Issue Snapshots

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with rights and wellbeing at work.

Workers are able to enjoy their right to safe and healthy conditions of work. The company anticipates, monitors, and controls workplace hazards (physical, chemical, and biological) to prevent adverse impacts on the physical health, mental health, and comfort of workers. The company is attentive to these impacts in the physical or virtual workplace, including chronic effects that may manifest after employment has ended. The company ensures appropriate policies, procedures, training, and equipment are in place to enable and empower workers (including contractors) to protect themselves from work-related harm, injury, illness, or other adverse health or mental health impacts. Workers are empowered to refuse unsafe working conditions.

In an inclusive and respectful workplace, workers enjoy freedom from discrimination, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and the right to privacy. The company ensures appropriate policies, practices, safe and accessible feedback mechanisms, internal narratives regarding inclusion and diversity. Company leaders help build and maintain a respectful and inclusive workplace culture and model these behaviours. In this workplace, Indigenous Peoples, persons living with disabilities, women, individuals who identify as LGTBQIA2S+, persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities, as well as migrant workers, older workers, and other equity-seeking groups feel safe, able, and welcome to be themselves and are able to express or engage in religious practices, beliefs, and observances as well as the cultural practices of Indigenous Peoples, including through work schedule accommodations.

In policies, practices, culture, and decision-making, the company and its representatives exhibit respect for and uphold group rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples, persons living with disabilities, children, women and girls, persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities, as well as migrant workers, persons who identify as LGTBQIA2S+, and other groups.

Workplace design and set-up allow employees to benefit from natural lighting and airflow. The company actively engages in health promotion, including the option (but not requirement) to obtain annual flu and virus inoculations, ergonomic workstation equipment and set-up, time for movement breaks, or incentives to participate in sports or other outdoor/health promotion activities. Where the company provides meals, most meal options are healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate. Workers have access to adequate leisure time and exercise, including where workers are employed in labour camps, on vessels, in factory communities, or other settings where they are unable to go home on their personal time. The workplace, accommodations, and any communal spaces are designed and built to be accessible to persons of diverse abilities. The company makes reasonable accommodations for workers to work in the home, where feasible and safe, and provides the necessary hardware, software, and ergonomic workstation equipment for workers to do so.

Good health and wellbeing are multidimensional in nature and can be affected by workplace conditions, the home environment, as well as a balanced division between the requirements of each. The company can support good health and wellbeing through safe and healthy working conditions (detailed above) as well as ensuring workers’ ability to enjoy their right to leisure and paid time off, at minimum as stipulated by law. Workers have a right to reasonable working hour limitations and should have the opportunity to rest, recover, and relax between shifts, this includes adequate time between rotations for workers in camps, on vessels, or in other conditions where they are unable to return home at the end of a workday. The company provides employees and contractors with health benefits that support health and wellbeing.

Through policies, practices, culture, and decision-making, the company ensures that all workers are free from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; are free from violence or exploitation; are free from forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage, prison labour, or other forms of modern slavery. The company does not directly, or indirectly, employ children.

The company compensates workers fairly and transparently and pays a living wage to ensure workers are able to meet their basic needs and can afford a decent standard of living for their family without needing government support. The company offers equal pay for equal work, facilitates access to anonymised compensation data for the purposes of benchmarking, and does not negotiate compensation down based on an applicant’s previous salary. As part of its compensation package, the company helps ensure its workers can enjoy adequate paid time off. For employees not able to work flexible hours, the company sets predictable working hours and rotation schedules, with adequate notice of changes. Wages are paid on a predictable schedule to support worker financial planning and timely payment of commitments.

The company respects, safeguards, and does not interfere with workers’ freedom of association, of organising, forming or participating in formal or informal groups (including to collectively pursue their rights and/or engage with the government or the company on more equal terms), or their right to collective bargaining, including negotiating with their employer over the terms and conditions of employment.

