TY - THES ID - 134688965 TI - Private Environmental Governance and Sustainability Standards in the EU AU - De Meulenaer, Eva AU - Marx, Axel AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen. Opleiding Master of European Studies. Transnational and Global Perspectives (Programme for students started as from 2020-2021) (Leuven) PY - 2022 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134688965 AB - The EU has become a key international environmental player via different means, strategies and mechanisms including due diligence mechanisms. The one thing these have in common is that they target the private sector to achieve sustainability. Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) have developed into an important private governance instrument. The EU is initiating many legislations for increasing due diligence and these rely in part on VSS to guarantee compliance with due diligence obligations. This master’s thesis therefore examines how Public Interest Entities (PIEs) in the EU implement VSS to carry out due diligence, and whether the implementation of VSS has increased in recent years. The scope of this research is limited to forest-based industries. Since PIEs in the EU are obliged to yearly publish a non-financial report which contains all relevant information, annual sustainability reports can be analysed. Thus a longitudinal text analysis of the non-financial reports of Mondi Group, UPM and Stora Enso was conducted. The text analysis includes a quantitative keyword analysis and a qualitative content analysis. Seven different functions of VSS could be distinguished: they promote sustainable management, improve transparency, reinforce reputation, help consumers, create competitive advantage, improve environmental performance and operationalize due diligence. It is important that PIEs focus on these different functions to maximise the benefits of implementing VSS. It can also be concluded that the number of VSS in forest management for all analysed PIEs increased until 2018. During the period from 2018 to 2021, however, the number of VSS decreased for two PIEs and remained constant for the other PIE. In addition, this master’s thesis highlights that there is an urgent need to increase the availability of certified products. ER -