[New project] Asser Institute and UvA launch project on digital infrastructures of sustainability regulation (DigiChain)

Digital Infrastructures of Sustainability Regulation is a new interdisciplinary research project between the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Asser Institute which explores the role of technology in sustainability regulation, especially in value chain due diligence. 

Project setup 
The adoption of the landmark EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is the latest evidence of a turn to ‘due diligence’ as a central pillar of EU sustainability regulation. It requires large companies to identify, prevent and mitigate sustainability risks across their value chains. The DigiChain project illustrates that the practice of due diligence especially under the CSDDD will be digital, in the sense that companies and regulators will use digital technologies, foremost AI-driven, to reach and evaluate compliance with the new rules. Digital technologies and data analysis provide the infrastructure that shapes the due diligence process and determines its effectiveness. 

The DigiChain project explores interconnections between regulatory and technological developments, and identifies the features of these emerging ‘techno-legalities’ and how they are assembled into a new governance regime for the global economy. Towards this, the project team (1.) maps existing technological tools and relates them to the different stages of the due diligence process, (2.) examines how the data input, evaluation and presentation underlying leading tools allow compliance with the EU CSDDD, and (3.) draws initial recommendations to regulators and business on the use of digital due diligence tools. 

Project outreach
The team is currently setting up practice workshops with digital tool providers and public policy stakeholders. Please get in touch via email if you would like to know more or get involved.  

Project team members have also served as experts or consultants to different civil society, governmental and private stakeholders.  

The project builds on a week-long professional training and Spring Academy on ‘Technologies of sustainability due diligence’ at the Asser Institute hosted by team members Antoine Duval (Asser Institute) and Klaas Eller (UvA Law School) in April 2024. With 20+ speakers from tech providers, NGOs, government, business, law firms and academia, the program explored legal, technological, regulatory and management angles on digital tools in value chains. The full program is available here.  

In 2023, the Asser Institute released a first-of-its-kind report on the ‘Potential of Big Data Technologies for the Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Process’, commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).  

DigiChain Project team
The project brings together scholars with a background in law, economics and business, as well as informatics for an integrated analysis of digitalized due diligence and value chain governance. The team includes Robert Bwana, Dr Klaas Eller, Dr Debraj Roy, Dr Michelle Westermann-Behaylo, and Asser senior researcher Antoine Duval.

The project and its different pillars are funded by the University of Amsterdam (Seed Grant Responsible Digital Transformations), the Asser Institute and the NWO.

Dr Antoine Duval LL.M.