The company offers employees and contractors paid maternity and paternity leave (including for non-biological parents) as well as parental benefits. Workers are able to take parental leave to care for small children as well as leave for elder care. They have access to adequate compassionate leave for bereavements or to care for a family member with significant risk of death. The company offers flexible work and/or remote work arrangement where practicable, to allow workers to more easily meet their family obligations.

This includes introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with rights and resilience in communities.

Public safety concerns freedom from accidents, violence, crime, conflict, terrorism, or disasters and the ability of a community to either prevent or reduce the likelihood or adverse impacts of such occurrences. Crime and disaster response capacity are enhanced by adequate numbers of well-trained safety officers and emergency personnel, as well as emergency response planning and preparedness, adequately equipped emergency services and emergency communications. Communities require and are able to ensure appropriate speed, volume, and type of traffic, as well as the safe transport of any hazardous materials which can affect incident risk and safety.

In inclusive and respectful communities, residents enjoy freedom from discrimination, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and the right to privacy. There is respect for group rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples, persons living with disabilities, children, women and girls, persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities, as well as migrant workers, persons who identify as LGTBQIA2S+, and other groups. Communal spaces are designed and built to be accessible to persons of diverse abilities. A company working in/with communities (or with community organisations) also respects and upholds the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These collective rights of Indigenous Peoples include the right to maintain and develop their political, economic, and social systems; the right to enjoy their own means of subsistence, traditional medicines, and health practices; the right to maintain their spiritual relationship with their lands, territories, waters, coastal seas, and other resources; the right to maintain, access, and protect their cultural sites; the right to develop their institutional structures, including judicial systems, and other rights. Indigenous Peoples have sovereignty over the natural resources of their lands, territories, and waters and have a right to the self-determination. Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is required for any project that impacts the land, territories, and resources of Indigenous Peoples or that otherwise affects their rights.

Resilient communities rely on a healthy natural environment that provides robust ecosystem services (like clean water, rainwater drainage, or wild and foraged foods) and maintains ecosystem balance, biodiversity, and environmental quality. Community members can enjoy the benefits of nature and have equal access to safe and natural/green public spaces for leisure, exercise, culture, and subsistence, regardless of socio-economic status or other factors. Community members are not exposed to excessive light, noise, smell, toxins, fumes, odours, or other forms of waste or pollution in or near their residence.

Community members have food and nutrition security throughout the year, and are able to access to affordable, nutritious, healthy, and culturally appropriate foods for their sustenance. Many staple foods are produced or can be sourced locally and do not depend exclusively on vast global supply chains. Sustainably produced local options are available. Community members have access to foods that are safe and healthy, and can trust that food safety has been ensured including in production, handling, distribution, and storage.

Good health and wellbeing are multidimensional in nature and rely on local or virtual access to culturally safe healthcare services (including medical, paramedical, mental health, and dental care) and social services in adequately resourced facilities with appropriate trained staff; and social security to support individuals with inadequate income for a decent standard of living to support their family’s good health and wellbeing. Co-designed culturally appropriate approaches address complex unwellness challenges, including deaths of despair. Community health and wellbeing outcomes are monitored to identify disparities and support or strengthen good outcomes. Poverty, wealth inequality, addiction, homelessness, and other barriers to good health and wellbeing are approached not from a deficit perspective, but with a systems lens, focused on expanding community assets and addressing the root causes of social and economic inequity.

Human dignity and integrity are founded on the enjoyment of freedom from torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; freedom from gender-based or other violence, abuse, or exploitation; freedom from child labour, forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage, prison labour, or other forms of modern slavery. This includes accessible, safe, culturally responsive helplines, appropriately trained safety officers, safe accommodations, and other supports as well as access to appropriate rehabilitation and compensation for victims of such abuses.

