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People
Dian Grobler
As Director of People and Culture, Dian leads BSR’s global human resources (HR) strategy, including talent acquisition, learning and development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He partners with senior leadership to foster an inclusive culture, ensuring employees thrive and advance BSR’s mission for a just and sustainable world. Dian also…
People
Dian Grobler
Preview
As Director of People and Culture, Dian leads BSR’s global human resources (HR) strategy, including talent acquisition, learning and development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He partners with senior leadership to foster an inclusive culture, ensuring employees thrive and advance BSR’s mission for a just and sustainable world. Dian also strategically manages workforce initiatives to ensure the organization consistently attracts, develops, and retains skilled professionals aligned with BSR’s long-term objectives.
Dian is a seasoned HR leader with extensive experience in multinational consulting and technology organizations. Specializing in the fields of people management, HR, and leadership development, he has successfully led ambitious people and culture projects across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; North America; and the Asia-Pacific region. Dian believes strongly that people management is integral to creating high-performing teams and providing service excellence to member companies.
Dian holds a B.A. degree in Human Resources, a B.A. Honors degree in Industrial Psychology, and a B.Psych degree in Psychometrics at the University of the Free State. Dian was awarded the HP Langenhoven and PPS prizes for outstanding academic merit for Industrial Psychology and Psychometrics respectively. Dian also holds a M.B.A. degree from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.
Reports | Tuesday April 15, 2025
Building Financial Resilience of Women Workers in the Shea Industry
Aimed at actors operating in the shea supply chain, BSR’s new toolkit provides resources to amplify financial resilience of women workers.
Reports | Tuesday April 15, 2025
Building Financial Resilience of Women Workers in the Shea Industry
Preview
Women involved in shea collection and production face numerous challenges that limit their economic opportunities and stability—many have limited access to resources and training to enhance productivity and income, all the while having to balance unpaid work and household care. Earnings from collecting and processing shea nuts are seasonal, which can pose a challenge for financial stability. Therefore, financial resilience is key for empowering women workers in this industry.
With the support of the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, BSR developed, piloted, and scaled a bespoke financial resilience training program to reach and empower women in shea cooperatives in Ghana. The program reached approximately 8,000 women shea nut collectors and processors and resulted in positive changes both for these women and their communities.
Notable changes include improved income management and savings, additional access to income generation opportunities, increased self-confidence, and shifts in community and family attitudes, factors that can contribute to an improvement in women’s living standards. The program demonstrates the value of investing in women workers, which not only contributes to improving their livelihoods but also builds increased supply chain resilience for buyers and partners, as demonstrated in the learnings report and toolkit presentation published here.
Following the implementation of this program, BSR launched a toolkit for organizations interested in replicating the trainings. We strongly encourage buyers, suppliers, and NGOs operating in the shea sector to use these resources to amplify financial resilience of women workers. The toolkit includes:
- Learnings Report - Read this report to learn more about the program’s background, successes, and impacts
- Toolkit Presentation - This resource walks you through how to replicate the financial resilience program, including a description of all the resources needed, as well as how and when to use them.
- Training Resources (ZIP file, 140MB) - This folder contains all of the resources you will need to coordinate and deliver the trainings from end-to-end, including the implementation guide, the financial resilience curriculum, the kick-off deck, the assessment surveys, and the radio episodes.
- Social Media Guide - This resource provides guidance on communicating about the program outcomes and impacts on social media platforms.
Blog | Thursday April 10, 2025
Meeting the Moment Together: BSR’s Partnership with You
In a period of staggering global uncertainty, Aron Cramer discusses how BSR plans to meet this moment together with member companies.
Blog | Thursday April 10, 2025
Meeting the Moment Together: BSR’s Partnership with You
Preview
I write to you, BSR members and community, in a period of staggering global uncertainty.
Many of the tenets undergirding the global economic and geopolitical order are facing historic upheaval, with the impacts being felt by all of you, the companies and organizations in which you work, as well as the communities in which you operate and live. Those of us working in sustainable business have long known that the future would bring big changes. Yet, we are now living through a time when the present is also uncertain, and in turn, our ability to see and shape the future remains equally unclear.
The foundational changes reshaping our world affect the entire sustainable business ecosystem, and the business context in general. Simply put, what has been a relatively stable international environment now faces geopolitical conflict, trade uncertainties, regulatory changes, and sudden changes in national policy priorities.
