Ethical Risk Assessment (ERA)

The aim of sector-specific Ethical Risk Assessments is to identify the particularly serious environmental and social issues, which can vary considerably from one sector to another. 

Business challenges within supply chain management relating to environmental and social issues are thus made the subject of a risk assessment, which is published in the form of the era-paper series (Ethical Risk Assessment).

The analysis is not limited to identifying risks at the corporate level, but also takes into account the regulatory framework and thus the context in which companies operate, incorporating stakeholders from politics and civil society. 

This broadens the risk perspective to include a regulatory/governance level and examines the scope for action available to all stakeholders. The focus is on determining each stakeholder’s contribution to minimising socio-ethical and environmental challenges in order to enable sustainable business practices.

Building on this, our aim is to bring about concrete improvements through model or pilot projects. With these ‘Impact Tools’, the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik is following its approach of subjecting the results of its think-tank work to a practical feasibility test.

Following the era-paper on the electrical recycling sector, published in November 2012, the second volume on the cocoa sector was published in March 2017, the Ethical Risk Assessment on the fishing industry in February 2018, and the fourth era-paper on the tourism sector in November 2020.