Event Type

Description

Accident

An unexpected, physically damaging incident occurs in connection to a company (either on the production site, office or during transportation or supply) affecting either people, production or property.

Animal Mistreatment

Any form of animal mistreatment, including animals being used illegally for business, kept inappropriately or abused.

Blackout

A power failure/outage of electrical power supply happening in a city or region.

Blizzard

A snow storm causing damage or interruptions.

Bomb Threat

A threat to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death or injuries, whether or not such a device actually exists.

Building Collapse

A collapse or partial collapse of an industrial building or any company property, causing it to be temporarily inoperative and thus interrupting business.

Capacity Reduction

A decrease in production output, speed or quantity, due to varying internal or external reasons.

Chemical Leakage

Chemical leakage by a company or production site.

Child Exploitation

Anything apart from child labor that involves forcing children to do something — including sexual abuse.

Child Labor

A company uses children (below legal working age, usually under 14–16 years) as workers.

Collusion

Agreement or cooperation between two or more companies to limit competition, dictate prices and distort a market.

Consumer Boycott

Consumers boycotting a product because of moral, ethical or political reasons.

Consumer Campaign

Any form of consumers launching a campaign against a company or product, for instance by doing a collective petition.

Corporate Investigation

An investigation or inspection of a company with a view to finding what wrongdoing has been committed by employees, management, or third parties.

Corporate Wrongdoing

Illegal, dishonest or negligent behavior by or within a corporation.

Corruption

Any sort of wrongdoing or negative activity within a business, association or organization, excluding fraud.

Counterfeit Product

Any detection of a company's reputation suffering because of the presence of counterfeit products — fake unauthorized replicas.

Credit Rating Downgrade

A lowering of a company's credit rating, indicating reduced ability to fulfill financial obligations and pay debts.

Criminal Organization

A person or organization being involved in criminal activity by forming a criminal organization including terrorism or mafia.

Customs Issue

A company facing problems with customs (border control) because of misclassification, illegal goods, lack of documentation or any other reason.

Cyber Incident

An offensive maneuver that targets a company's computer information systems, infrastructures or computer networks.

Data Leak

An intentional or unintentional release of secure or private/confidential information to an untrusted environment.

Data Privacy Issue

A violation of data privacy, such as violating regulations or spying on users.

Deforestation

The removal of a forest or stand of trees from land which is then converted to a non-forest use.

Delisting

A security or stock gets temporarily or permanently removed from the stock exchange.

Discrimination

Discrimination incidents involving workers/employees being treated differently because of their age, disability, nationality, race, religion, sex, or other characteristics.

Disease

Members of a company or organization are affected by a serious disease.

Drought

An event of prolonged shortages in the water supply.

Earthquake

An earthquake causing damage to people or structures.

Emergency Measures

Large-scale measures taken in a location in order to contain, alleviate or avoid a catastrophe, outbreak or disaster.

Emission Violation

A violation of emission limits committed by an economic actor such as an organization or business.

Environmental Improvement

A form of CSR innovation involving driving, supporting or advancing environmental or ecologically-focused causes.

Environmental Issue

Negative, adverse or harmful effects or mistreatment of the biophysical environment from human activity.

Explosion

An explosion or detonation at any place.

Failure & Safety

Failure of a machine, equipment, product or anything else.

Fatality

One or more people died as a result of an accident.

Fire

A fire that has happened or is happening to a property.

Flood

A major flood event causing damage to people or structures — either a natural disaster or man-made.

Force Majeure

A company defaulting on its obligations because it claims force majeure — 'superior force' or 'act of God'.

Fraud

Any sort of fraudulent activity including scams and embezzlement.

Health & Safety Issues

An incident or conditions related to occupational or workplace health and safety problems.

Human Rights Violation

Any action that breaches or ignores basic human rights or relevant humanitarian law, intentional or unintentional.

Illegal Employment

Employment of people without reporting to authorities in order to gain certain advantages.

Injury

An accident resulting in injuries.

Insider Trading

Buying or selling of a company's securities while in possession of material, non-public information in violation of a duty of trust or confidence.

Insolvency

An event affecting the liquidity or solvency of a company, or any relation to cash flow and ability to pay debts — including bankruptcy.

Interruption

An interruption happening at a plant, infrastructure facility, road, railway line, etc.

Investment Reduction

The reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives — the opposite of an investment.

IP Infringement

An infringement or violation of an intellectual property right.

Labor Demonstration

Workers or employees of a company, labor union or any business entity protest or demonstrate in a public place.

Labor Dispute

Workers or employees of a company are in a dispute with their employer regarding terms, but not yet in strike or protest.

Labor Rights Violation

Any violation of labor rights — a specialization of human rights violations, more generic than child labor or wage theft.

Labor Strike

Workers or employees of a company, labor union or any business entity stop work as a form of protest.

Land Conflict

Illegitimate or illegal acquisition of land, especially agricultural land, by any company or organization.

Landslide

A landslide event causing damage to people or structures.

Maintenance

Any maintenance or repair work conducted on company infrastructure, machinery and/or equipment.

Major Delay

A delay which has a direct effect on transportation, production or delivery of goods.

Mass Layoff

Layoff of a large fraction of workers or employees from the same company around the same time.

Merger & Acquisition

The process of one company purchasing or taking over another company.

Military Conflict

Potentially large-scale armed conflict between nations, factions or regional powers.

Mineral Conflict

Conflict about a conflict mineral such as tantalum, cassiterite, wolframite or gold.

Mismanagement

The process or act of managing a situation, project or people in a negative or wrong way.

Modern Slavery

Institutional slavery in which a person or people lose their freedom to stop working, leading to exploitation.

Policy Change

A company or institution changing or implementing a policy relevant to their supply chain due to external or internal pressure.

Political Instability

Large-scale instability, driven by political or market forces, with a clear state-wide or country-wide effect.

Pollution

Pollution or contamination by a company or production site that has negative effects on nature, people or animals.

Product Recall

A product recall from a manufacturer to return a product after the discovery of safety issues or product defects.

Property Damage

Damage to or destruction of public or private property, caused by a person.

Protest / Demonstration

Any form of protest or demonstration in a public place involving a reasonable number of people.

Regulatory Shutdown

Forced closure of a business or a significant part of a site, temporarily or permanently, by state authority as a result of regulations being disregarded.

Restructuring

A restructuring of debt and/or corporate assets in response to financial problems.

Sanctions

Sanctions such as import bans or embargoes issued by a government or nation against any other government, nation or company.

Scandal

A widely publicized event involving allegations or proof of unethical, illegal, or socially irresponsible behavior by a corporation with a great effect on its reputation.

Sexual Wrongdoing

Any wrongdoing related to sexual activities, including inappropriate incidents such as sexual harassment or any form of exploitation.

Shooting

A shooting or attempted shooting, or use of firearms by an employee against people or property at a company or service/production site.

Short Time Work

A situation or system in which employees agree to or are forced to accept a reduction in working time and pay because of a difficult economic period.

Shortage

A shortage of a product is announced.

Site Closure (Permanent)

Permanent closure or shutdown of a part or the full site of a business organization.

Smuggling

Any detection of smuggling of contraband goods committed by a company.

Social Improvement

A company or organization implementing or fighting for social and societal improvements, as well as improving the lives of its employees.

Supplier Issue

A problem, issue or setback with a supplier of a company or production site.

Tax Evasion

Illegal evasion of taxes by corporations or organizations.

Theft

A theft incident where equipment or products of a company get stolen by workers, employees, management or a third party.

Tornado

A violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground, often visible as a condensation funnel or circulating cloud of dust and debris.

Toxication

Toxic pollution — gas, liquid or radiation — by a company or production site.

Tropical Storm

A tropical storm such as a hurricane, cyclone or typhoon causing damage to people or structures.

Tsunami

A series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water.

Unethical Labor

Unethical employment or treatment of any type of employee or worker, anywhere.

Volcanic Eruption

A volcano erupting.

Wage Theft

An employer fails to pay workers the minimum wage, withholds overtime pay, doesn't pay wages or is in arrears to the workforce.

Waste Disposal Improvement

A company improves their procedures of waste disposal.

Waste Disposal Problem

Any problem related to the disposal and management of waste, particularly illegitimate or illegal disposals.

Wildfire

An uncontrolled blaze, especially one that ignites rural areas with trees and dry brush.

Worker Suicide

A worker or employee ended their life as a result of poor working conditions or other job-related issues.