A regulatory term referring to an adverse impact that is especially significant on account of its nature.
Severe adverse impact is part of the formal vocabulary used in supply-chain due diligence, adverse-impact governance, and corporate responsibility. For this glossary, the key point is understanding how the source defines the term and where that definition sits within broader compliance or data requirements.
Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on corporate sustainability due diligence
an adverse impact that is especially significant on account of its nature, such as an impact that entails harm to human life, health or liberty, or on account of its scale, scope or irremediable character, taking into account its gravity, including the number of individuals that are or may be affected, the extent to which the environment is or may be damaged or otherwise affected, its irreversibility and the limits on the ability to restore affected individuals or the environment to a situation equivalent to their situation prior to the impact within a reasonable period of time;
Reference: Article 3, point l
In practice, this term matters when mapping who is responsible for obligations, declarations, market placement, recordkeeping, or due-diligence steps within supply-chain due diligence, adverse-impact governance, and corporate responsibility.
For Minespider, severe adverse impact is best treated as a responsibility and workflow term. The important question is which actor, document, or compliance step the source is actually assigning through this definition.