The REP Wrap: Aus and Canada review due diligence rules
Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.
The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched a survey to help its Sustainability Disclosure Technical Advisory Committee respond to planned updates to the SASB standards. The survey is open until August 29th, after which the committee will provide its views on the proposals. The FRC is holding an online roundtable on the proposals on September 2nd, which you can register for by email.
Public Safety Canada has launched a survey to help it understand how the second year of reporting under its national supply chain due diligence law, which is focused on forced labour and child labour, has gone. It focuses on how burdensome the law is, and what additional support or guidance is needed. The survey contains 10 questions and is open until August 20th.
Australia is consulting on potential amendments to its Modern Slavery Act following a review of the first three years of the law, which requires large companies to outline how they’ve assessed and tackled modern slavery in their supply chains each year. That review resulted in a raft of recommendations to improve the rules, and the department of the attorney general is seeking feedback until September 1st.
The European Central Bank will consider “climate-related transition risks” when it values the corporate bonds that banks offer as collateral in return for ECB loans. Essentially, it means the ECB will lend less money against polluting companies, which may make debt from those companies less attractive to Europe’s financial institutions.
Rare has launched a library of information about which sustainability terms and messages are most effective in different countries. The non-profit has profiles to help communicators working in the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, India, Japan and Mexico.
Google has launched an AI model using Earth observation data, which it says will help researchers and governments analyse environmental and climate risks. AlphaEarth can be used to create maps for urban, energy and agricultural expansion.
The Italian Competition Authority has fined Georgio Armani €3.5m for allegedly issuing “misleading ethical and social responsibility statements in contrast with the actual working conditions found at suppliers and subcontractors”. The fashion giant denied the accusations, and said it would appeal the decision.