Frankly Speaking - A Podcast on Responsible Business Frank Bold

This week in Frankly Speaking, we put the spotlight on a new report produced by the OECD and analysing the state of corporate sustainability reporting in the world. 

To discuss it, we welcome Caio de Oliveira, policy analyst at the OECD, who's had major responsibility in producing the report and who leads the sustainability work streams at the OECD on behalf of the Corporate Governance Committee and the Financial Markets Committee at the organisation. Caio has previously worked for the Brazilian government's Economic Ministry and for the country's Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM).

Richard and Caio address: 


The findings of the OECD’s Global Corporate Sustainability 2024 report


How much and to what degree is sustainability reporting going on by companies


The high levels of reporting of scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions compared to low levels of scope 3 indirect emissions reporting



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Many of us know that dependence of developing countries on raw commodities leaves them vulnerable to price volatility and sees profit made in countries where the commodity is imported and then processed, rather than where it is produced. It's often farmers in those developing countries who are at the end of the line. That problem has been specifically highlighted in the cocoa sector this year.

Today in the podcast we look at where cocoa prices have gone parabolic, rising from just over 2,000 USD a tonne in 2022 to over $10,000 a tonne in 2024. It’s seen not just companies and farmers in producer companies suffer, but major chocolate companies in the global North, which have seen costs multiply and their share prices plummet by up to a third.

To discuss what's happening here, our guest is Antonie Fountain, managing director of the Voice Network, watchdog and catalyst for a reformed cocoa sector. Antonie is also the co-author of the Cocoa Barometer, the biennial review of sustainability in Cocoa.

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In this new Frankly Speaking episode, we explore the question of human rights due diligence by companies by asking what should go in the contract. Due diligence approaches have been criticized as simply using contractual clauses to pass off risk and responsibility down the supply chain.

To address how this can be avoided and to discuss what should and shouldn’t be in the contract, Richard Howitt welcomes Professor Sarah Dadush, writer and teacher in business and human rights at Rutgers Law School in the United States. She is the founding director of the Responsible Contracting Project, the mission of which is to improve human rights in global supply chains through innovative contracting practices. Check out Responsible Contracting Project's website to access all their tools.


Together, they discuss the concept of "shared responsibility" and:


For companies committed to responsible business conduct, how should they contract with suppliers? What should and should not be written down in contracts?
How to avoid a culture of excessive litigation in corporate responsibility
The importance of transparency in supporting responsible contracting
How this all fits into human rights due diligence legislation such as the upcoming CSDDD.


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In this Frankly Speaking episode, we explore how companies should undertake a materiality assessment when they tackle their sustainability report. The concept of materiality is derived from financial accounting in business and human rights, and very simply asks the question: does this information matter?

To guide us, we welcome back ⁠Filip Gregor⁠, head of ⁠Frank Bold’s Responsible Companies section⁠ and member of EFRAG’s Sustainability Reporting Board, which draws up and recommends the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

Richard and Filip discuss:


How materiality is done in the ESRS and what does double materiality mean


How companies should start to think about assessing and measuring impact materiality




The logic behind the "traffic light" system for risk assessment in ⁠EFRAG's draft guidance on Materiality Assessment⁠


Filip’s advice to companies that want to better understand financial materiality


What is the role of the stakeholder in relation to the materiality question



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In this episode, Frankly Speaking explores the new climate disclosure rules just agreed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States and asks what are the implications both in the US and worldwide.

To answer those questions, Richard Howitt welcomes Tracey Rembert, Associate Director, Climate Change and Environmental Justice at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), and Alexandra Wright-Gladstein, founder and CEO of the climate-friendly investment fund Sphere.

Together they discuss:


If the SEC’s rules are a major advance in business sustainability or too big compromise


What are the positives of the new rules and potential challenges ahead


Whether companies are going to get on and start preparing to do this now?


If the ESG backlash is going to carry on unabated or does this decision change it in some way


Their advice to investors and companies to start preparing for these new rules



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In this new Frankly Speaking episode, Richard Howitt and his guests ask what is really happening in Europe's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the proposed law on how companies identify, prevent and remedy human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains.

Given political agreement by EU governments and members of the European Parliament before Christmas 2023, some governments undertook a volte face and indicated they would not support the law at the final administrative stage, when it would normally be nodded through without even discussion. 

To guide us on why this is happening and what will happen now, Richard is joined by Andreas Rasche, professor of Business in Society at Copenhagen Business School and author of the book Corporate Sustainability, and Julia Otten, Senior Policy Officer at Frank Bold and lead on the Responsible Companies’ work on Corporate Due Diligence.

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