The Role of Multi-Stakeholder Sustainability Initiatives in Reaching the Goals of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

Using an analysis of four IDH-led programs, this paper analyses how multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) and landscape-level programs can help to mitigate the risks of the proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). As well as having a wider positive impact beyond supply chains on the people and planet. The paper shows how IDH’s SourceUp tool, a platform that promotes landscape-level reporting and monitoring and tracks company involvement in MSIs, can also contribute to a landscape-level due diligence process.

Landscape-level programs can help companies identify concrete ways to operationalize and integrate due diligence in company policies. They can also support due diligence processes by helping to establish complaints procedures, as they are often facilitated by neutral organisations in the landscapes. The SourceUp platform can also be used in due diligence processes as it makes landscape-level monitoring data publicly available for companies to use in sustainability reports. Towards the end of 2023 SourceUp will also start piloting ways due diligence can be carried out at landscape level, in order to help companies engaged in landscape programs respond to due diligence requirements.

The paper analyses four IDH-led initiatives: Beyond Chocolate, the Dutch Initiative for Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO), Sustainable Initiative Fruit and Vegetables (SIFAV), and the generic model of a landscape program2 connected to the SourceUp platform to draw its conclusions and recommendations.