Business domain
Stakeholder Engagement
This is about engaging meaningfully with people affected by a company’s climate transition, collaborating with wider stakeholders to address shared challenges, and engaging in policy advocacy that supports a people-centered transition.
Consistent with the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, meaningful engagement with affected stakeholders should inform how companies identify and address impacts on people throughout the design and implementation of their transition plans. This includes ensuring effective grievance mechanisms are in place and accessible, so that concerns and impacts can be raised and addressed. Collaboration with wider stakeholders, such as peers, industry bodies and civil society organizations, can help tackle systemic challenges related to a people-centered transition that companies cannot address alone, while responsible and transparent policy advocacy can help advance the policy and regulatory conditions needed for a just transition.
Key questions to ask
- Has the company identified stakeholders which are potentially affected by its climate-related plans?
- How has engagement with affected stakeholders influenced company strategy and action?
- Has the company engaged collaboratively with external organizations to drive a just transition?
- Does the company's policy advocacy support a just transition?
A practical pathway to greater maturity
Engagement with affected stakeholders
Beginning
- The company has identified where their climate action and inaction may affect stakeholders in at least one area.
- Tools and approaches to gather feedback from workers and other potentially affected stakeholders are mapped.
Developing
- The company has identified potentially affected stakeholders (workforce, community, value chain, end users) across priority areas of the company's climate strategy and meaningful engagement has been undertaken on at least one aspect of its climate-related plans.
Established
- The company has ongoing proactive engagement mechanisms with workers and other potentially affected stakeholders impacted by multiple aspects of its climate plans, including effective grievance mechanisms. For these aspects, the company uses feedback from these mechanisms and processes to inform its climate plans and implementation.
Leading
- The company engages meaningfully and systematically with affected stakeholders on all relevant aspects of its climate plans and uses the feedback, including from grievance processes, to inform changes to its climate planning and implementation.
Collaboration and engagement with wider stakeholders
Beginning
- The company has identified key stakeholders such as suppliers, peers, partners and others in civil society, investors and governments for making progress towards respecting human rights in its climate planning.
Developing
- The company has established external collaboration and capacity-building activities with identified key stakeholders to support management of priority people-related impacts associated with climate-related plans and activities.
- The company has assessed business groups, trade associations and other industry bodies for alignment with promoting a “just transition”.
Established
- The company collaborates with peers, partners and other actors to address salient human rights issues related to their climate planning such as by sharing data, trialling new approaches and facilitating involvement of other tiers in the supply chain.
- The company has developed a strategy for public policy engagement and is undertaking advocacy to support respect for human rights related to their climate strategy.
Leading
- The company is going beyond addressing issues in its own value chain by actively driving collaborative initiatives aimed at systemic change to address salient human rights and climate issues relevant to its sector or geography.
- The company is undertaking advocacy to support a “just transition” including by transparently communicating its policy positions and not lobbying for outcomes that are misaligned with a “just transition”.
Policy advocacy
Beginning
- Not applicable
Developing
- The company has assessed business groups, trade associations and other industry bodies for alignment with promoting a “just transition”.
Established
- The company has developed a strategy for public policy engagement and is undertaking advocacy to support respect for human rights related to their climate strategy.
Leading
- The company is undertaking advocacy to support a “just transition” including by transparently communicating its policy positions and not lobbying for outcomes that are misaligned with a “just transition”.
