Include enforceable environmental standards in trade agreements
International trade
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Only governments can write environmental terms into trade agreements. Much of the underlying outcome, production abroad that meets environmental standards, runs through the supply chains of U.S. companies, which owners can reach directly. ICCR coordinates shareholder engagement on global supply chains, and its members' proposal at Kraft Heinz produced a human rights due diligence commitment across high-risk commodities such as cattle and coffee. The blocker on the position itself is governmental: the USMCA already carries environmental obligations that are fully enforceable through dispute settlement, and extending such terms further waits on governments choosing to negotiate new agreements, a decision no company controls.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: International Trade, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, survey September 2024
- Equitable Global Supply Chains, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, accessed 2026-08-28
- Investors Commend Kraft Heinz for Efforts to Advance Human Rights Due Diligence Throughout its Supply Chain, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, accessed 2026-08-28
- EPA's Role in International Trade Agreements, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed 2026-08-28
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinates member engagements asking companies to conduct human rights and environmental risk assessments of their global supply chains with full traceability.
Equitable Global Supply Chains, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2025
Files deforestation and biodiversity proposals asking companies to assess and eliminate deforestation and habitat conversion in sourced commodities such as beef, soy, coffee, palm and cocoa.
Our Top Ten Victories from the 2025 Shareholder Advocacy Season, Green Century, 2025-07
3 campaigns on record
Assess and address deforestation in the supply chains of Kirkland Signature products.
Result: Withdrawn for commitment.
Costco committed to publish a comprehensive deforestation assessment and action plan by 2025.
Our Top Ten Victories from the 2025 Shareholder Advocacy Season, Green Century, 2025-07
Strengthen protections for wild lands, including grasslands and savannahs, in the sourcing of beef and soy.
Result: Withdrawn for commitment.
Conagra committed to assess protections for grasslands and savannahs in its sourcing.
Our Top Ten Victories from the 2025 Shareholder Advocacy Season, Green Century, 2025-07
Review forest protection policies and ensure deforestation-free sourcing of coffee, palm, soy, cocoa and wood pulp.
Result: Withdrawn for commitment.
Smucker committed to assess its supply chain and transition to deforestation-free supplies in 2026.
Our Top Ten Victories from the 2025 Shareholder Advocacy Season, Green Century, 2025-07
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.