In addition, we are seeing concerted and sometimes spurious attacks on the very legitimacy of climate action, inclusive businesses as a source of economic dynamism, and the protection of fundamental rights. All this is happening when climate change continues to accelerate, new technologies are reshaping every aspect of society, and the economy is not working for many. This presents profound challenges to our shared efforts to create resilient businesses that generate opportunities for all people to thrive and make wise use of natural resources.
We are determined to continue to pursue our mission and our work, even as we adapt to this moment. Since BSR was founded in 1992, we have seen terminology come and go, regulations and standards evolve, markets move up and down, many new technologies, and also changing political winds. We have seen exciting advances, and periods of pushback.
BSR has persevered, grown, and adapted through it all, and I am confident that our core principles—which you share—remain as relevant to business success and economic and social progress as ever.
We are here for you. In BSR, you have a steadfast and trusted partner when you need us, offering a wide variety of tools, resources, and opportunities to connect with your peers, all while staying prepared for what lies ahead.
Meeting the Moment
Through our team of nearly 200 people, our more than 300 member companies, and dozens of partners around the world, BSR is meeting this moment in several ways.
- Our partnership with you: Our member companies are at the heart of BSR. We know you are navigating a complex array of challenges in advancing sustainable business. You may be facing increased pushback from colleagues and other internal stakeholders who are questioning the value of your work, and an external environment changing at a dizzying pace. We are here for you. In BSR, you have a steadfast and trusted partner when you need us, with a wide variety of tools and resources to help you address these issues, while being prepared for what’s around the corner. Don’t hesitate to call us.
- Understanding the changing policy and regulatory environment: Our team is here to help you make sense of the rapid, volatile, and evolving regulatory context for sustainable business. We are tracking developments on key frameworks in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. We also are tapping into legal and other expertise outside BSR, and we are creating multiple spaces—virtual and in person—for you to discuss this changing context with other BSR members. While BSR does not provide legal or compliance advice, our team brings considerable expertise based not only in their time at BSR, but in their prior roles in the worlds of law, policy, standard setting, and international agencies.
- Developing strategic foresight: The intense changes in the present, in our view, reinforce the need to see past current developments and understand and design resilient futures. Our Sustainable Futures Lab considers long-term trends and scenarios and indeed anticipated many of the global challenges we now face. Given the degree of short-term volatility, our team is adding a focus on short-term, rapid simulations, helping companies prepare for how to handle contingencies and conflicts between their short-term circumstances and long-term business value and principles.
- Building powerful partnerships: BSR has recently enhanced our capabilities to serve members in partnership with other experts. For example, we increasingly work in collaboration with law firms to combine legal guidance (and protections) with sustainability strategy. We also partner with technical experts in areas such as nature and carbon.
- Reframing the sustainability narrative: We know that many of you are taking this opportunity to reframe the way sustainable business is understood and communicated. While some of this comes from a response to challenges, we also see an opportunity to underscore the business value of sustainability, and to communicate in ways that reach customers, employees, and the public in a more compelling way. We are in dialogue with many of you, as well as other partners and experts, to develop compelling narratives that break through in a challenging time, and to work with you to craft language that works in your company, in this time.
Staying True to Our Purpose
Even as we adapt how we support you and all our member companies; we are doubling down on the characteristics that make BSR unique and help us deliver impact.
- We are a mission-driven business organization: We remain dedicated to the same mission we have had since 1992: to work with business to create a just and sustainable world. We pursue this mission consistent with our principles and with attention to a wide range of stakeholders and a focus on real world impacts.
- We exist solely to support sustainable business leaders: We are here to support sustainable business leaders as they advance progress inside their companies. We work extensively with sustainability teams, and also with business functions and leaders in other areas. We recognize that different companies may take different pathways, and we support companies in ways that are true to their purpose, priorities, and culture.
- Our diversified organizational model creates multiple pathways for our members to achieve their goals. We operate a highly diversified organizational model crossing geographies, industries, and topics. We support you through member service, insights, one-on-one advice, collaborative initiatives, as well as projects we can support through foundation grants. This model has long been a source of resilience and diverse opportunities for companies to take full advantage of their relationship with BSR.
- We bring diverse expertise to our work with you: BSR serves you by leveraging our team, which brings a rich mix of experience—they are former in-house sustainability leads, management consultants, business unit and functional leaders, and lawyers. Our team also brings experience from civil society and the public sector, with expertise in human rights, climate and nature, inclusion, strategy, reporting, and many other areas. As our colleague Christine Diamente, former CSO at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia, notes, “I spent 20 years in the same seat as our members. I try to bring that experience to every conversation—helping sustainability leaders to navigate internal challenges and seize opportunities.”
