Ten years since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we have witnessed an increasing trend in Europe toward the adoption of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. Focusing on due diligence legislation from France, Germany, Norway, and the EU, this article examines the extent to which these laws are laying the foundations for the articulation of an integrated, comprehensive, and robust framework that effectively fosters corporate accountability through preventing, addressing, and remedying corporate‐related human rights and environmental harms. In this examination, we draw on international human rights and environmental standards and Third World Approaches to International Law, to identify the lessons learned from current approaches and that ought to be considered in future frameworks.

The relationship between human rights and the environment has been on the international policy and scholarly agendas for over two decades. Equally, the dynamics between business activities and corporations’ working methods and their impact on human rights have been developing at the policy and legal levels. However, within these developments there has been limited consideration of the environment in the context of adverse corporate impacts and their human dimensions, which have been approached in an ad-hoc and piecemeal manner. This Special Issue exposes the advances and deficiencies in the theoretical and practical integration of human rights and the environment within the business and human rights framework, as well as the role and impact of greater integration for achieving positive social and environmental change. In this editorial to the special issue of Sustainability on Business, Human Rights, and the Environment, we set the stage to push forward the development of an integrated and coherent theoretic Business, Human Rights, and Environment framework and its international legal implementation which places the needs of the people and the planet at its core.

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