The Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Rights in Asia Conference (CSERA) 2026 is heading to Kuala Lumpur on 30–31 March 2026, with a clear premise: companies sourcing from Asia are now judged on whether their environmental and human rights systems can hold up under disruption, not on whether they have a policy on paper. The organiser, UNDP B+HR Asia, frames the theme as “De-Risking Industry through Rights-Based Resilience”, and positions the conference as a practical space for business, investors, regulators and civil society to stress-test approaches and learn from implementation.
Event snapshot
Date: 30 – 31 March
Venue: AICB Centre of Excellence, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Registration is via the event website. https://www.cserasia.com/
For enquiries, please contact: csera.conference@undp.org
Why this conference lands at the right moment for supply chains
The CSERA 2026 concept note links the business case to recurring climate shocks across Asia, and to how those shocks now hit production continuity, logistics, and worker health and productivity. It also points to a market shift where environmental and human rights performance is treated as a proxy for governance and resilience, especially by investors.
On the regulatory side, the concept note explicitly references the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and related reporting requirements as part of the “new normal” that extends expectations across global value chains, with Asia at the centre of implementation pressure.
What the organiser is pushing this year
UNDP’s public announcement describes the 2026 edition as “more practical”, “more interactive”, and “more grounded”, with an emphasis on tools, real-world cases, and direct exchange with stakeholders and rights-holders whose perspectives shape risk visibility and remedy outcomes. It also states the conference is held in partnership with the EU.
The CSERA 2026 landing page echoes that direction and sets out three simple aims: learn (regulations and rights-based compliance), connect (cross-sector dialogue), and act (practical insights for implementing HRDD+E, plus accountability and remedy).
What you will cover in Kuala Lumpur, based on the 2026 concept note
Expect a strong focus on emerging regulatory and market developments affecting companies operating in, or sourcing from, Asia.
Expect sector-relevant discussion of priority environmental and human rights risk areas, with attention to where “nature and climate” issues translate into impacts on workers, communities, and business continuity.
Expect practical discussion of due diligence models that translate commitments into operational routines, plus what “accountability, stakeholder engagement, and access to remedy” look like when you treat them as part of resilience rather than a comms exercise.
Who should attend (and why it is not only for sustainability teams)
If you sit in sourcing, compliance, legal, operations, or risk, CSERA 2026 is relevant because it treats human rights and environmental expectations as business risk management, not as a parallel workstream.
If you are a bank, insurer, or investor, the conference is pitched as a place to link environmental and social indicators to governance quality and longer-term resilience in Asia-linked portfolios.
If you are a supplier or SME, the design explicitly includes “major suppliers” and SMEs, with a practical slant on how to build workable due diligence and resilience systems across tiers.
What we will watch for (and what you can prepare before you arrive)
Start with a simple map of where your key climate and nature risks intersect with labour risk. The concept note’s logic is that these risks do not sit in separate boxes anymore, because disruption quickly becomes a people and community issue.
Check how your due diligence process handles two hard moments: first, when you find risk in deeper tiers; second, when you need credible remedy rather than a corrective action plan that never reaches rights-holders. CSERA 2026 puts “remedy” on the same line as resilience, which is a useful signal.
Bring one real implementation challenge. The organiser is selling interactivity and exchange, so you will get more value if you arrive with a concrete case about supplier engagement, grievance and remedy, data collection, or climate adaptation at site level.
How to join
Event page and registration: https://www.cserasia.com/
Concept note (full rationale and scope): https://www.cserasia.com/concept-note
Contact: csera.conference@undp.org
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