Case Study

Building a human rights framework in partnership with MCIE

Overview

Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) PLC (MCIE), is a London based subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation (MC). Through its four business divisions and network of MC group companies, MCIE covers a wide range of industries from energy, machinery and metals to food and consumer goods.

twentyfifty has been a long-standing partner of MCIE since 2015, working with the Corporate Communications and Sustainability team (CCS), to help the company better understand its potential human rights impacts, support due diligence implementation across the business and advise on sustainability strategy development.

The challenge

The CCS team within MCIE has needed to build understanding of human rights risks and appropriate due diligence, along with buy-in and commitment across a complex business comprising a wide range of industries and value chains.   A key task has been to support the CCS team in defining and delivering against an ambitious approach for MCIE, while ensuring continued alignment with the strategy and priorities of its headquarters in Japan.

Our approach

Our approach has been grounded in the continuous learning and improvement method at the heart of UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, responding to the above context by creating a regular drumbeat of capability-building and development of tools that can be applied to a wide range of industries, whilst incorporating a flexible interpretation of key topic areas.

We've worked in close partnership with the CCS team to help MCIE and its constituent businesses better understand their risk profile - engaging key stakeholders across the business, building trust, and creating opportunities to not just simply meet legislative requirements, but to be anticipating future sustainability demands and social policy developments.

Results

As a result of our close partnership with the team, we have successfully delivered the following projects:

  • Implemented action plans to mitigate modern slavery risks identified through a modern slavery focused risk assessment
  • Developed a MCIE Supplier code of conduct and Modern Slavery Memo for recruitment agencies, outlining key expectations and requirements for suppliers
  • Risk analysis prioritising different human rights across business divisions and value chains
  • A gap analysis of the key business divisions, identifying key strengths and areas for improvement against expectations in the UNGPs, UK Modern Slavery Act and leading benchmarks such as CHRB & WBA
  • Annual internal capability training for business divisions and group companies, building understanding of the human rights and business agenda, within and beyond current legislative developments.
What our clients say
Julie Rogers, General Manager of Corporate Communications & CSR, MCIE

“twentyfifty has been a valued guide and partner throughout our HRDD journey. Their expertise has been invaluable in helping us to navigate the complex challenges of our diverse business and in building capacity and knowledge, step by step, across not only MCIE, but also across our group company network.”

Project details
Client Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) PLC (MCIE)
Sector Finance & Trading
Services provided Embedding Due Diligence, Understanding Impacts, Renewing Organisations
Functions involved Senior Leadership, Communications, HR, Supply Chain Management, Traders
Duration 6 years
Key success factors


Stakeholder engagement


Leadership of Change

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