This benchmark series assesses the world’s most influential companies on their human rights, decent work and ethical conduct practices. It provides a comparative view of corporate social performance, supporting stakeholders to understand progress, identify gaps and inform actions that contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable global economy.

This report investigates labour conditions on cotton farms in Madhya Pradesh, identifying child labour, forced labour indicators, and wage issues. It traces links to supplier and buyer supply chains and urges strengthened due diligence, remediation, and improved traceability to reduce risks and support more ethical cotton sourcing.

Transparentem is a non-profit organisation that investigates human-rights and environmental abuses — including child labour, forced labour and pollution — across global supply chains. Through detailed field investigations, supply-chain mapping, and engagement with companies, Transparentem pushes for remediation and systemic industry change to ensure fair working conditions and environmental justice.

The report analyses how critical minerals sourced in the Uyghur Region—titanium, lithium, beryllium and magnesium—are linked to state-imposed forced labour. It identifies companies involved, downstream exposure risks, and implications for global supply chains, underscoring the need for stronger due diligence and avoidance of forced-labour-tainted inputs.

This report examines how ChatGPT can expose teenagers to harmful content, including self-harm, disordered eating and substance abuse guidance. Researchers posing as 13-year-olds found safeguards were easily bypassed, with over half of tested prompts generating unsafe outputs. The report calls for stronger age controls, transparency, and safety enforcement.

This report outlines a blueprint for responsible banking, detailing how banks can embed climate, nature, human rights, and inclusive economy considerations into strategy, governance, client engagement, capital allocation and disclosure. It provides guidance on setting and implementing targets to align portfolios and practices with global sustainability frameworks.

The report examines rising global food insecurity, driven by conflict, climate impacts, inflation, and supply disruptions. It outlines the economic and social consequences, highlights regional vulnerabilities, and assesses future risks. It also presents social, technological, financial, and geopolitical actions needed to strengthen food system resilience.

Australia’s fossil-fuel-exposed regions are assessed across seven dimensions of adaptive capacity, showing common weaknesses in economic diversity, social capital and service access. The report outlines region-specific strengths and proposes tailored, place-based transition planning to support diversification and community resilience through the net zero shift.

This article dives into an analysis of over 12,000 YouTube videos and finds that while outright climate-change denial is dropping, content undermining climate solutions and trust in scientists is rising sharply. It also highlights concerns over YouTube’s ad policies, which still allow monetisation alongside videos that downplay impacts or spread misleading claims about climate policy.

Climate denial on YouTube has shifted from rejecting global heating to undermining climate impacts, solutions, and science. New Denial now represents most claims, while Old Denial has declined. The report highlights platform monetisation of such content and calls for updated policies and stronger action to address evolving misinformation.

This report analyses how cities can decarbonise buildings by mapping the interdependencies between policy and financial instruments and the barriers they address. It highlights priority actions for cooling, embodied carbon, adaptation and a just transition, outlining pathways that help cities sequence measures to accelerate net zero building outcomes.

This case study explores how Access Bank integrates the UN Principles for Responsible Banking into its operations, advancing green finance, financial inclusion, and gender equality. It highlights the bank’s green bond issuances, ESG frameworks, and stakeholder engagement, offering investors insight into sustainable finance practices within emerging markets.

Equileap is a global leader in workplace equality research offering a comprehensive database of over 6,000 companies’ gender, race/ethnicity and LGBTQ+ diversity metrics. It supports asset managers and pension funds in integrating equality into investment decisions and building sustainable portfolios aligned with social-impact and ESG criteria.

This article explores the growing interest in deep-sea mining as a source of critical minerals for clean technologies, detailing how it works, its potential economic benefits, and the significant ecological and governance risks it poses. It also examines ongoing international regulatory disputes and alternative solutions such as recycling and circular mineral economies.

The report, Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK (April 2024), quantifies how biodiversity loss and environmental degradation could materially affect the UK economy and finance sector. It finds nature-related risks—especially from water scarcity, soil decline, and biodiversity loss—could reduce GDP by up to 12% by the 2030s, exceeding impacts from the Global Financial Crisis or COVID-19.

Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at University of Oxford conducts interdisciplinary research on climate change, ecosystems, energy systems, food and water security, and sustainable governance. Established in 1991, ECI collaborates with governments, business and communities to inform policy and training in environmental leadership.