In the face of rising due diligence requirements from regulators in Europe, the US, Canada, and other countries, many businesses find themselves struggling to piece together the puzzle. What do we have to do to comply? How do these requirements relate to common due diligence practice in industry? Are they connected to international norms from the OECD and the United Nations? And for the many businesses that are subject to more than one due diligence regulation, how do the regulations relate to each other?
Any confusion around the answers to these questions can lead to a sense of wasted resources and the fear of non-compliance. But smart answers of these questions means that increasing due diligence regulations don’t have to be a burden. Levin Sources sees mandatory due diligence measures as a generally positive trend – when the actions companies take advance the maturity of due diligence practice overall, rather than retrenching to tickbox exercises.
Levin Sources specialises in guiding businesses to the right answers to these important questions. Our world-class understanding of global norms on due diligence, our daily experience working with the due diligence requirements of a wide range of regulations, and our 15 years of industry experience make us uniquely positioned to help businesses make sense of the due diligence landscape and take effective actions that limit burden and optimise positive impact.
Examples of Levin Sources’ work at the nexus of due diligence regulations, industry practice, and global norms include:
Mapping due diligence regulations across jurisdictions and analysing overlap to global norms
For a client in the electronics sector, Levin Sources created an orientation guide of approximately 20 due diligence regulations across Europe and North America. The guide summarises the key requirements of the regulation and identifies areas of overlap to global norms, supporting the business to understand how its existing efforts to conduct due diligence in line with global norms can help it comply with the evolving regulatory landscape.
Preparing for compliance with the EU Batteries Regulation
Levin Sources works with businesses in the automotive and consumer goods sectors to support them to comply with the EU Batteries Regulation. While we have supported these businesses across all due diligence aspects of the regulation, we have focuses on supplier engagement and gaining access to information necessary for transparency and risk management requirements, as these are particular challenging areas for these downstream companies. Levin Sources provides coaching for cross-functional roles within these businesses, gap assesses the businesses’ current practices against the requirements of the regulation, provides recommendations on gap closures, provides strategies and practical tools for gathering information from the supply chain, and advises the businesses on how to evaluate the information they receive from the supply chain. We also work with the businesses on the challenging topic of leverage, especially when they carry limited inherent leverage due to relatively small purchasing volumes.
Levin Sources has supported the Cobalt Institute during an in-person dialogue meeting across cobalt value chain companies on the implementation of the due diligence requirements of the EU Batteries Regulation.
Supporting our work on the EU Batteries Regulation is our 2023 report for Drive Sustainability about the due diligence requirements of the Regulation.
Training small businesses about the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains
Working with the global corporate offices of a multinational company operating small businesses in Germany, Levin Sources authored a beginners-level guidance about the due diligence requirements of the German Act, which included guidance on how the Act connects to global norms on due diligence and EU legislation (at the time, the pending EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive). Levin Sources also carried out a webinar series for the German businesses, focused on breaking down the German Act’s requirements to manageable steps, and highlighting relevant existing practices within the businesses.
Training procurement teams on child and forced labour
To support compliance with the Canadian Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, Levin Sources carried out an online training series for procurement teams operating in Asia, Africa, and North America for a Canadian mining company. The training focused on what child and forced labour are, how they can appear in products and services procured for a mining operation, and actions businesses are expected to take to prevent and mitigate potential occurrences of child and forced labour in their supply chains. | Read more about our work in Responsible Mining
Advising on alignment to the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and EU Taxonomy Regulation
Particularly with financial institution clients, we have advised them on how our specific due diligence collaborations relate to their reporting and taxonomy requirements from the EU, such as how their just transition efforts relate to the CSRD, and on the implications of findings from due diligence for an SFDR Article 9 fund.
Levin Sources has also provided expert opinions on double materiality analyses conducted by businesses for CSRD compliance.
