In our latest HREDD Compass, we explored how sustainability communication can support accountability and continuous improvement. Yet effective communication starts long before a report is published or a claim is made. It starts with understanding what is happening in a company's supply chain and being transparent about both progress and challenges.
Transparency enables due diligence: It gives companies and stakeholders the information they need to understand where risks sit, engage the right actors and act on them. This is particularly important because some of the most severe and widespread risks are found deeper in supply chains, where visibility is often limited and leverage is low. Fair Wear’s extensive experience with Access to Remedy underscores this.
But transparency does not only support risk identification and prioritisation, it also strengthens accountability and enables stronger participation in due diligence. If workers and other stakeholders cannot understand how a supply chain is structured, where decisions are being made or who has leverage, their ability to contribute to risk identification and remedy is constrained. Transparency can improve stakeholder engagement and access to remedy by making it easier to understand sourcing relationships and connect concerns to the right actors. And this, in turn, builds trust with key audiences, including consumers and workers.
This connection between transparency, communication and due diligence is increasingly reflected in legislation. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and EU Forced Labour Regulation (EUFLR) all require companies to (be able to) share information about their due diligence processes, sustainability performance and supply chain information. Together, these developments are changing the role of corporate sustainability communication: information needs to be increasingly grounded in evidence and connected to the company's underlying due diligence processes.
So what does this look like in practice? We spoke to Dutch workwear company HAVEP to explore how transparency can support both better sustainability communication and more informed business decisions.
Transparent communication in practice: How HAVEP leverages transparency and communication to further its sustainability goals
For HAVEP, transparent communication is part of its broader due diligence approach. The company's sustainability communication is not only about sharing outcomes, but also about helping stakeholders understand the realities, challenges and nuances that exist within global supply chains to advance collective learning and awareness raising.
Through its in-depth tracking, research and reporting efforts, the company gains insights that inform both its own decision-making and stakeholder engagement. By sharing these insights with customers and other stakeholders, HAVEP contributes to a better understanding of what effective due diligence looks like in practice. Better information enables the company to make more informed decisions about its due diligence efforts, and gives customers the information they need to engage with those decisions.
One area where this is particularly visible is the company's work on making the social costs of production more transparent. While environmental impacts are increasingly measured and shared, data about social impacts often remains limited. Through research and analysis, HAVEP aims to increase customer awareness of the investments required for responsible business conduct by making the price for environmental and social costs transparent (known as the ‘True Price’ methodology). “The social cost is often not calculated, and a lot of customers are shocked when presented with the estimated numbers” shares Ilse Pijnenburg, Sustainability Coordinator at HAVEP.
The methodology they use lays bare the cost of inaction: Supply chains that are not transparent or not monitored have the highest estimated social and environmental costs, as the methodology assumes worst-case scenario when information is missing. In contrast, effective due diligence has a positive effect on the price. “We try to create awareness, so people are able to make a better-informed purchasing decision”. By making the hidden costs of production visible, HAVEP helps shift conversations from abstract sustainability commitments towards the commercial decisions and investment required to make improvements financially viable.
Balancing effective communication with substantiation
At the same time, communicating about sustainability remains a balancing act. “A one-liner helps you create awareness, but that needs to be backed up by research and accurate data. We often don’t have time to listen to long presentations, but sometimes one graph can really open people’s eyes”. To substantiate its due diligence communication, the company refers customers to publicly available resources such as its Sustainability Report. These reports provide the space to explain complex topics, due diligence processes and sustainability efforts in greater depth, while shorter communications help raise awareness and guide audiences towards this more detailed information.
Ultimately, HAVEP believes that both transparency and communication should serve a broader purpose: building understanding of how supply chains function, how companies are collaborating with its supply chain partners to continuously improve working conditions and giving customers the information needed to make informed purchasing decisions. Embedding transparent communication throughout the due diligence cycle turns it into a strong tool for change, making information accessible to the people who need it, creating opportunities for feedback, and enabling more informed decisions.
HAVEP’s case is a strong example of how companies can use transparency as a strategic enabler of effective due diligence and credible communication by fostering meaningful stakeholder engagement, greater accountability, and informed decision-making. For more information on Fair Wear’s approach to transparency and communication, read our Human Rights Due Diligence Policy or e-mail [email protected].