As sustainability regulations tighten and geopolitical tensions continue to reshape global trade, companies are under growing pressure to demonstrate credible Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) across increasingly complex value chains. Eneco’s early adoption of HREDD shows how organisations can move beyond compliance and turn sustainability obligations into resilience and long-term value creation.
The regulatory landscape for supply chain due diligence has changed rapidly. Frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the OECD’s Responsible Business Conduct guidelines, the IRBC agreements and the EU Forced Labour Regulation now form a dense and overlapping web of requirements. For renewable energy companies like Eneco, this complexity is intensified by global trade tensions that directly affect access to critical materials used in wind, solar and battery supply chains.
According to Anna Bulzomi, Director of Sustainability at PwC, which advises Eneco on HREDD, these developments have real operational consequences. When companies can no longer import certain products into the European Union due to forced labour bans or other human rights concerns, supply chains face disruption, delays and rising costs. Human rights risks are no longer abstract ethical issues; they are becoming concrete trade barriers that can directly affect business continuity.
In this environment, Eneco has adopted an agile, business-driven approach to HREDD that goes beyond box-ticking. The company aligns its due diligence with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, ensuring that risks identified far upstream, such as in mining or production countries, are addressed through appropriate action. Participation in the IRBC Agreement allows Eneco to use collective leverage for research and remediation, strengthening both impact and efficiency.
A key challenge in implementing HREDD is avoiding the trap of trying to address every issue everywhere. Limited budgets and resources make this approach unsustainable. Together with PwC, Eneco applies a structured methodology that combines multiple data sources to assess both the likelihood and severity of human rights and environmental risks by region and issue. Data from UN bodies, labour organisations, academic research and credible NGOs is used to identify where the most severe risks lie and where Eneco’s influence is greatest. This prioritisation allows the company to focus on what truly matters from a risk, cost and impact perspective.
Eneco’s experience also highlights how HREDD can actively support business growth. In sectors such as offshore wind, robust due diligence is now a prerequisite for participating in competitive tenders. Strong HREDD practices increase eligibility for large-scale renewable energy projects and strengthen Eneco’s position alongside technical expertise and pricing. As business customers face their own sustainability obligations, transparency around supply chains and concrete action on human rights risks are becoming decisive factors in commercial decision-making.
Internally, one of the most important lessons from Eneco’s first implementation phase is that HREDD cannot succeed as a standalone sustainability initiative. Real impact requires early and ongoing involvement from procurement, asset management, legal and other business functions connected to the value chain. When due diligence is embedded into existing processes and aligned with business language and objectives, it stops being perceived as a compliance burden and becomes a strategic tool for risk management, cost control and trust-building.
Eneco’s HREDD journey demonstrates that companies benefit most when due diligence is approached holistically, adapted to changing circumstances and built on existing systems and practices. By anchoring HREDD to core business priorities such as resilience, growth and stakeholder trust, organisations can turn regulatory pressure into a source of competitive advantage. In an era of tightening rules and shifting trade dynamics, Eneco’s experience shows that well-implemented HREDD is not a constraint, but a driver of long-term value.
