In light of the latest announcement by the European Union of increased efforts in order to reach their 2050 goal of carbon neutrality, companies need to be aware of the current legislations that might affect them, now more than ever.
Besides legislation concerning carbon neutrality, the compelling necessity of carrying out human rights due diligence on supply chains is a major step towards more sustainability in European businesses. Companies must ensure that human rights are being respected throughout their entire supply chain and need to establish complaint mechanisms and reports on their due diligence activities.
For example, in the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (German legislation), organizations with an average annual turnover of more than 400 million Euros could face fines of up to 2% of their annual turnover for certain violations and could be excluded from public procurement.
These obligations must be implemented by a company in its own business activities and their direct suppliers.