The stakes for people and the environment grow larger and more urgent every day, and the companies that embrace the opportunity to maximize their positive impacts will generate success, resilience and trust. Some organizations may be pulling back, and while we are sympathetic to the pressures that many face, BSR isn’t going anywhere. We have always sought to be a leader in sustainable business and a trusted, honest partner to our members, and our work continues full force.
When COVID-19 erupted five years ago this month, I called out the need to “meet the moment and build the future.” This remains crucial. Our particular moment is delivering novel, significant challenges. We cannot underestimate them, and we must rise to the occasion. It is also up to us to build the future we all envision: one in which everyone can thrive, and we preserve the glorious and essential natural world. At a time when that future can seem distant; we cannot and will not retreat from the need to make it a reality.
Blog | Wednesday April 9, 2025
Integrity in a Permacrisis: Maintaining Sustainability and Human Rights Principles as Supply Chains Upend
Compounding crises have wreaked havoc on global supply chains and show no sign of letting up. BSR shares implications of these tariffs and recommendations on next steps for companies.
Blog | Wednesday April 9, 2025
Integrity in a Permacrisis: Maintaining Sustainability and Human Rights Principles as Supply Chains Upend
Preview
Updated on June 25, 2025 to highlight implications of recent U.S. trade policy changes on the energy, extractive, transportation, and industrial sectors.
Global supply chains offer plenty of opportunities for companies to innovate with their products, support local economies, and build lasting relationships across countries. However, amidst a confluence of COVID-19, wars, trade route disruption, reliance on fossil fuel-based energy, amplifying extreme weather events, aging infrastructure, social unrest, increased migration and backlash, and heightened areas of human rights impacts, we are now facing an era where supply chains are now in a permacrisis that’s growing more complex by the day.
On April 3, the U.S. Administration announced trade policy changes that will take effect in April and May 2025 with the potential to upend global supply chains. These measures involve:
- Broad tariffs on global imports to the U.S.
- The elimination of duty-free de minimis treatment for low-value exports from China and Hong Kong to the U.S.
Tariffs act as a tax on imported goods, raising the price for domestic buyers of foreign products as these become more expensive than locally produced alternatives. While it remains to be seen what will emerge from the negotiations process, other countries are beginning to respond to U.S. tariffs with their own retaliatory import tariffs on the U.S.
Implications for Companies and Sustainable Business
The tariffs announcement leaves global supply chains in a state of disarray, as companies rapidly prepare for reconfiguration of their supplier relationships. On the same day, the European Parliament voted in a landslide in favor of the stop-the-clock part of the Omnibus proposal. Together, these two announcements place significant pressure by driving up the cost of doing business while reducing the incentives for companies to operate responsibly.
Some of the envisioned implications for sustainable business are:
- Growing supply chain uncertainty as companies are not clear on import costs nor which countries or commodities may be targeted.
- A possibility of cascading protectionist policies in economies around the world, leading to increased cost of living and affecting the most vulnerable populations the most.
- Greater inefficiencies in supply chain and sourcing as companies may need to change import markets, which may be farther away. This is expected to impact the overall cost, delivery times, product availability in stores and credit lines, as well as sustainability initiatives, such as efforts to reduce environmental impacts of purchasing practices (e.g., incurring a higher carbon footprint from longer distances).
- Threats to responsible sourcing programs, as companies may face tensions between the need to onboard new suppliers quickly while maintaining strong due diligence practices upfront.
- Responsible disengagement practices that consider implications on workers, as companies may need to reduce purchasing or terminate relationships with foreign suppliers if costs of goods become too high.
- Higher costs of production might threaten existing sustainability initiatives. As companies look to reduce costs, there may be reduced investment in living wages, a resort to cheaper and riskier migrant and child labor (especially with weakening child labor protections in certain states), or other labor-related issues that require capital expenditure.
- Changes in consumer spending as prices of goods change. In the short term, consumers may stop buying higher priced goods, which can result in food waste and impact company profits and sourcing strategies. In the long term, consumers may adopt more local purchasing, with potential positive impacts on sustainability.
- Increased use of and higher reliance on Artificial Intelligence.
Implications for Energy, Extractive, Transportation, and Industrial Sectors
Energy, extractive, transportation, and industrial (EETI) companies play a vital role in advancing sustainability efforts. However, due to their deep integration with global supply chains, EETI companies are particularly attuned to volatility in trade conditions.
