Ardea International

28/10/2025

What does it mean for business to be committed to tackling modern slavery?

As the Better Work Lead at CCLA Investment Management, Martin has spent years benchmarking top UK and global companies on their modern slavery disclosures. His work offers a crucial investor perspective on corporate progress and accountability.

In his session, Martin will share:

✔️ Key trends and lessons learned from the annual Modern Slavery Benchmark.

💡 Notable improvements in corporate disclosures.

➡️ Why investor engagement, through initiatives like 'Find It, Fix It, Prevent It', is a powerful force for change.

Discover what the data reveals about corporate action against modern slavery. Join Martin Buttle at our conference for these essential insights.

Secure your ticket today: https://bit.ly/439lEc6

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27/10/2025

"Stakeholder engagement is not just a procedural step – it’s the cornerstone of credible and effective due diligence" - find the full interview with Margherita here: https://ow.ly/rC2j50Xio76

22/10/2025

We are incredibly proud to announce a significant milestone: we are now officially a Certified B Corporation.

This is more than an accreditation; it is a profound declaration of our commitment to using business as a force for good. Achieving B Corp status required a rigorous, independent assessment of our entire operation, measuring our impact on our people, our community, and our planet.

This certification legally commits us to:

✔️ Upholding the highest standards of social and environmental performance.

💡 Maintaining public transparency in our operations.

🤝 Balancing profit with purpose, considering all stakeholders in our decisions.

Our journey to certification was a comprehensive evaluation of everything from our operational ethics to our employee benefits and environmental footprint. It validates our long-standing dedication to human rights and sustainability.

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08/10/2025

Connect with leaders from CCLA, the Ethical Trading Initiative, and more at our conference. Our intimate setting is designed for meaningful conversations and powerful networking.

Build your network and share insights. https://bit.ly/439lEc6

30/07/2025

📣 The countdown to our summer series has begun! By popular demand, we'll be running two courses this August, to help you hit the ground running this autumn:

✔️ Business and Human Rights: Summer Course. Our most in-demand programme, condensed down into just four weeks. This course will meet you where you're at to build your understanding of the business and human rights landscape and identify the relevant issues and challenges organisations face.

✔️ Modern Slavery Training: Summer Course. Deepen your understanding of modern slavery, and gain the expertise to confidently guide your organisation in addressing these risks effectively throughout your supply chain.

Our teaching is based in practicality: you'll gain insights into effective human rights due diligence frameworks, integration strategies and reporting mechanisms as well as effective remediation and grievance processes.

Do get in touch if you would like to arrange a short consultation call to discuss. Our consultation calls are obligation-free, and cover:
- Financing options
- Course contents, and what might work best for you
- Questions about accessibility

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Link in the comments.
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09/04/2025

We're a little bit into April now, but here's what you might have missed from March! Outside the and , legislative changes coming down the tracks have illustrated the importance of recognising that momentum on due diligence has picked up.

Upcoming Webinar. 30th April 2025 12:00 PM London: Risk Management and Resilience in Supply Chains – Insights from Taberah Webinar.

18/10/2024

There's just a few tickets left for our modern slavery conference this November, hosted in partnership with DMH Stallard LLP. We're delighted that our keynote speaker this year is Sarah Woodcock, CEO of The Anti-Slavery Collective.

Sarah has worked in senior global roles both as a consultant and for INGOs like ActionAid, supporting civil society organisations, governments, and businesses to develop innovative, impact-driven strategies. She has a particular interest in the measurement of impact and the transformative power of data. Sarah has worked with teams from 40+ countries during her career building public / private partnerships that deliver long-term sustainable results.

Click here to learn more: https://www.ardeainternational.com/education/modern-slavery-conference-2024/

17/10/2024

According to the PwC’s 2021 Global Culture Survey, 72% reported that culture helps successful change initiatives happen. Knowing how to effectively implement cultural change within your organisation is therefore key to meeting new legislative requirements, like those outlined in the CS3D.​

Our latest blog outlines:​

Why companies should put in place good due diligence and risk management policies and procedures,​

What the obligations are for these under the Directive,​

How companies can achieve these obligations, ​

What challenges they may face,

The initial steps a company should take in working towards effective due diligence and risk management.​

Read more here: https://www.ardeainternational.com/thinking/meeting-due-diligence-and-risk-management-obligations-under-the-cs3d/

09/10/2024

The EU Commission recently announced plans to delay the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by 12 months.

Initially set to come into force at the end of 2024 for large companies, the new deadlines of December 2025 (for large enterprises) and June 2026 (for small and micro businesses) provide additional time for businesses to align with the regulation’s stringent requirements.

While this delay acknowledges the challenges many sectors face—especially in complying with traceability and due diligence—it also raises critical questions. The first: is this delay necessary? https://ow.ly/BEJs50TGIn9

The EU Commission has announced plans to delay the implementation of the EUDR by 12 months. This raises critical questions.

20/09/2024

It's important that organisations operate in line with the UNGPs, on the principle of decent work. Fire-rehire tactics are one of the employment rights issues that look to be addressed in the UK government's upcoming legislative changes, per the King's Speech.

Dispute centred on use of threat of dismissal to remove ‘retained pay’ awarded in 2007 to encourage staff to relocate

19/09/2024

Are you up-to-date on the latest on modern slavery legislation requirements? Here's a map of everything that's currently in play. ​

At Ardea, we understand that putting the law into practice can present a challenge. With our team of qualified legal professionals, that's why we offer teaching and support alongside our consultancy work. ​

We have just two spaces left for our course on Business & Human Rights starting this month, designed to provide you with a comprehensive foundation to better understand the business and human rights landscape. The programme offers insights into compliance obligations with relevant laws, effective human rights due diligence frameworks, integration strategies and reporting mechanisms as well as effective remediation and grievance processes. ​

Get in touch to book your place, or to register for the next cohort in April 2025. ​

https://www.ardeainternational.com/education/business-and-human-rights-online-training-and-support-programme/

18/09/2024

Why are KPIs important? This is one of the topics we covered at last year's conference, using a real client case study to showcase the importance of motitoring human rights risk and tracking the effectiveness of actions.​
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This year we will be looking into modern slavery risk in more detail with a 2024 update on trends. You can view the full agenda and sign up here: https://ow.ly/n4tN50TpWk1
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The case study centered around a client that had performed poorly in a social audit. The client took actions to address the findings of the audit and requested support from Ardea to review the actions taken. Ardea’s review process found that several actions taken had been ineffective. ​

As a result, health and safety issues identified by the audit persisted, despite the actions taken to address them. In the session, Rory Oake shared some of the actions that we supported the client to take to improve their process for tracking the effectiveness of actions.​

Some of the key takeaways from the session included:

- Many companies overlook the need to measure effectiveness entirely, despite it being a crucial aspect of due diligence

- Systemic and cultural issues require long-term monitoring and continuous improvement (not a tick-box approach)

- All actions implemented require a follow-up to ‘close the loop’ on the effectiveness of the actions taken

- Feedback from workers is the most effective means of verifying the effectiveness of actions taken

- Audits are not 100% effective and should be cross-checked using other methods

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P.S. - For more on this, sign up for our upcoming webinar: https://ow.ly/XWAR50TpWjZ