Investor Guidance on Responsible Contracting
Developed by RCP and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the Investor Guidance on Responsible Contracting equips investors to engage their portfolio companies on how they integrate human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) into their commercial contracts.
The Guidance provides an overview of key concepts to explain the critical role that due diligence-aligned contracts play in promoting better HREDD, better HRE outcomes, and better legal compliance. It includes the following tools (downloadable at the bottom of this page) for carrying out company engagement:
-
Sample questions that investors can use in their dialogues with companies
-
A template shareholder resolution
-
A template investor engagement letter
-
Sample responses to frequent pushback (“FPBs”) from companies.
These tools can help investors assess whether companies are using their international supply contracts in a way that supports—or undermines—effective HREDD processes.
Additional resources for responsible investors:
Find out more
The Toolkit
Explore the RCP Toolkit which currently includes the EMCs, the SMCs, the MCCs and the Buyer Code
Where you can learn about our past and upcoming events, publications, and podcasts
Additional resources for responsible investors:
RCP, in cooperation with the Corporate Sustainability Law Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI), is drafting the Responsible Investor Model Clauses (RIMCs), a set of model contract clauses that can be used by investors to implement the ABA Model Business and Supplier Principles on Labor Trafficking and Child Labor (the Principles), the UNGPs, and the PRI in their investment portfolios and in collaboration with their portfolio companies.
In addition, when they are finalized, the RIMCs will help investors meet new and evolving legal requirements pertaining to disclosure (in the U.S., the E.U., the U.K., and beyond) and mandatory HREDD legislation in the European Union. The RIMCs working group members will collaborate with members of the ABA Business Law Section Task Force on Implementation of the Principles and with PRI, a United Nations-supported network of investors that promotes sustainable investment through the dissemination of its six core responsible investing principles.
The Investor Guidance can also be accessed on the Investor HREDD Precision Tools website, alongside the guidance on Certifications Red Flags, which offers advice on how to evaluate the strength of different social certifications for reducing labor and environmental risks in supply chains. This website is a collaboration between our partners at Rights CoLab, RCP, Eiris Foundation, ESG Inteligente, ICCR, Investor Alliance for Human Rights, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and the Workforce Disclosure Initiative. It features a range of tools designed to equip investors to evaluate the quality of portfolio companies' HREDD.
Know the Chain, a multistakeholder benchmarking resource, has launched a Good Practice Guide, a practical resource for companies and investors that outlines steps to address forced labor in global supply chains and includes guidance on responsible contracting. The Guide makes specific references to the MCCs 2.0 and the Buyer Code of Conduct.