Lloyd’s Register Foundation to Tackle Corporate Accountability Across Ocean Industries

Global charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation has just announced a new USD$674,000 (£500,000) project to tackle inconsistent worker safety and corporate accountability standards.

C4Safe, led by Lancaster University, will create the first corporate‑focused reporting and accountability toolkit designed specifically for ocean‑related sectors. It will bring clarity, consistency, and practical guidance to companies operating in complex maritime environments.

The two-year project will focus on three core areas. Firstly, worker protection which will reduce and prevent harm to workers by focussing on health and safety, labour conditions, equality, diversity and overall wellbeing. Second will be community impact, making sure communities affected by ocean industries have access to their traditional resources (such as fishing grounds and navigation routes for example), are informed about corporate activities and engage in benefit-sharing schemes. Thirdly, strengthening due diligence making sure human rights are to the fore and that risks of forced labour are mitigated.

The project responds to the need for coherent, practical standards that help companies track and improve safety and social performance across the ocean economy, tailored to the realities of the sectors they operate in. It will focus on seven major ocean industries, from container shipping and cruise tourism to marine equipment and construction, offshore wind, port operations, seafood, and shipbuilding and repair, examining how each currently reports on these issues.

By establishing a clear reporting baseline across these sectors, C4Safe will then work with companies and the organizations that influence them, including stock exchanges, owners, insurers, ESG rating agencies and UN Global Compact networks - to co‑define expectations and develop usable guidance. The aim is to create the conditions for meaningful, system‑wide change.

The project will be led by Professor Jan Bebbington from the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business along with Mahmoud Gad in the Department of Accounting and Finance at Lancaster University Management School; John Virdin (the Director of the Ocean Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Duke University) and Jean-Baptiste Jouffray (from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, University of Stockholm). The United Nations Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition is an impact partner for the project.