In an era of regulatory fragmentation and trade wars, human rights violations and supply chain resilience are critical issues for business continuity and resilience. Potential abuses and risks are more likely as market pressures, political uncertainty and cases of disinformation grow. These risks can leave companies exposed to a complex regulatory landscape, reputational scandals, and trade disruptions. Collaboration can bring that simplification and added value that companies need so they can do business better. 

Strengthening Business Resilience in Times of Uncertainty

Instead of a rollback from human rights due diligence and sustainability laws, we’re seeing a move away from global harmonization of those laws. For businesses, that means more complexity. Despite attempts to fast-track the process, the EU’s landmark human rights regulations now face a period of 6-9 months of uncertainty as the Omnibus debate rages. In the meantime, Asian nations are advancing their own HRDD rules, while trade bans are in place for forced and child labor in the EU and US.

The EU’s landmark human rights regulations now face a period of uncertainty

The lack of a single blueprint that combines compliance and best practice is a barrier to simplification, but regulatory uncertainty doesn’t change the facts on the ground. The climate crisis is ongoing and poses a significant risk to global business. 28m workers remain in conditions of forced labor. It’s never been more crucial for businesses to put effective due diligence processes in place to address these risks. The cost of compliance remains low, the European Commission estimates that the cost of compliance ranges between EUR 52,200 for large companies and 643,000 for very large companies. Even the highest estimate would still only represent 0.01 and 0.1% of turnover of the average company subject to the CSDDD, thanks to the emergence of new technologies. 

If they don’t take action, companies risk increasing the complexity and cost of their compliance policies. This increased risk stems from this lack of harmonization, which exacerbates any gaps in risk management policies that companies may have.  Companies can instead enjoy an advantage by adopting collective action,  sharing data and best practice, combining toolsets, removing duplication and promoting simplification. Doing so can help businesses avoid damaging compliance and reputational risks, reap the business benefits of responsible business conduct, lower costs, and drive genuine progress in the supply chain.

Collaboration Brings Efficiency in the Face of Global Complexity

No company, no matter how big, can build an accurate risk profile of their supply chain and address systemic issues like child labor and climate risks alone. A paucity of data on supply chain labor and human rights conditions means companies have to be ready with the right tools for the job when risk rears its head. However, as the OECD states, the current standard of tools that are used to identify and assess such risks are not up to the job. 

Until now, companies have needed to use multiple service providers for a full suite of digital due diligence capabilities. Many service providers specialize in tackling only one type of supply chain challenge. Using specialized service providers can bring expertise, but it also increases complexity at the expense of a harmonious company-wide ESG strategy. 

A new generation of collaborative tools, based on worker voice and modern accessibility features can bring companies closer to their value chain, lower the risk of human and labor rights issues, improve their supply chain sustainability, future-proof compliance across multiple jurisdictions, and build supply chain resilience all in one place.

A new generation of collaborative tools lower the risk of human and labor rights issues

When it comes to due diligence, collaboration means streamlining the delivery of supply chain stakeholder and worker rights data, reducing duplication and costs, facilitating data sharing to benefit from holistic supply chain insights and simplifying the integration of data into workflows and policy implementation.

Collaboration can add value in the following areas:

• Worker feedback on risks to improve risk identification, impact measurement, and to inform purchasing decisions.
• Efficiency, saving time and costs;
• A unified HRDD toolset to better enable collaboration across industries;
• Reducing the burden of demands and systems on suppliers and stakeholders;
• A comprehensive approach to ESG (i.e. linking HR and the environment);

Success stories: Ulula’s collaboration with Appellando, a multi-stakeholder framework for harmonizing grievance mechanisms worldwide and organizing solutions with our partners, shows the power of collective action. Supported by Ulula, Canal Foros provides a harmonized service to many of the UK’s household retailers. 

Ecovadis Worker Voice: Collaborating to Expand the Toolkit

The coming together of EcoVadis and Ulula was inspired by this need to build more comprehensive sustainability solutions. By collaborating with EcoVadis, Ulula will be able to reach more workers with their worker-first suite of solutions. EcoVadis currently supports around 1,500 enterprise customers in their sustainability programs. The IQ Plus tool enables 100% of the supply base to be screened on sustainability risks, while Vitals light AI-verified questionnaire and Ratings deep analyst-verified assessment enable companies to deploy a progressive due diligence process. 

When EcoVadis utilizes Ulula’s data gathered directly from workers, opportunities to improve supply chain resilience and drive efficiencies in responsible business conduct emerge. Companies can more efficiently prioritize their resources with: 

• Outside-in risk screening;
• Assessment of the sustainability management system;
• Local stakeholder engagement with Ulula’s approach.

As a result, EcoVadis and Ulula have created EcoVadis Worker Voice, a simplified survey that integrates stakeholder insights company ESG and compliance policies. EcoVadis Worker Voice helps businesses build more resilient, compliant supply chains by gathering direct feedback from workers and stakeholders at every level. 

The 22-question worker voice survey is accessible in multiple languages and on multiple devices. Its feedback helps companies assess how well their trading partners’ policies and procedures are working on the ground so they can identify risks early and ensure compliance. Starting July 2025, customers will be able to use this data to validate and strengthen supplier ratings scorecards, enhancing reporting capabilities and increasing credibility with stakeholders.

The 22-question worker voice survey is accessible in multiple languages and on multiple devices

For businesses, that means: 

• Pooling resources and lowering compliance costs;
• Increasing effectiveness by enabling joint remediation; 
• Enabling greater coordination and leverage when consulting with stakeholders or suppliers.
• Collective solutions to systemic HR issues;
• More compliance relevant data without additional resources;
• Measuring impact on the ground.

For suppliers, that means:

• Reducing the burden of compliance;
• Clarifying expectations across the board;
• Greater access to supplier development programmes (less scattered, and more resources).

For workers, that means:

• More robust systems to protect their rights and access meaningful remedy;
• Better protection of rights through widely recognised initiatives;
• Decreased risk of retaliation;
• Increased visibility of risks by multiple invested stakeholders.

“With the acquisition of Ulula, EcoVadis will be well positioned to integrate and scale up supply chain labor and human rights risk due diligence, meeting customer demands for on-the-ground, verifiable data. This complements EcoVadis’ in-depth ratings expertise and bolsters our offering to help companies around the world comply with new regulatory requirements.” – Pierre-François Thaler, co-founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis

Extending The Family: Scalability, Data Sharing & Trusted Suppliers

EcoVadis extends Ulula’s reach further than ever. EcoVadis’ global platform and network will amplify worker voices the world over. So far, Ulula has reached 5.8m workers in 80+ countries. And that number will rise as EcoVadis and Ulula collaborate to expand and refine their sustainability efforts.

Leveraging Ulula and EcoVadis’ combined supplier network means both companies can refine their toolkits further. With 2m+ companies screened and 150,000+ suppliers assessed, working with EcoVadis will allow Ulula to close the gap between companies, stakeholders and their workers. The insight that workers can provide will always be within arms reach.

If you want to back your sustainability ambitions up with the right tools for the job, give Ulula a call.