IRBC Agreements

Agreements promoting International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC agreements) involve partnerships between businesses, government, unions and NGOs. Together, these partners work to prevent such abuses as exploitation, animal suffering and environmental damage.

Cotton pickers in action. Illustration for the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile.

Why conclude IRBC agreements?

International business dealings may involve complex problems such as environmental pollution and child labour. By concluding agreements, businesses work with other stakeholders to tackle these problems.

Background

In 2014, the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) recommended concluding multistakeholder agreements in each relevant sector. By cooperating, stakeholders can concentrate their efforts to combat abuses.

Man working at his sawing machines. Illustration for the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile.

Agreements overview

There are IRBC agreements in the garments and textile, banking, and gold sectors. Other agreements are being negotiated.

State of play

Brief overview of the state of play with all IRBC agreements.

Agreements

Wind Energy

agreements

News

30 November 2020

Bridging global gap in remediation of adverse impacts requires concerted effort by all stakeholders

Enabling access to remedy is an opportunity for a company to gain better insight into and to address issues in its supply chains, to prevent costs and to strengthen its reputation. More collaboration between companies and stakeholders is needed to increase leverage for remedy, to develop expertise on remediation processes and to develop ideas on how to finance remedy. These are amongst the key findings of the Access to Remedy webinar organised by the Social and Economic Council (SER) and the Dutch OECD National Contact Point (NCP) with the support of Shift.

20 November 2020

Nyrstar signs the International RBC Agreement for the Metals Sector

Nyrstar, an internationally operating company in the metal sector, signed the International RBC Agreement for the Metals Sector on 26 October 2020

16 November 2020

Further increase transparency of AGT companies

From 2016 to 2019, the number of unique production locations publicized by signatories of the Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile (AGT), has more than doubled from 2,800 to 6,000. The locations can be found on the Open Apparel Registry (OAR): a global database of textile production locations. The growing number of production locations of AGT companies on the OAR, demonstrates their ongoing effort to increase supply chain transparency.

News overview