For example, uncertainty around impending tariffs might disrupt critical sources like rare earth minerals, metals, and clean energy components, which are foundational to the energy transition and infrastructure development. Technologies like electric vehicles, batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels depend on a dramatic increase in the supply of critical minerals and streamlined transportation of these inputs.
This uncertainty and volatility will undoubtedly impact workers and the advancements that companies have made in integrating labor rights into their business models. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as supply chains were disrupted, some companies abruptly canceled orders with overseas suppliers, sometimes without compensation, even for goods already produced.
If export industries are hit hard by rising costs, it will create social and economic dislocations. This will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable workers in supply chains. Women workers, who have increasingly joined the formal work sector through export industries, are particularly at risk. Reduced trade flows that delay or derail projects can also jeopardize labor rights and human rights, as workers may face additional pressure to get products to market with unprecedented urgency.
Together, these sectors are essential for driving sustainable development, but they are also disproportionately exposed to geopolitical and economic fallout. Companies that have embedded sustainability into their core businesses will be more resilient to shocks and volatility that risk undercutting long-term sustainability goals.
Recommendations for Business
BSR urges companies to work closely with their suppliers in finding solutions to the increasing complexities, look at the existing relationships from a partnership perspective, continue conducting thorough due diligence, and practice responsible entry and exit. To build supply chain resilience, whilst minimizing negative impacts on sourcing communities in this upheaval, companies can:
- Gauge how your suppliers are affected. Develop contingency sourcing and sales strategies for at-risk commodities early, allowing sufficient time to incorporate sustainability considerations (e.g., responsible disengagement, appropriate due diligence processes, etc.) together with most trusted suppliers.
- Invest in a rapid supply chain and transportation channels mapping to evaluate reliance on imported commodities into the U.S. and identify primary regions of import.
- Understand reliance on replaceable versus non-replaceable commodities, particularly those imported from regions at risk of tariffs, and explore options for alternatives. Conduct rapid human rights due diligence to anticipate and management resulting implications for people.
- Follow OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in entering, modifying, and exiting existing relationships.
How BSR Can Support
- Responsible Disengagement: The BSR Human Rights team can assist in developing strategies for responsible disengagement from suppliers in circumstances where tariffs may lead to contract termination.
- Governance: We can provide guidance for your company on how to ensure governance structures are robust and incorporate consideration for impacts of tariffs on sustainability initiatives.
- Identify and Assess Human Rights Impacts: Identify and assess human rights impacts stemming from emerging landscape changes as part of a company's human rights due diligence process. BSR can support companies with rapid due diligence processes to inform complex sourcing decisions with human rights considerations. Using a modular approach to human rights assessments, we can support on everything from a high-level scan to a more intensive impact assessment involving extensive stakeholder engagement.
- Futures Scenarios: The BSR Futures team can help brainstorm different impacts of tariffs specific to your company.
- Navigating with Peers: We convene companies facing similar pressures in sourcing regions and markets to collectively digest implications and learn from each other's approaches.
In these turbulent times, navigating the complexities of global supply chains requires proactive collaboration, foresight, and a steadfast commitment to responsible practices. Contact us to learn more about how BSR’s team can support your company across the supply chain.
Blog | Tuesday April 8, 2025
Navigating Uncertainty: The Impact of U.S. Tariffs on Sustainable Business
The overall impacts of the U.S.‘s announced tariffs will almost certainly seriously impede sustainable business. Explore the potential consequences of the tariffs and how companies can respond effectively.
Blog | Tuesday April 8, 2025
Navigating Uncertainty: The Impact of U.S. Tariffs on Sustainable Business
Preview
Updated on June 25, 2025 to include the impacts of the U.S. tariffs on energy, extractive, transportation, and industrial companies.
Energy, extractive, transportation, and industrial (EETI) companies are critical to advancing sustainability around the world. Due to their deep integration with global supply chains, EETI companies are particularly attuned to volatility in trade conditions, such as the U.S.'s recent tariffs. This uncertainty and volatility will undoubtedly impact workers and the advancements that companies have made on integrating labor rights into their business models.
The United States’ announcement that it would be imposing tariffs on all nations will affect all aspects of global trade, most certainly including sustainable business.
There is widespread uncertainty about whether these tariffs are permanent, or rather an effort to force negotiations, or some unpredictable combination of the two. Given this, the impacts on sustainability are in some cases unclear, though some impacts can be predicted with a high degree of certainty. But while the predictability of individual impacts is unclear, the overall impacts are almost certainly a serious impediment to sustainable business.
