The conduct of companies across all sectors of the economy is crucial for the success of the Union's transition to a green and climate-neutral economy, in line with the European Green Deal, and for the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including their human rights and environmental objectives .
To this end, it is necessary to implement comprehensive processes to mitigate adverse human rights and negative environmental impacts in value chains, integrate sustainability into corporate governance and management systems, and frame corporate decisions in terms of human rights, climate and environmental impacts, as well as in terms of longer-term societal resilience.
These are the precise terms with which the directive on corporate due diligence (CSDDD or CS3D) describes the context in which Europe is operating on these fundamental issues. It is therefore to be welcomed that, albeit after a few weeks of political uncertainty, the member states of the European Union have voted for the directive that will now have to be approved by the European Parliament.
Although the approved text contains some changes compared to the initial proposal, the CS3D directive represents an important step precisely to address the impact of companies on societies, territories and in general the environment in which they operate, as it promotes better management of sustainability risks and supports sustainable investments. In fact, the directive does not directly affect all companies, but only the largest: the burden of greater control over the supply chain is concentrated on large companies, with over 1,000 employees and 450 million in global turnover.
But this should not lead us to think that other companies are not affected by the effects of the directive: it is in fact the large companies that have business relationships with thousands and thousands of suppliers who will be indirectly called upon to comply with the standards to which the big ones will be required to adapt.
This is a virtuous mechanism that represents an enormous possibility with a view to the sustainable development of all supply chains. Precisely for these reasons, it is essential that entrepreneurs, professionals and managers are aware of the scope and contents of this measure.