Corporations are increasingly becoming central actors to ensure environmental and social protection in their global supply chains. The adoption of codes of conduct, setting minimum labour standards applicable to supply chain workers, show corporate commitment to address labour risks. However, critics around 'window-dressing' and 'greenwashing' question whether these commitments translate into actions in corporate practices. Sarah Vandenbroucke, a visiting PhD researcher from Leiden University, will present her paper 'Walking the talk? Corporate Commitments VS. Actions in Global Supply Chain Labor Standards.' In this empirical paper, Vandenbroucke analyzes the content of 810 corporate codes of conduct, to assess how companies commit to setting labour standards and implement them. She then compares textual content of codes of conduct with an evaluation of corporate practices from Know the Chain, to assess the gap between written commitments and corporate actions. Her novel studies give new insights and data on corporate self-regulation and their impact – a hot topic in a developing legal landscape.
Gustavo Becker will participate in this event as a discussant. Becker is a joint PhD researcher at University of Luxembourg and the University of Amsterdam, and a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law.