Blog

The world of sustainability reporting after COVID-19 will be very different than the world that preceded it. What should change?

More than any crisis in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the urgency of creating more resilient businesses and economies.

Earlier today, Facebook published an executive summary of a human rights impact assessment that BSR conducted on behalf of Facebook in Cambodia and its response to those recommendations. We welcome this disclosure as part of Facebook’s increasingly strategic approach to human rights due diligence.

A list of external resources on sustainability, ESG, and CSR for companies and stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis.

Whether it’s a pandemic or climate-related impact, those with the least, and those faced with the most extreme socioeconomic barriers, will suffer the most. The impacts that these populations face have the potential to disrupt business, from operations and supply chains down to the vital communities on which business depends.

BSR has observed several trends emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and compared them with best practices on reporting. We are sharing these insights here to assist company sustainability teams as they strive to keep stakeholders informed—despite, in many cases, the reality of limited time and diminished resources.

The global coronavirus pandemic is bringing the connection between climate and public health into focus. In recognition of Earth Day, Levi Strauss & Co. interviewed experts at the nexus of climate and public health to better understand the links and what needs to be done.

One of the most important topics in corporate sustainability is the dramatic increase in attention by investors on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. How will the rise of COVID-19 affect ESG investing strategies both in the short term and the long term, and what does it mean for companies?

The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly transformed from a global health crisis into a financial crisis, particularly for low-income female workers in global supply chains. However, companies can effectively deploy preventative measures to support workers and workplaces to protect their health and strengthen their financial resilience.

As we move through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, Merck's Cathryn Gunther offers her thoughts on consequential gifts that might materialize from the crisis, and the role companies can play in making them a reality.

BSR and Polecat analyze the top ESG issues and sectors arising in global discourse about COVID-19 over the last fortnight.

COVID-19 will take an increased toll on those groups who were marginalized, vulnerable, and excluded before the pandemic hit, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) people. For LGBTIQ+ people who have experienced a lifetime of discrimination, especially in places with deep poverty, tenuous healthcare delivery systems, and fragile government infrastructure, the sober truth is that this global emergency presents immediate unimaginable challenges.

In the wake of COVID-19, we are calling for business to “meet the moment and build the future.” In doing so, resilient business strategies will be fundamentally important to business success as well as economic and social recovery.

It’s still too early to know the full human and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But eventually, we will need to begin to ponder the question: how will we rebuild once the crisis has passed? What can sustainability teams in companies expect?

Last year, BSR launched an effort calling for a modernized social contract for the 21st century. We’re now inviting all our member companies and partners interested in seizing this moment to modernize the social contract to get in touch and co-create a plan of action.