Should the tariffs remain largely in place, impacts will likely include:
- Job losses in exporting countries where they are badly needed: Economic growth in countries like Vietnam and Cambodia are in large part a result of their increasingly important roles in global supply chains. Should their export industries be hit hard, it will create social and economic dislocations, which will disproportionately hurt women, who have been able to enter the formal work sector through export industries.
- Economic disruptions to materials needed to accelerate clean energy: Global trade, whether in minerals or components for the clean energy economy, will be sharply reduced by these tariffs. Many business leaders are now predicting a recession in the U.S., and a drag on economic activity globally. This would almost certainly raise the price of, and slow down, the energy transition.
- Reduced attention on labor and economic conditions in global supply chains: With global supply chains in turmoil, getting products to market through whatever means necessary could reduce the attention paid to ensuring that labor rights and other human rights are respected.
Even if the tariffs are largely or entirely reversed in short order, there will be lasting damage to the sustainable business agenda because we will see:
- Heightened geopolitical conflict: The tariff policy is resulting in yet more tension in the global system. In addition to the immediate threats and realities of countervailing tariffs from other countries, deepening divisions in the world mean that the global cooperation needed to advance core principles of sustainable business (Trans-Pacific Partnership, anyone?) is on life support. This will be on display at COP30, as well as in other fora.
- Diminished access to critical inputs: Energy, extractive, transportation, and industrial companies play a vital role in global sustainability efforts, but they are highly sensitive to trade volatility due to their deep ties to global supply chains. Disruptions like tariff uncertainty can threaten their access to critical inputs, such as rare earth minerals and clean energy components, which are essential for technologies like EVs, batteries, and solar panels.
- Managing volatility and uncertainty crowds out sustainability in the boardroom and C-suite: Simply put, the business agenda is full to bursting right now. Economic uncertainty, flagging consumer sentiment, and the rise of generative AI is straining both the bandwidth, and the budgets, which companies are able to deploy on sustainability. This is clearly short-sighted, and there is zero doubt that the urgency and importance of sustainability will reassert itself. But time, like money, is a finite resource, and for the time being, there are many demands on decision-makers.
- Declining support for rule of law and human rights: The U.S. has been an abiding—if imperfect—voice for rule of law and human rights in global trade. Its voice on these matters is now silent, if not discredited for a generation or more. Taking the world’s largest economy and voice out of this debate is deeply damaging for anyone interested in advancing an economy based on rules. Companies headquartered in the U.S. are also likely to face a loss of credibility on such matters.
These are all the ways that sustainability is challenged by tariffs. But, as Albert Einstein once said, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. This blow to the economic system reinforces the importance of resilience, and scenarios as a tool for navigating uncertainty.
The volatile economic impacts of the tariffs should remind all of us that the needs of people must always be central to the sustainable business agenda. Yes, the Trump administration is the proximate cause of this disruptive chapter in the global economy. But it is also important to pause and consider why so many in the public have lost faith in global free trade, creating the environment in which tariffs appeal to many. Large segments of the public long ago abandoned the idea that globalization will make their lives better. They see trade as decimating jobs and communities and heightening their vulnerability—turbocharged by technology—to forces beyond their control.
The business community has an important role to play in demonstrating—with actions, not only with words—that an integrated global economy is the best system for meeting the needs of the average person. Business should not only stand up for global trade, but it should also make sure it works better for more people. This means business support for a modernized and reliable safety net, advocacy for democracy and rule of law, and a plausible vision of employment in an age of AI. Short of that, large segments of the public will support trade barriers that run afoul of the system most companies believe in.
The impacts of tariffs on sustainable business are not easy to predict. The tariffs have introduced even more volatility into an economy facing substantial change. Business may not be able to persuade the American administration to reverse course. But it can take immediate steps to mitigate harms arising and refocus on creating business models, and an economic system, that has opened the door for political support for these tariffs—however misguided—in the first place.
Blog | Thursday April 3, 2025
Fintech: Managing Human Rights Risks to Maximize Social Benefits
Fintech is a booming industry that allows a secure, convenient, and accessible use of financial services, but its opportunities come with social and human rights risks that companies can address through a tailored approach aligned with the UNGPs.
