Aligning EU due diligence requirements with international standards: A benchmarking approach

The growing demand for batteries in electromobility and green technologies has intensified concerns regarding the sustainability of their supply chains, particularly for critical raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and natural graphite. These materials often originate from high-risk regions characterized by weak governance, environmental degradation, and human rights abuses. To address these challenges, sustainability due diligence has become integral to responsible sourcing practices, guided by frameworks like the United Nations Guiding Principles, the OECD Guidelines, and European regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the European Battery Regulation. This paper evaluates the alignment of three voluntary sustainability standards, IRMA, RMI, and The Copper Mark with EU sustainability due diligence requirements. Using a qualitative and quantitative analysis thought the Fuzzy TOPSIS method, the study systematically assesses the effectiveness of these standards. Results indicate that IRMA demonstrates strong alignment, particularly in risk assessments, stakeholder engagement, and corrective action enforcement, while RMI excels in supply chain-level risk management and improvement planning, and The Copper Mark shows strength in its audit governance mechanisms. However, gaps in how traceability is operationalized and disclosed, along with persistent weaknesses in transparent reporting, undermine the broader impact of all three standards especially given the limited improvements observed in some high-risk mining regions despite years of voluntary standard implementation. Sensitivity analysis confirms the robustness of the rankings, with yet reveals that how traceability is weighted can shift results underscoring its unresolved role as both a technical requirement and a reporting challenge across all standards