Employers in the community offer adequate opportunities for paid employment and fair compensation that allows residents to enjoy their right to a decent living for their families. Employees work reasonable hours and are able to enjoy appropriate access to leisure time and paid time off. Affordable, flexible, and culturally safe opportunities are available for families or individuals to access elder and childcare. Community members are typically able to work locally, due to companies’ local hiring and local procurement practices which support a resilient and diverse local economy that can support local employment needs. Migrant workers are compensated adequately, have appropriate access to leisure, suitable housing, and to social benefits and protections and their jobs do not disrupt local economic resilience. Worker displacement is low, and the community is organised to retain businesses, engage with local employers, and collaboratively minimise the impact of (mass) layoffs if they do occur. Opportunities for retraining/reskilling are available and accessible.

Community members and groups within communities have strong ties to other groups and individuals and a sense of community and a connection to place. Individuals and groups can enjoy their freedom of association. Community members have access to and freedom of a variety of cultural activities and artifacts, reflective of the diversity of the community’s population. Community members are able to engage in participative decision-making and public input is sought on key issues that affect the community. The community is engaged in regular inclusive community development planning processes to actively design and implement a vision for a thriving, sustainable community.

All community members can locally access quality, culturally inclusive elementary school and secondary school education. Relevant and quality post-secondary education, including trades school, college, and university are regionally or virtually accessible. Curricula include different ways of knowing and teaching, and there is respect for local knowledge and traditional knowledge holders. Community members can access affordable opportunities for training, skill development, and capacity building that are relevant for employment and/or their personal development.

All community members have access to safe and clean drinking water through residential plumbing or, at minimum, within a close distance from the home. Safe and adequate sanitation facilities are available in schools, municipal facilities, and residences to reduce risk of sexual assault and lost educational opportunities. Residential sewage systems efficiently and effectively remove and treat sewage and wastewater to support sanitation and safety from related disease transmission. Waste is collected, sorted, and managed appropriately, with material recovery processes in place where feasible, appropriate green waste handling, recycling, and for remaining waste, well-designed landfills.

Communities and locally operating companies respect land rights, including Indigenous rights to traditional lands and territories. Involuntary resettlement can have significant human, environmental, and economic impacts and only occurs when absolutely unavoidable, with careful input, planning, and implementation to avoid expropriation, to minimise adverse impacts, and to support fairly negotiated settlements regardless of legal rights. Housing for resettled and other community members considers family, cultural and other needs. Home ownership or other forms of housing tenure, including tenancy or co-op housing, are accessible to all community members. The community offers sufficient housing opportunities and vacancies to meet the needs of the community’s population, at affordable rates in locations that do not compromise residents’ ability to support their good health and wellbeing.

Communities have access to clean, modern, and affordable energy, with limited or no dependence on expensive fossil fuel supply chains, particularly in remote communities. A stable supply of electricity is transmitted directly into homes, schools, businesses, and municipal facilities, without frequent interruptions, fluctuations, or outages. Communities can rely on being able to access and, where applicable, store energy, to support their ongoing energy security and, where possible, energy independence.

Community members and local businesses have access to banking and can open bank accounts (for personal and business purposes), particularly those systemically excluded from personal banking. Community members and local businesses have access to relevant financing opportunities (for personal and business needs) on reasonable terms, as well as to credit and/or loan guarantees, particularly those systemically excluded from business and personal financing. Community members and local business can purchase insurance to adequately protect their interests. Informal banking systems are recognised as essential alternative offerings and are supported to benefit those needing to access them.

Community members have access to information about their communities and beyond, including through local news. Communities are able to offer residents access to the benefits of innovation, especially to support sustainable community development. Community members have access to affordable and reliable telecommunication services, with sufficient bandwidth to support community members’ full participation in virtual learning, employment, engagement, entertainment, and other opportunities. Communities are able to develop and maintain (or effectively advocate for development and maintenance of) adequate local information and telecommunication infrastructure to meet their needs and engage in cost and resource sharing with industry where relevant and mutually advantageous. Processes are in place to protect the freedom of the press and freedom of information and to prevent censorship.