Blog | Thursday April 3, 2025
Fintech: Managing Human Rights Risks to Maximize Social Benefits
Preview
Financial technology (“Fintech”) refers to technology that financial services companies use to make their products and services more secure and widely available. It has transformed a historically slow, high-barrier industry into a faster and more accessible global financial system through a range of innovations, from mobile applications and payment platforms to digital currency and specialized algorithms to analyze data and insurance risk. The industry exhibited an average growth rate of over 50 percent from 2020 to 2022, with projected strong global growth into the future.
In digitizing the financial services industry, one of fintech’s primary benefits has been increasing financial inclusion. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs advocated for digital financial solutions as a method for achieving financial inclusion under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given its potential to help eradicate poverty and foster gender equality and economic independence for women.
However, fintech opportunities also pose significant social and human rights risks, which can have negative impacts on people, as well as reputational, legal, and regulatory consequences for companies. In light of fintech’s rise and potential to affect billions of lives, it is critical that fintech companies, or fintechs, evaluate and address negative social and human rights implications associated with its deployment to maximize the societal and economic benefits offered by these new technologies.
Human Rights and Fintech: Key Issues
Discriminatory Products and Services
Fintech is often powered by AI-driven technologies, which can help determine the financial risk of lending to retail customers or small business owners. However, when AI algorithms are trained on historical or unverified data, it can lead to biased, discriminatory, or nonrepresentative outcomes for customers. Unless data integrity is proactively addressed, AI-driven financial models or predictions may become poisoned or corrupted, leading to unfair and harmful outcomes. This includes denying or offering products and services with unfair terms and rates, based on an individual’s race, sex, marital status, or other protected characteristic.
Examples of human rights implicated: Right to be free from discrimination and to enjoy equal rights regardless of nationality, place of residence, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status
Fraudulent or Misleading Marketing and Lending Practices
By expanding access to financial markets, fintechs are engaging new customers who may have lower financial literacy or are more vulnerable to fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive practices. Fintech marketing might promote easy access to capital due to its convenient and quick digital loan application processes, but it can come with hidden fees and exorbitant interest rates that perpetuate cycles of poverty and indebtedness. Without proper internal controls and regulatory oversight, fintech can cultivate an environment where bad actors can fleece and erode fintech’s benefits for customers, including “unbanked” and other people who are historically excluded from the formal financial system.
Examples of human rights implicated: Right to access information and freedom of expression; right to a decent standard of living
Data Breaches
A key element of fintech’s value proposition—the reliance on digital platforms, online applications, and cloud services—can actually increase fintechs’ exposure to cyber threats. Potential vulnerabilities in these tech solutions, combined with the nature and volume of customer data, make fintechs a prime target for cyber-attacks. Hackers can collect highly sensitive financial and other personal information and use this to exploit customers through identity theft, fraud, and other means. Without proper controls and oversight, fintech companies may facilitate the violation of customers’ privacy rights, which may even lead to catastrophic impacts on their financial health and overall well-being.
Examples of human rights implicated: Right to privacy, including protections from malicious and unauthorized use of personal data. Identity theft can also implicate a range of social, economic, cultural, civil, political, environmental, and labor rights.
Corruption, Trafficking, and Other Illicit Activities
Cryptocurrency and other fintech payment platforms with encryption features (typically employed by companies to protect user data) are at risk of being used for illicit transactions, perpetuating human rights risks associated with illegal acts, such as corruption, bribery, and human and other trafficking activities. While corruption and bribery have their own legal and regulatory ramifications, they also have grave social and human rights impacts, often by siphoning off resources from essential public goods and services. In addition, an estimated US$150 billion worldwide is exchanged each year to fund human trafficking activities—often through legitimate financial channels—enabling the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable populations. Mobile payments and cryptocurrency have a high risk of being used for this illicit financial activity because of their often anonymous nature, which makes it harder for law enforcement to detect.
Examples of human rights implicated: Right to be free from slavery, including specific protections related to sex trafficking, debt bondage, and child labor; right to life, liberty and security; right to equal participation in political and public affairs and service; right to a decent standard of living; right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment; right to access effective remedy
The rapid and widespread adoption of fintech solutions can compound the risks discussed above, thereby exacerbating and contributing to the further marginalization of individuals traditionally excluded from the financial system. While fintech can expand access to capital and provide innovative financial solutions, it is important that fintech companies address the negative human rights implications associated with their products and services. This is not only beneficial for business and the overall health of the financial system, but also for customers and their communities.
How Fintechs Can Address Actual and Potential Impacts
Based on our work across the financial services and technology sectors, there are some initial steps that fintechs can take to manage these risks and amplify the benefits associated with fintech solutions.
