Matthew Skerritt
Matthew is an OSCAR researcher and PhD candidate at the Atlantic Technological University, specialising in corporate sustainability and supply chain management. With a background in health economics, environmental economics, and law, Matthew’s research interests are in conducting mixed-methods and multi-disciplinary research into the design, implementation, and effectiveness of sustainability policies and strategies in corporate and public contexts.
This research is contextualised in the European Union, focusing on the effects the incoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and Reporting Directives. These will substantially impact large Irish firms' supply chain management practices and corporate sustainability reporting. These directives require large corporations to identify, intervene in, and report on adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their supply chains. Particularly, this directive moves beyond the typical terminology of workers and incorporates human rights language, and, in addition to emissions and pollution, requires businesses to report on their ecosystem and biodiversity impacts in the supply chain.
This project investigates how these directives influence reporting practices and what internal changes occur within the firm to maintain legitimacy in this changing regulatory environment.