The United Nations recently recognised access to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right (UN, 2021b). Business activities and infrastructure projects may expose local communities to increased environmental risks and adverse impacts, for example related to toxic materials or spread of diseases (IFC, 2012). At the same time, human rights defenders across the globe remain highly vulnerable and face violent and sometimes fatal assaults – in conjunction with increasing intimidation, harassment, stigmatisation and criminalisation. There is growing concern about the role of business in causing, contributing or being directly linked to attacks against human rights defenders, or in failing to take action against such attacks (UN, UNEP, 2021).

A note on the scoring system

Wikirate uses a standardized 10-point scoring system to enable comparison of company scores across different benchmarks. In the Nature Benchmark, companies can earn 1 point per indicator, which are then added together and calculated as a percentage of the total score for a measurement area (MA) to determine the final score for the MA. The overall Wikirate score is calculated by combining these scores with the appropriate weightings, and converting them to a 10-point scale. For instance, if a company achieves a final score of 50, the corresponding WikiRating will be 5.