Update on the Corporate Human Rights Benchark - November 2016

The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) is happy to announce that the results of the CHRB Pilot Benchmark 2016 will be published on the 13th March 2017.

The 2016 Pilot Benchmark will rank the top 100 companies in the agricultural products, apparel, and extractive industries using a rigorous methodology, developed over two years and in consultation with over 400 companies, industry associations, investors, governments, civil society representatives, academics and lawyers.

APG Asset Management joins the CHRB Steering Committee

APG Asset Management (APG) has joined the CHRB Steering Committee. APG, entrusted to invest EUR443 billion (August 2016) for several pension funds in the Netherlands, considers environmental, social and governance factors an integral part of their investment process. Anna Pot, Manager of Responsible Investment & Governance, represents APG on the CHRB Steering Committee: “In order to make informed investment decisions, APG requires sound, company-specific research measuring performance on important areas like respect for human rights. CHRB will make relevant research on human rights performance more visible and useful to investors by making it comparable across companies.” She adds, “As a long-term investor, we are committed to working with the companies we invest in. The benchmarking results will be a credible tool for our conversations with our portfolio companies and encouraging boards to further disclose material information on their company’s human rights performance.”

The CHRB Steering Committee currently has 8 members: Aviva Investors, Calvert Investments, Nordea Wealth Management, APG Asset Management, The Institute for Human Rights and Business, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, VDBO and Eiris Foundation.

Investor Coalition

The investor coalition supporting the CHRB has grown to include 85 investors representing $5.3 trillion assets under management. Their statement of support is here. The investor coalition aims to continue to grow in the future. New signatories are invited to join the coalition through this website.

Research

Since launching the CHRB Pilot Benchmark in March 2016, we have been very busy. Following the end of initial disclosure period in May 2016, research began on the 106 selected companies. We were pleased with level of the information found in companies’ own documentation and websites as well as the level of disclosure that companies provided through the CHRB disclosure platform. These expansive disclosures led us to extend the research phase to October 2016.

Company Engagement

We are currently engaging with companies selected for the CHRB Pilot Benchmark on their draft company assessments. This is an opportunity for companies to review their profile, discuss and clarify any issues with us and provide additional information that they would like us to review. The engagement phase will end on the 2nd December 2016.