#114 Bennett Freeman & Chloe Cole: How Have US Corporates Responded to the ESG Backlash?

We often hear about the backlash against sustainability and business and human rights in the United States, but does the perception reflect the reality when it comes to actual business practice? 

In this episode of Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt was joined by Bennett Freeman, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Associate Fellow at the think tank Chatham House, as well as Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley, and Chloe Cole, Senior Researcher in US Business and Human Rights at the Business and Human Rights Centre.  

Together they discussed the findings of the Centre's just-published research on how 54 large US companies have reacted to the changed American political environment, entitled: "Retreat or respect? Diverging corporate paths on human rights in a time of turbulence." 

You’ll hear about: 

• The three main ways top US firms have responded to the backlash – the good, the bad and the ugly  

• The positive role played by several US companies in response to the violence of ICE officials in Minnesota in January  

• Big Oil's aggressive lobbying against the EU CDDDD 

• The corporate attempt to silence environmental NGOs, such as Energy Transfer's lawsuit against Greenpeace  

• Why companies choosing silence is not a neutral choice  

• The ultimate aim of the research: to encourage companies to keep going in their improving business and human rights  

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