What are your future expansion plans in Australia and overseas?
Informed 365 (www.informed365.com) provides three tech-based services: supply chain management, business intelligence / CSR reporting and Climate Change resilience.
We are currently seeing significant growth and interest in our supply chain management / ethical sourcing platform in Australia driven by the recently introduced Modern Slavery Act. Taking into account that many of our clients have vast supplier networks in Asia Pacific we expect to continue our expansion into this region as well. We are also in discussions with potential collaboration partners in the US and Europe where Andrew Banks (Morgan & Banks, Talent 2, Shark Tank) who has taken an equity position will be instrumental in the expansion.
What particular industries or companies would benefit most from your solutions?
Our agile solutions are beneficial to any organisation that is looking to digitise and automate any CSR / big data related aspect related to supply chains, Greenhouse Gas calculations, climate change resilience or metrics tracking (e.g. energy, water, waste, etc.). Our web-based applications assist companies in moving away from typically labour intense manual processes.
All our solutions are industry agnostic and can be used by any business, NGO, NFP or governmental organisation.
Do you have an off-the-shelf solution that can be used by businesses?
We provide an off-the-shelf Supply Chain Management solution which is aligned with ISO20400. This application covers governance, human rights, labour, environment, community, fair operating practices, consumer issues and climate. Our clients can customise their own branded application to suit their own specific requirements.
Can you share any insights and trends relating to CSR adoption and reporting in Australia and/or overseas?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) adoption and reporting is now pretty much standard for most large and mid-cap companies across the world. However, there still appear to be significant differences with regards to the scope of reporting.
For instance, on climate change reporting, there is still limited activity in Australia, despite increasing pressure and expectations. In March this year prudential regulator APRA warned that climate change risks must be regarded as a risk management issue for business, as “some climate risks are distinctly financial in nature and that many are foreseeable, material and actionable now”. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, we have seen very few organisations take meaningful action.
Globally there would appear to be a groundswell call for more transparency, visibility and accountability underpinned by frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and locally via legislation such as the Modern Slavery Acts both in Australia and the UK.
It is to be hoped that CSR reporting is no longer viewed as a “nice to have” but more importantly it becomes a cornerstone and reflection of an organisation’s good corporate behaviour.
