Your Minimum Safeguards Help

Minimum safeguards are social and governance standards that companies must meet to ensure their economic activities can be classified as environmentally sustainable under the EU Taxonomy Regulation (Article 18 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852).

They are not optional. These safeguards act as a baseline for responsible business conduct, ensuring that sustainability claims are not just environmentally focused but also socially and ethically sound.

The legal foundations of minimum safeguards include:

• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises – comprehensive principles on due diligence, human rights, employment, environment, and anti-corruption.
• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) – a global standard for preventing and addressing human rights abuses in business operations.
• ILO Core Conventions – eight fundamental labor rights covering areas like child labor, forced labor, discrimination, and freedom of association.
• International Bill of Human Rights – a set of foundational human rights instruments, including civil, political, economic, and cultural rights.

These frameworks ensure that companies are not only contributing to environmental goals but are also upholding international norms in human rights and business ethics.

Minimum safeguards are critical to the credibility of the EU Taxonomy. They ensure that companies do not gain recognition or financial benefits from sustainability claims unless they also operate in a socially responsible and ethical manner.

Non-compliance with these safeguards can result in regulatory exposure, reputational damage, and disqualification from sustainability-linked funding. More importantly, it may lead to scrutiny from investors, regulators, and the public, especially if adverse social impacts or governance failures emerge.

Adherence to minimum safeguards also supports alignment with broader European legislation, such as:

• The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which requires transparency on sustainability risks and impacts.
• The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which mandates detailed disclosures on social, environmental, and governance performance.

By proactively meeting minimum safeguards, companies demonstrate that their sustainability strategy is not just about reducing carbon, but also about protecting people, ensuring equity, and building long-term resilience.

Navigating minimum safeguards can be complex — but it doesn't have to be. Our platform provides a structured, guided questionnaire designed to help you understand, assess, and document your compliance with EU Taxonomy minimum safeguards.

Here's how it works:

You will answer a series of focused questions aligned with Article 18 of the Taxonomy Regulation and related requirements under the SFDR Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288. These questions assess:

• Your company's due diligence processes
• How you identify and mitigate social and human rights risks
• Your policies on anti-bribery, board diversity, pay equity, and grievance mechanisms
• Your exposure to controversial activities, such as production of banned weapons

At the end of the process, you'll receive a custom report outlining your strengths, areas for improvement, and suggested next steps. This report is designed to support internal ESG strategies and can be used in external reporting under CSRD or SFDR.

Our goal is to help you build trust — with investors, stakeholders, and regulators — by ensuring your sustainability claims are comprehensive, compliant, and defensible.