Adequate and well-maintained roads and navigable waterways exist to safely support community members’ mobility and transportation needs, alongside industry or other users. Local transportation and mobility services are available, including safe public transit opportunities and for-hire transportation options for community members with diverse abilities. Communities are able to develop and maintain (or effectively advocate for development and maintenance of) adequate local transportation and mobility infrastructure to meet their needs and they engage in cost and resource sharing with industry where relevant and mutually advantageous.

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with the issue of governance and ethics.

Through its policies, practices, and modelled leadership, the company exhibits respect for rule of law, with a commitment to observing the spirit and intent of the law, as opposed to following the letter of the law only. The company respects and upholds the principles of international conventions and follows relevant international guidelines for business enterprises, including those on human rights, labour rights, and various group rights and the legal rights of nature (such as rivers granted legal personhood).

The company respects and invites different ways of knowing to broaden its understanding of its impacts, its risks, and its opportunities for supporting resilient social and ecosystems. In a respectful way, the company invites and visits (rather than takes) traditional and community knowledge, acknowledging and respecting that traditional knowledge belongs to and is stewarded by the community, not by the company. With permission, these learnings can help deepen the company’s understanding of the local context in which it operates, to better comprehend its impacts, and to integrate this understanding into its decision-making. The company uses traditional and community knowledge in line with the intent with which it was shared and not for new commercial purposes, including the development of new products or services based on traditional or community knowledge without the explicit permission of those communities and a fair and transparent process to share in the benefits.

The company acknowledges the historic injustices committed against certain groups, as well as their legacy and continuing injustices and inequities. The company intentionally builds awareness among its leadership, employees, and peers of these histories and of the need to advance equity and transformation. The company supports the advancement of equality, anti-racism, and reconciliation, including economic reconciliation, and it makes and supports efforts to eliminate barriers that prevent this. In relevant contexts, the company acknowledges it has a role in advancing reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples, federal or national governments, and the non-Indigenous public, based on recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership. The company has adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for its approach to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

The company undertakes all reasonable efforts to ensure the health and safety of its products, to avoid unintended adverse impacts on the end user. The company respects animal rights and takes steps to ensure the welfare of animals that are part of its operations or value chain. The company practices responsible advertising and avoids harmful depictions or stereotyping of certain groups in society. Any contributions to lobbying efforts or political fundraising are transparent and in alignment with the values, beliefs, and sustainability-related pursuits of the company. The company provides meaningful warranties for its products or services, allows for returns and exchanges, using a transparent process, and supports emerging consumer rights to repair (rather than replace) used products.

The company pays appropriate taxes, in a timely manner, in the jurisdictions where the company has impacts through its value creation. The company does not avoid paying fair taxes in such impact jurisdictions in order to pursue tax-preferential opportunities elsewhere. The company focuses the benefits of its tax payments, employment and procurement opportunities, and (local-need-responsive) social investments or collaborations on the local systems in which it operates, through ongoing engagement with local communities. The company may explore community partnerships or profit-sharing structures to ensure fair and local distribution of the resources, benefits, and opportunities the company can offer.

The company has established a legitimate and accessible grievance mechanism to receive complaints, grievances and other forms of feedback from company stakeholders and rights holders (anonymously if desired) with predictable and transparent processes to address such feedback. The company commits to and delivers timely and effective resolution and remediation, as needed. To ensure effectiveness of the approach, the company ensures that company stakeholders know about the mechanism, trust it, and are able to use it.

The company ensures that, when required, it willingly participates in fair, equitable, and transparent dispute resolution processes, assisted by an impartial third party. The company offers appropriate redress for its adverse impacts.

The company comprehensively (not selectively) discloses its sustainability performance data, ideally in raw form (in addition to any curated content) to support independent analysis and comparison, where feasible. The company is transparent in its data sources and data collection and analysis methods and aims to provide data that lends itself to comparability across and beyond industries. In addition to social, environmental, and human resource data, corporate data disclosure should also include statistics on executive compensation (and wage ratios between executives and the median and lowest paid workers), corporate tax data and other payments to governments, and data on the company’s political contributions and lobbying expenses.

