Methodology

Understanding corporate influence is key to pushing for a more just and sustainable economy

Social Lobby Map applies a structured, data-driven methodology to track how companies shape labour and human rights regulations. 

Our framework provides clear evidence of corporate influence, helping stakeholders evaluate lobbying behaviour and advocate for stronger protections.

Why This Work Matters

Why Monitoring Lobbying Is Critical to Accountability

Corporate lobbying is one of the most powerful tools companies use to shape the regulatory environment. While many businesses publicly commit to respecting human rights and sustainability, their lobbying activities often tell a different story. By analysing lobbying practices, Social LobbyMap helps uncover:

Who is pushing for stronger protections
Who is trying to weaken or delay regulations
Who is staying silent or taking mixed positions

How We Do It

Turning Policy Influence Into Actionable Data

We monitor:

Corporate engagement around legislative processes concerning labour and human rights policies
Lobbying activities that impact workers, communities, supply chains and social commitments
Industry associations that represent corporate interests in regulatory debates

Methodological Commitment

Our Commitment to Transparency

Open Methodology: our scoring and assessment criteria are publicly available to ensure transparency.

Continuous Improvement: we reviewed and refined our methodology in response to stakeholder feedback and evolving policy landscapes and we will repeat this process periodically.

Collaboration with Experts: we work with human rights experts, labor organisations, and ESG researchers to validate and strengthen our approach.

Scope of Our Analysis

Who We Monitor

We currently analyse 122 influential actors, including:

74 Companies in:
- Renewable Energy
- Mining
- Finance
- Apparel
48 Trade Associations, covering industry-specific and cross-sectoral lobbying groups

Our coverage will expand as the project proceeds and new policy areas emerge.

How We Score Lobbying Behaviour

Evaluating Corporate Influence on a 5-Point Scale

We assign scores on a 5-point scale:

Social LobbyMap is powered by InfluenceMap’s systems. For more information, please refer to LobbyMap Methodology (new). We have made minor adjustments to reflect the human rights context. These adjustments mean we are not using:

Engagement Intensity – so we can demonstrate the full spectrum of lobbying by our focus sectors on the CSDDD. As we are analysing one piece of legislation for now, the data shown on our website may not reflect general lobbying on each of the themes analysed, but rather how the entity positioned itself in the CSDDD process.
Relationship Strength and Relative Ranking – these are not the focus of our initial analysis and will be developed in the future to align with InfluenceMap as much as possible.

Our Framework

Nine Key Themes

We assess corporate lobbying using nine key indicators aligned with international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and ILO core labour standards. These indicators allow us to evaluate how companies and trade associations influence policies that affect people, workers, communities, and supply chains.

We assess businesses’ positions on policies that regulate how they: