Interview with Dr. Nawal Ait-Hocine, A Positive Impact, CEO | Strategic Advisor to the WJI 2030.
1. Regulatory Overview
Can you give us a brief overview of the recent regulatory developments that are critical for the watch & jewellery industry What is driving these regulatory shifts, and why now?
The legal sustainability landscape is rapidly evolving and the business world is going through a drastic transformation as governments, investors and stakeholders at large have higher expectations for transparency and meaningful improvements in corporate sustainability performance.
Research by ESG Book, found that ESG regulation has increased 155% over the last decade.
Through the 2020s, the regulatory landscape has evolved rapidly, significantly. However, 2025 brings uncertainty in regulatory developments, due to shifting political agendas and priorities.
This is particularly the case at the EU level after being at the forefront of the sustainability/ESG movement with the European Union’s Green Deal supported by more than 175 directives and regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which represented a milestone in mandatory due diligence and reporting on sustainability issues.
On 13 Nov 2025 the EU Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate on the Omnibus I simplification package proposed by the European Commission in February 2025.
It aims to reduce administrative complexity and enhance competitiveness:
- to simplify sustainability reporting and due diligence rules, by making substantive amendments to both the CSRD and CSDDD, including increases in applicability thresholds, simplifications to reporting and due-diligence duties
- if finally adopted, this would result in more than 90 percent of companies expected to report under the CSRD to be excluded, and only companies with 5,000+ employees and €1.5B+ turnover would be in-scope of the revised CSDDD.
Trilogue negotiations have begun on 18 November 2025, with legislators aiming to reach a provisional agreement on the amendments by the end of 2025.
Read more here:
- Omnibus I: EU Parliament Proposes Major Cuts to CSRD and ESRS Scope | denxpert
- The Omnibus Saga continues: EU Parliament’s revised Final Position on CSRD and CSDDD | Loyens & Loeff
- CSRD and CSDDD – European Parliament Adopts Negotiating Mandate on Omnibus Simplification Package | Thought Leadership | Baker Botts
- Ropes & Gray Csrd Transposition Tracker
At the same time as the uncertainty develops in the EU, a growing number of jurisdictions are establishing cross-sector standards and adopting mandatory human rights due diligence laws. Aiming to enhance transparency and accountability.
A notable example is Thailand, a country of great importance to the watch and jewellery industry. In July 2025, Thailand released a draft Act on the Promotion of Business Conduct that places human rights and environmental due diligence obligations on certain large size businesses operating in Thailand.
In Switzerland, on November 5th, 2025, the Federal Council adopted this week five proposed measures to support SMEs on sustainability-related requirements.
The measures proposed include:
- Providing fact sheets summarising specific regulations
- Providing a digital tool for sustainability reporting
- Strengthening cooperation with associations
- Supporting companies in identifying geographical and product-specific ESG risks
- Continuing to provide free access to its CSR Risk Check and making it more SME-friendly
Read more here:
2. Impact on the Sector
How do these new regulations affect companies across our value chain – from sourcing to manufacturing to retail?
The scale and scope, implementation timeline of existing regulations, as well as proposed changes vary widely. Some are specific, covering one topic or a specific sector, others are wide reaching, covering a large range of sustainability-related issues or are sector-agnostic.
Some sectors may be considered more of a priority than our industry. Despite this, ultimately, all sectors are concerned.
Because the watch and jewellery industry is characterized by:
- highly complex and fragmented supply chains,
- the use of finite non-renewable resources,
- supply chains that have been associated with severe human rights abuses and violations,
- serious environmental risks along the value chain.
The shift from soft law to hard law is global and increasingly affecting the watch and jewellery industry.
Regulations are shifting to the supply chain, and affecting the entire value chain, and extending beyond the companies directly in-scope.
Small and medium enterprises throughout the value chain, are not immune to the impacts of the regulatory changes. Their large customers or business partners will expect more transparency, higher human rights and environmental performance, measurable improvements in order to support their own disclosure requirements.
That is why anticipation, preparation and collaboration are critical.
3. Preparedness & Practical Implementation
What tools or systems do you see as critical to operationalizing these requirements? How can companies collaborate across the industry to reduce duplication and increase impact?
Because the worst social risks and human rights issues are hidden in the supply chain and because the bulk of a company’s environmental footprint is also a supply chain Issue, it is imperative for companies to engage with their suppliers and have deep visibility into their supply chains.
Putting in place a human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for impacts on human rights is no longer an option.
It may seem daunting at first for beginners or SMEs. That’s why they should start by focusing their sustainability efforts on material topics – those that matter most to a company’s business and its stakeholders and also those that can do the most damage to a company’s reputation and image/brand value/brand perception.
There are a number of tools available to guide companies in their journey and help them put in place a human rights due diligence process such as WJI 2030 Human Rights Navigator.
Other tools help companies explore biodiversity and nature: WJI 2030 Nature Primer and Nature Roadmap.
Collaboration through industry associations, with peers and other business partners is critical.
There is great value in peer learning and knowledge exchange.
4. Looking Ahead
How do you expect regulatory expectations to evolve in the coming decade?
While some recent developments such as Omnibus bring regulatory uncertainty, corporate accountability and sustainability are still on the agenda. In the EU, CSRD and CSDD have not been repealed and will evolve in the future. Mandatory HREDD is here to stay. Civil society and even businesses continue to push for regulation as well.
We can expect:
- A continuedpush for transparency, accountability, and mandatory reporting
- The expansion of mandatory supply chain due diligence to ensure that companies are being held responsible for what is happening even deep down their supply chains. And
- Because a voluntary approach is not considered a sufficient incentive to drive improved social and environmental performance in multi-tier complex supply chains. Companies face increasing pressure to manage environmental and human rights impacts together.
- A Continued focus on environmental impact management with rules focused on controlling the environmental impacts of supply chains and products as well as a multiplication of judicial cases.
- Double materiality assessment: assessment of not only financial risks to the company, but also social and environmental impacts of a company’s operations will become the norm
- Greater consumer protection and information. Greenwashing is becoming a critical issue. Anti greenwashing laws and environmental claims are on the rise.
- Requests for more reliable and auditable DATA is a common thread throughout the new regulations
What mindset should companies adopt to stay ahead of the curve?
Companies should:
- Be prepared and start preparation early – without waiting until they are in-scope of a regulation or pushed by public opinion, investors or their customers for those that are in the middle of the supply chain. Aligning early with evolving frameworks should be seen as a business opportunity that can bring competitive advantage. Increased transparency contributes to stakeholders’ trust (investors, customers) and to reduced regulatory risk.
- Start small: transformation begins at the smallest level.
- Rethink the construction of supply chains which were seldom built with sustainability in mind.
- Improve supply chain transparency and traceability (material origin, traceability of products).
- Collaborate: Very few companies can on their own, make meaningful progress that feels commensurate with the sustainability issues the industry faces.
- Take a holistic approach: human rights, climate change, biodiversity, are deeply interconnected. Integrated due diligence and risk assessment will be more productive and yield better results than siloed approaches.
- Integrate sustainability and financial risk assessment and management.
- Invest early in reliable datasystems.
- Embed circularity from the outset, across product lifecycle.
- Be careful about what and how to communicate especially when making environmental claims if these are not underlined by strong evidence.