In policies, procedures, culture, and decision-making, the company and its representatives are trained, empowered, and expected to detect and prevent bribery and corruption. The company collects and records fit-for-purpose data to support its anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts. The company empowers workers to report corruption, bribery, and other types of illegal or unethical activities and has transparent processes (including a hotline) for whistleblowers to disclose such unethical or illegal practices (anonymously, if desired). The company investigates such reports promptly and ensures whistleblowers are protected from retaliation, reprisals, or intimidation.

The company only collects the minimal data required for its legitimate commercial purposes and is committed to the protection of employee, customer, supplier, and other data. Through policies, procedures, culture, and decision-making, the company and its representatives ensure the prevention of data misuse or unauthorised use. The company respects data sovereignty and maintains and follows clear policies regarding data ownership and data use authorisation, particularly for data about the company’s social and environmental context. The company has robust and safe Records and Data Management systems and practices. The company actively considers the ethical implications of machine learning, when relevant.

The company actively works to eliminate intra-organisational pay disparities, whether based on gender, age, jurisdiction, or other differentiators unrelated to skills, performance and experience. The company is mindful of the impacts of its compensation packages – especially those of executives – on community wealth disparity (including impacts on available and affordable community resources).

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with the issue of pollutants.

Including excess nutrients and nutrient pollution from runoff and leachate.

Including acids; caustic substances; disinfectants; glues; pesticides; solvents; flame retardants; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); fluorides; persistent organic pollutants.

Including dust; silica; particulate matter 2.5 and 10; diesel particulate matter; microfibres; microplastics; asbestos.

Including volatile organic compounds; carbon monoxide; sulphur and nitrogen oxides; ozone.

Including lead; arsenic; cadmium; mercury; and other toxic metals.

Including microwaves; gamma-rays; radio waves.

Including unwanted or disturbing sounds that affect people and animals.

Including excessive and/or inefficient lighting; inappropriate use of outdoor lighting.

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with the issue of materials and waste.

Including material stewardship; resource efficiency in processes and value chain; achieving maximum use from resources; and maintaining goods to extend working life.

Including tailings; slag; sludge; waste heat; fibres; shavings; fly ash; organic waste (including food waste; animal waste; human waste; paper and cardboard); medical waste; textile waste; plastics; e-waste; building and construction waste; and other process residuals and waste.

Including managing product lifecycle; improving product longevity; preventing spoilage; overage; defective products; unsold goods; design for repair and disassembly; circularity; and beneficial reuse for surplus.

Including single-use and multi-material packaging; single-use plastics; glass, aluminum, steel, paper and paper board, textiles and other packaging waste.

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with issues related to ecosystems.

Including habitat loss and degradation; species loss, including reductions in population, species distribution, traits, and diversity between species and of ecosystems.

Including management of ecosystems and their services; culturally significant species and landforms; direct goods and services that provide value to communities; cumulative and secondary impacts from development.

Including prevention, control, and removal.

Including developing, using, and vacating spaces so that future regeneration is not necessary.

Including rehabilitation of ecosystems, including the pace and quality of rehabilitation; soil health; restoring wildlife and plant communities.

Including limiting human occupation and resource exploitation; preserving key biological diversity and distinctive features.

Introductory resources and reference materials to help acquaint you with the issues related to water.

Including catchment demand; integrated water management; maintaining environmental flows; discharging during peak flows; demand during drought; surface water levels; aquifer draw-down; flooding; long-term "take".

Including chemical; biological; radiological; temperature; turbidity; pH; dissolved oxygen.

Including water rights; integrated watershed planning; water resource development and management; water access for community, cultural, and navigation purposes.

General resources that provide a high-level understanding of climate change as an issue.

Including understanding the behaviour of the climate system; identifying relevant climate-related risks and opportunities.

Including efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases.

Including resilient infrastructure; resilient supply chains; disaster contingency plans; building spare capacity into systems; flexible alternative strategies; supporting regional and national adaptation plans.

Including adopting and encouraging renewable energy options.