Work on a new benchmark on human rights at businesses has begun and the index is due to be issued in the autumn.

Investors concerned about human rights conduct of the world’s largest companies such as Adidas, Starbucks and Prada will get a new measure later this year, its creators say.

Developers of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, a measure of ethical performance by firms across the world, have taken the first steps in putting it together, they say. It is due to go live in November.

The benchmark is being created by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, an international group covering organisations such as NGOs, legal activists, human rights campaigners, academics, economists and investment professionals.

The trend of selecting investments that fit ethical values, so as to avoid firms that use child labour, for example, has gained ground in recent years. A regular complaint has been the lack of clear, objective data on what firms do. A number of wealth management firms, such as the UK’s F&C, Standard Life and Pictet, offer funds that screen for investments deemed sustainable on environmental and governance lines. There remains debate on whether such investments deliver superior performance over the long term compared with more traditional ways of picking assets.

“Respecting rights should ultimately be a competitive advantage. At the moment, companies that are less accountable for their impacts on people are still able to raise capital at rates that don’t take these issues into account,” said Steve Waygood, chairman of the CHRB steering committee and chief responsible investment officer at Aviva Investors.