Conduct Human Rights Due Diligence
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) establish the authoritative global framework for business to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for negative impacts on people and their rights. This framework involves undertaking ongoing human rights due diligence, which can help fintechs more readily identify and address actual and potential impacts associated with the use and deployment of fintech solutions and offer more rights-compatible products and services.
Manage AI-Related Risks and Opportunities through a Responsible AI Approach
Adopt policies, practices, and governance frameworks centered on the ethical and human rights considerations of developing and applying AI technologies. This can include creating internal oversight and review functions related to AI, as well as assessing data inputs, algorithms, and use cases and publicly disclosing use parameters and limitations.
Develop Data Management and Security Measures in Line with “Privacy by Design” Principles
Given the persistence of threats to data security and customer privacy, fintechs should regularly update systems and controls around collecting, storing, using, sharing, or combining customer data using a privacy and data protection by design approach that comports with the highest international standards.
Engage Meaningfully with External Stakeholders
Fintechs can regularly engage with experts, business partners, customers, and communities affected by their products and services to better understand the risks and management gaps and make informed decisions on how to address them based on best practice and emerging regulations.
Enable Access to Remedy
Under the UNGPs and a growing number of regulations, companies are expected to adopt or participate in effective grievance mechanisms that provide a channel for affected stakeholders to report concerns and receive redress for adverse impacts connected to their operations and value chains. These channels provide fintechs with a valuable source of learning that is essential for improved performance, accountability, and social license to operate—the unwritten acceptance and approval by affected stakeholders and the public of a company’s operations and activities.
Contribute to Industry-Level Change
Fintechs can engage in multi-stakeholder platforms and industry dialogues to tackle systemic challenges, such as human trafficking, socioeconomic inequality, and weak regulatory environments that exacerbate financial exclusion and other harmful impacts associated with fintech solutions.
By undertaking these key steps, fintechs can harness the positive potential that fintech solutions offer in a responsible and rights-respecting manner. To learn more about how BSR can help your company manage social and human rights risks associated with its products, services, and business relationships, please reach out to us.
People
Lucie Maria Momdjian
Lucie leads BSR’s creative design work, shaping the organization’s visual identity across all platforms. With expertise in art direction and graphic design, Lucie has extensive experience in developing and executing impactful designs for presentations, reports, marketing materials, websites, direct email campaigns, and events. She ensures brand consistency and brings a…
People
Lucie Maria Momdjian
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Lucie leads BSR’s creative design work, shaping the organization’s visual identity across all platforms.
With expertise in art direction and graphic design, Lucie has extensive experience in developing and executing impactful designs for presentations, reports, marketing materials, websites, direct email campaigns, and events. She ensures brand consistency and brings a storytelling approach to her work, effectively translating BSR’s mission and values into compelling visuals.
Previously, Lucie collaborated with international organizations and NGOs, including Oxfam, World Vision, IRC, WWF, and Fairtrade, among others, to design reports, social media campaigns, and publications. Her portfolio includes projects focused on sustainability, humanitarian aid, and social impact, reflecting her dedication to using design as a tool for positive change.
Lucie holds a BA and MS in Art Direction and Graphic Design from ALBA University in Lebanon, and she is fluent in English, French, Arabic, and Armenian.
Blog | Wednesday March 26, 2025
Democracy and Human Rights: How Businesses Can Uphold the Rule of Law
The Rule of Law is critical for companies because it creates a stable environment where they are more likely to invest, innovate, and thrive. BSR shares ways for business to uphold the Rule of Law.
Blog | Wednesday March 26, 2025
Democracy and Human Rights: How Businesses Can Uphold the Rule of Law
Preview
In a time of geopolitical turmoil and regulatory uncertainty, companies are increasingly seeking clarity and stability to inform their strategies and decision-making at the operational and value chain levels. While market fluctuations and policy shifts are expected over time, businesses rely on a bedrock of fundamental rules and legal norms that govern the economy and society—as well as governments themselves—in a relatively predictable and fair manner. This bedrock, reinforced by democratic checks and balances, establishes a level playing field on which companies can operate efficiently and effectively while upholding their responsibilities to respect human rights and the environment.
