cut and comprehensive methodology to align their operations with the universal principles on business and human rights adopted by the United Nations…Unilever and Ericsson are two of the six “early adopter” companies that have pledged to report on their human rights issues using the framework. The list also includes Dutch bank ABN Amro, Swiss food group Nestlé, Swedish clothing label H&M and American mining firm Newmont…While the reporting framework’s layout is relatively straightforward - asking companies to answer eight overarching and 23 supporting questions - …[t]he means to compile…answers, however, can be quite busy and complex…[Ed Potter, Coca-Cola’s former director of global workplace rights noted that the] process for a thorough answer often requires synchrony across the whole matrix of an organization, from procurement teams to legal and environmental ones…The UNGP Reporting Framework…has the support of a coalition of over 80 institutional investors with roughly $4.25 trillion of assets under management…As to when UNGP framework reporting becomes the norm among large multinationals themselves, “I would put it at a 5-10 year range,” Potter said.