Recently, the European Parliament adopted a proposal for a so-called Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, also known as the European supply chain law. Some Member States had already adopted national versions before, but the European Directive now aims at having a level playing field in the Single Market. Large companies from the European Union and third countries operating in the European market will fall within its scope. Affected companies will have to ensure that their corporate behaviour along the value chain is in line with the criteria defined in the Directive.

This represents a significant challenge for many companies which do not have sufficient capacity inhouse available to work on compliance with the new legislation. Consequently, the demand for external consulting on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is expected to be high. Some consulting firms have already started positioning themselves and published information materials on their approaches.

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is relatively new and therefore, little research has been conducted on it yet. Although some consulting firms have already published information materials, best practice has not been identified yet. For EcoAct it will be crucial to assess the requirements and analyse our competitors to develop our own approach to the legislation in a way that allows us to be leading in the market. In return, this will be beneficial for our clients who would benefit from the best consulting practice available.

The outcome of the project will ideally outline the specific requirements of Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and how our competitors positioned themselves towards them. At the same, it would be interesting to identify our own strengths and weaknesses. Ideally, even recommendations are provided of how we could adjust the design of our own consulting services on the legislation to become market leaders ourselves. In conclusion, the outcome of the project could represent a significant contribution to the design of our service.

EcoAct is a sustainability consulting company with more than 16 years of experience in this field. The focus of our work is on carbon- and biodiversity-related consulting projects, such as the calculation of carbon footprints or climate risk analyses. However, our portfolio is not only limited to those specific topics but rather covers the entire journey from the initial understanding of the impact of climate change on businesses to the achievement of Net Zero. Where further emission reductions are not possible, this also includes offsetting measures. We combine IT and sustainability, which enables us to base our projects on robust and efficient tools.