The Rule of Law is a set of principles or ideals for ensuring an orderly and just society, and a system under which all people, institutions, and entities (both public and private), including countries and governments, as well as corporate actors, are held accountable. The United Nations further notes that Rule of Law is “fundamental to international peace and security and political stability; to achieve economic and social progress and development; and to protect people’s rights and fundamental freedoms.” It is inextricably linked not only to the protection and the promotion of human rights, but also to upholding the underpinnings of democracy itself.
Key elements of the Rule of Law include accountability, transparency and openness (particularly from governments), just laws, and accessible and impartial justice and justice systems, which form the foundation for the predictability and certainty that enable business to operate with confidence. In the realm of business and human rights, this can look like ensuring accountability when human rights are violated by businesses, providing equal protection from negative human rights impacts of corporate activities, maintaining transparency in decision-making, providing access to judicial protections when rights are violated by businesses, protecting property rights (including intellectual property), enforcing fair contracts, and upholding respect for human rights by States and businesses.
The Rule of Law is critical for business because it creates a stable environment in which companies are more likely to invest, innovate, and thrive. When the Rule of Law is strong, companies can be more certain that the rules will be applied evenly and that all actors will be held accountable for failing to follow them, including for human rights and environmental harm. Instead of a system that unfairly protects and favors the few, the Rule of Law establishes a level playing field by suppressing corruption and fostering competition. It brings certainty to contracts and property rights and catalyzes a legal framework for impartially resolving disputes in a relatively accessible and transparent way. This not only provides fertile ground for economic prosperity but also encourages respect for human rights and social cohesion, which allows individuals and communities to more meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their daily lives and benefit from this prosperity.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) establish that States protect and businesses respect human rights. Strengthening corporate adherence to the UNGPs is aligned with the promotion of the Rule of Law, as the UNGPs aim to ensure that businesses operate within a broader system that respects human rights, essentially directing companies to uphold the Rule of Law when conducting their operations, particularly in areas where a strong Rule of Law may be lacking. In so doing, the UNGPs affirm that businesses be accountable for their actions, and that neither they, nor the States in which they operate, are above the law.
Specific actions that businesses can take, such as respecting and promoting the rights of Human Rights Defenders or mandating accountability when doing business in conflict-affected and high-risk areas, are inherently linked to the Rule of Law. Furthermore, companies can adopt policies with expectations and requirements for responsible business conduct and adherence to legislation and the Rule of Law. Businesses can also undertake responsible political engagement to advance the Rule of Law and its principles.
The long path of supporting democracy by upholding the Rule of Law can begin by business actors evaluating their practices, actions, and policies, both internal and external, through the prism of the UNGPs. Relatedly, the UNGPs can serve as an interpretive guide for how to responsibly operate during polarized and changed circumstances, in which democracy and human rights are the North Star. At the very core, the human rights-based approach of the UNGPs can inspire and empower businesses to support and uphold the Rule of Law by holding governments, including their own, and business actors, regardless of their size, accountable and reaffirming that no one is above the law.
To learn more about concrete steps your company can take to advance human rights and align with the UNGPs, please contact BSR's Human Rights team.
Sustainability FAQs | Friday March 21, 2025
EU Omnibus Fact Sheet
Through the Omnibus Simplification Package, the European Commission proposed significant adjustments to several key corporate sustainability regulations. In this factsheet, BSR shares major updates from the Omnibus.
Sustainability FAQs | Friday March 21, 2025
EU Omnibus Fact Sheet
Preview
Through the Omnibus Simplification Package, the European Commission proposed significant adjustments to several key corporate sustainability regulations. In this factsheet, BSR shares major updates on the Omnibus.
Contents
- Context
- Focus on Regulatory Updates
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
- EU Taxonomy
- Carbon Adjustment Mechanism
- Meeting Existing and Emerging Sustainability Regulations: How BSR Can Help
Reports | Thursday March 20, 2025
Resilient Business within Planetary Boundaries
Achieving global (and corporate) sustainability goals presents an opportunity for business, but attaining these goals requires systematic change. BSR provides practical guidance on impactful transformation that will deliver thriving business over the long term.
Reports | Thursday March 20, 2025
Resilient Business within Planetary Boundaries
Preview
Over the past couple of years, BSR has engaged in conversations with member companies that face an increasing tension between achieving their sustainability goals and meeting business growth imperatives.
Many companies have moved past incremental changes and easy-to-implement measures. Achieving global (and corporate) sustainability goals presents an opportunity for business—but attaining these goals requires systematic change.
These reports are part of BSR’s response. They are designed to provide practical guidance, resources, and examples to accompany business leaders across functions to capture the opportunity to deliver thriving business over the long term.