ESG Due Diligence
Increasingly, businesses are expected to act as responsible corporate citizens. On the basis of prospective EU legislation, companies will be required to identify, address and report in relation to the impact of their business’ activities on, for example, the environment and on human rights. Ahead of ESG due diligence becoming a mandatory obligation, it is evolving into a market wide best practice.
ESG performance is becoming a point of focus in the selection of business partners - in the context of an investment, a transaction or an important contract. Performing a legal ESG due diligence on a target company or potential business partner can be of key value. It is equally important to be aware of your own ESG performance and to understand the ESG performance of your value chain. Legislation is developing in this area as well, most notably with the European ESG Due Diligence Directive.
It is therefore important to ask yourself new types of questions:
- How do I score on ESG?
- How would potential partners look at my business from an ESG perspective?
- How does my supply chain perform on ESG? What are my options to influence this?
- How do you make sure that your ESG ambitions are reflected effectively?
- Going forward: what are my core focus points on ESG when entering into a new partnership or contemplating a new transaction?
- How does your envisaged partner score on ESG?
- Do you know how your target values human rights in its supply chain?
- And what are the legal implications? How do ESG questions translate into legal topics and solutions?
This is what we offer our clients: ESG Audit, ESG Due Diligence in M&A transactions or investments, CSDDD advice and contract review and ESG and governance.
