The State of Children’s Rights & Business

Basic Materials

Sector Focus

About this sector

Basic Materials

The Basic Materials sector includes companies that discover, extract and process various raw materials, and typically produce products or services related to the mining, chemical or forestry industries. Other sectors rely on Basic Materials for raw materials necessary for the manufacture of goods.

Spurring social development

Companies operating in the Basic Materials sector have the potential to introduce positive change to children’s lives through their investments in the communities in which they operate as part of the infrastructure. There is a huge opportunity to support social development through improvements to roads, water and sanitation, education, and healthcare – while also providing employment.

Companies working in this sector also need to guard against long lasting negative impacts on children, who are more vulnerable than adults because of their continuous physical, social and emotional development.

The sector includes the following industries:

  • Paper & Forest Products
  • Agricultural Products
  • Containers & Packaging
  • Chemicals
  • Metals & Mining

Read on to discover insights into the performance of this sector based on our unique benchmark series, The State of Children’s Rights and Business.

Want to know more?

How did this sector perform?

Watch a summary of the Basic Materials 2024 Benchmark Results

Sector Scorecard

Basic Materials

Need a summary of this sector’s benchmark performance?

Download Sector Scorecard
Top 5

Best performing companies

Since 2013, Global Child Forum has been benchmarking the world’s most influential companies, assessing how they respond to children’s rights. Our data can be used by corporates to increase their social impact, and for investors to inform their decision-making.

 

The scores in this top list come from the Global Benchmark 2024, and are based on the total selection of 1,802 companies – find out more about which companies were benchmarked here.

 

Choose your industry to the right to see the top five scoring companies. You can also search for a specific company name in the field below.

Select sector:
Company Average score
Wilmar International
PLDT
Hershey
Musim Mas
PepsiCo
Siemens
Bouygues Group
Owens Corning
Iberdrola
Holcim
Norsk Hydro
Lundin Mining
Teck Resources
Newmont
Suzano
Puma
ANTA
Kering
Fung Group
Hyundai Motor
Neste
Idemitsu Kosan
OMV
BP
Formosa Petrochemical
Lodha
Sun Life Financial
UOB
KB Financial Group
Maybank
Wilmar International
Hershey
Musim Mas
PepsiCo
Aldi Nord
Merck
Bayer
Sun Pharma
Aspen Pharmacare
Lupin
PLDT
Telenor
Verizon
Telia
Tele2
Governance &
Collaboration
Workplace
Marketplace
Community &
Environment

What can Basic Materials teach other sectors?

Company Case Study
Stora Enso: Mitigating Child Labour

A study investigating how Stora Enso found itself in crisis over child labour in its supply chain, and took action to remedy the situation.

Company Case Study
Bayer: Mitigating root causes of child labour

Learn about Bayer’s advancements in the area of child labour mitigation, through the implementation of its Child Care Programme (CCP).

Company Case Study
Norsk Hydro Brazil’s journey towards social responsibility

This case study on Norsk Hydro Brazil and social responsibility shows how the company addresses children’s rights and related issues in its operations.

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Matthew Goodwin

Head of Sustainable Investing

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Matthew is pioneering a new role at Global Child Forum as Head of Sustainable Investing, responsible for building Global Child Forum’s relationship with the financial services sector and ensuring that our sustainability data on children’s rights is made available to investors, asset managers and asset owners, helping them integrate children’s rights into their operations and investment decision-making process. Prior to joining Global Child Forum, he spent eight years at Lloyds Banking Group in London. Matthew studied Law and French at Université Paul Cézanne, Aix Marseille III and The University of Sheffield.
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Clémence Gervais

Benchmark manager

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Clémence is Global Child Forum’s Benchmark Manager. She oversees the realization of the Children's Rights and Business' Benchmark as well as GCF's Benchmark Report, the State of Children's Rights and Business, in partnership with BCG. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the French School of Public Health (EHESP), as well as a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Rennes (France). Before joining Global Child Forum, Clémence worked in several organizations in France, Peru, and Sweden, coordinating projects and missions related to social work and public health.
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