CSRD Awards 2025: Best stakeholder & human rights disclosures announced

The results are in for the third category, and three companies have been recognised for their leadership efforts.

L’Oreal has won the award for the best stakeholder & human rights disclosures in REP’s CSRD Awards 2025.  

The company’s latest sustainability statement came in first in a shortlist that also included ISS and Repsol. 

The panel of judges comprised:  

• James Corah, head of sustainability at UK-based asset manager CCLA, which runs money for charities, religious bodies and the public sector. 
• Heidi Hautala, former member and vice-president of European Parliament, who now sits on the board of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and advises the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights; and 
• John Morrison, the CEO of the Institute for Human Rights & Business, and a commissioner for the Mining 2030 Commission. 

As well as possessing considerable expertise on corporate-related human rights and social issues, the trio represent the financial and civil society audiences CSRD reporting is intended to inform.   

Their comments have been anonymised, because some of the judges are not permitted to opine publicly on individual companies.   

L’Oreal 

L’Oreal’s winning report was commended for its “engaging structure” and the strength of its governance on human rights.   

One judge praised the “comprehensiveness” of its due diligence system, while another noted its “clear processes for risk identification, supplier and operational audits, the use of grievance mechanisms, the implementation of corrective actions, ongoing monitoring, and transparent reporting.”  

The judges also liked L’Oreal’s granularity, with one highlighting the value of its detailed disclosures on the work it does with suppliers in countries including Turkey, Egypt and Malaysia around paying a living wage. 

Another appreciated the inclusion of information about engaging with its stakeholders within its Double Materiality Assessment, saying it gave “credibility to the claim by the company that it pays high importance to continuous interaction with stakeholders”. 

Notably, though, one judge felt L’Oreal’s human rights reporting may have been “a little too constrained by ESRS”, resulting in a lack of information on the resolution of grievances, the role of recruitment agencies in seasonal workers, the ‘Just Transition’, and violence against women.  

ISS 

Danish cleaning, food and facilities specialist, ISS, was praised for the quality of storytelling around its recent efforts on living wage. 

One of the judges thought its sustainability statement was the strongest of the three shortlisted companies, because it was most effective at anchoring “CSRD reporting in the real world” and offered “concrete examples of outcomes and impacts, and not just processes or procedures”.  

“The central challenge for CSRD over the years ahead is to show its real-world value, and the ISS report does this best,” they added.   

However, there was room for improvement, with one judge suggesting ISS’ focus on social sustainability may have come at the expense of disclosures on human rights due diligence.  

“Unlike Repsol and L’Oréal, ISS does not present a clear, standalone human rights policy section, which makes its approach appear less structured in this regard,” they wrote.   

Repsol 

Repsol’s reporting was recognised for its comprehensiveness.   

“It is more technical than ISS, but not as much as L’Oreal; it is more outcome and impact focused than L’Oreal, but not as much as ISS,” said one judge. 

Another commended the Spanish energy firm for backing up disclosures about its grievance mechanisms with evidence of how they were actually used, and praised its commitment to international standards.   

“I note that Repsol has established a dedicated Human Rights and Community Relations Policy that is directly aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, demonstrating a clear commitment to international standards,” they wrote. 

However, our judges questioned Repsol’s claim that its operations were not exposed to risks from forced labour.    

Real Economy Progress would like to congratulate all three companies for being shortlisted, and thank them for providing best practice examples for other firms around the world to follow.  

We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our judges for lending their expertise to this process, and truly engaging with the content and aims of these reports.  

And finally, thanks to all the regulators, consultants, lawyers, journalists, NGOs and companies who submitted nominations to this year’s CSRD Awards.  

Important notes  

The judges were chosen as topic experts, and their decisions do not represent the views of their employers.  

The awards are a celebration of best practice disclosure, not sustainability performance, and the outcome should not be seen as an endorsement of any company – either by the judges, their organisations, or Real Economy Progress. 

The category shortlists were compiled by Real Economy Progress journalists from public nominations. The judges were then asked to decide, individually, which ones were most effective in helping them understand the relevant risks, impacts and opportunities of the business.