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Civil society unites around principles for good governance in corporate standards

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Today over forty civil society organizations including the Lead the Charge network issued a joint statement of principles for good governance in corporate standards. Responding to a recent proliferation of flawed, industry-led standards for mining, carbon emissions and steel decarbonization, the organizations are uniting behind a shared set of principles to govern corporate standards.

The joint statement includes the following ten principles for good governance in corporate standards:

  • Financial Transparency
  • Stakeholder Definitions
  • Balanced Representation
  • Accessible Engagement
  • Traceability of Input
  • Transparent Decision-Making Criteria
  • Respecting Scientific and Legal Foundations
  • Conflict of Interest Safeguards
  • Integrity of Audit and Assessment Processes
  • Continuous Improvement

For more detailed information on each principle, visit standardsgovernance.org.

Lead the Charge member organizations have raised concerns around a number of industry-led initiatives to create less robust corporate standards, including:

  • The Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative. Lead the Charge endorsed a policy brief for automakers as part of a collective effort by civil society, Indigenous rights and labor organizations to communicate critical findings and underscore key risks posed by the Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative (CMSI) to communities, workers, ecosystems, investors and downstream minerals purchasers.
  • The Global Steel Climate Council. Lead the Charge members signed onto a letter criticizing the industry-created Global Steel Climate Council for lack of a credible multi-stakeholder process, describing the council as “not fit for purpose as a third-party system to certify low-emissions steel.”
  • Mass balance accounting. Lead the Charge members signed onto a letter denouncing the push for so-called “mass balance” accounting schemes primarily advocated by Japanese industry actors, which allow steelmakers to assign emissions reductions from one part of their operations to unrelated steel products.

The release of the principles follows several recent reports on corporate standards governance, including “Governing Climate Credibility Reviewing the Governance of Climate and Sustainability Standards” from Oxford Net Zero, an interdisciplinary research initiative based at the University of Oxford. The Oxford report examines how governance structures support transparency, stakeholder representation, conflict-of-interest management, risk oversight, and robust standard-development processes. 

Lead the Charge also released an assessment of third-party assurance and accreditation schemes designed to support automakers and other automotive supply chain stakeholders, in order to make informed decisions regarding their use of these accreditation schemes for the mining sites, smelters, refiners, steel and aluminum plants and other facilities in their supply chains.

The entire Lead the Charge network signed onto the joint statement of principles, as well as organizations including: