Corporate Social Responsibility Archives - �鶹ԭ�� Australia & New Zealand News Center

�鶹ԭ�� 5 & 5 by ’25 – supplier profile: Muru Office Supplies

Fred Azis-Laranjo — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 09:10:03 +0000

Procurement with purpose – meet the businesses making a difference

�鶹ԭ�� Australia has recently announced a new corporate initiative called 5 & 5 by ‘25, targeting five per cent of its addressable procurement spend with social enterprises and five per cent with diverse businesses by 2025. The initiative aims to inspire organisations around the world to buy more goods and services from purposeful suppliers, making a positive collective impact on society.

Here, we look at one the Australian businesses that will benefit from the pledge.

Muru Office Supplies: Creating new paths for Indigenous Australians

offers more than 20,000 products, including everything from pens and paper through office furniture to cleaning products and kitchen supplies. In short, it stocks just about anything you could need for any office.

Muru means pathway in the traditional language of the Sydney Coastal Region. Mitchell Ross, Founder and CEO of Muru Group, is a proud Bidjigal man from La Perouse who wants to create a pathway for future generations of Indigenous people.

Mitchell took inspiration from the hardships experienced by family and friends in the community and created Muru Office Supplies, a partnership between Muru Group and Complete Office Supplies. It’s a purpose-driven, community-focused organisation that contributes a percentage of profits to education, employment, health and wellbeing initiatives that support Indigenous communities.

Muru Office Supplies has contributed more than $270,000 to these causes since opening in 2014. These include early childhood education, the revitalisation of native plants and safe spaces for vulnerable women. It is certified by , a non-profit database of more than 2,500 verified Indigenous businesses.

“As a business��certified by Supply Nation, we have a strong commitment to supporting Indigenous community projects in the areas of education and employment. �鶹ԭ�� has already placed orders with MOS, which will allow our community programs with partners like IndigiGrow and Mudgin-Gal to deliver even greater social impact. We hope this pledge leads to a step-change in how big businesses think about using procurement as a force for good.”

Mitchell Ross, Founder and CEO, Muru Group

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�鶹ԭ�� 5 & 5 by ’25 – supplier profile: Kua Coffee

Fred Azis-Laranjo — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 08:57:31 +0000

Procurement with purpose – meet the businesses making a difference

Here, we look at one the Australian social enterprises that will benefit from the pledge.

Kua��– World Positive Coffee for Workplaces

https://youtu.be/JH3rO_MBq7A

In mid-2017, two UNSW students found themselves in rural Uganda. Inspired by the energy and passion of the local people, they founded , a world-positive coffee company in Sydney.

With a mission to have a greater handprint than footprint, Kua sources specialty coffee direct from the misty slopes of Mount Elgon, East Africa’s oldest extinct volcano. They pay the fairest prices on the mountain to farming families who handpick the reddest (and best) coffee cherries.

Every dollar of profit from sales in Australia goes back into the farming community helping them on their journey to climate resilience through native tree planting, designing waterways that improve soil conservation, and providing sustainable incomes through carbon offsetting activities.

Kua also recycles coffee grounds in the belief that your brew shouldn’t end up in landfill, where it would create harmful carbon emissions. Instead, those grounds are given a second life in community gardens and reuse projects�� across Sydney.

Kua has already made more than 240,000 square kilometres of Ugandan land resilient to climate change, and removed more than 2,300 kilograms of used coffee grounds from landfill. It’s a brilliant example of the circular economy in action that aligns perfectly with �鶹ԭ��’s commitment to eliminating single-use plastics.

“Our coffee allows businesses to embed impact into their every day. Each cup fights climate change, diverts waste from landfill and enhances farmer wellbeing. �鶹ԭ��’s pledge is a positive step towards helping social enterprises like us make an even greater impact.”

Darcy Small,�� Kua, Co-Founder

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�鶹ԭ�� 5 & 5 by ’25 – supplier profile: The Good Good

Fred Azis-Laranjo — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 08:32:21 +0000

Procurement with purpose – meet the businesses making a difference

Here, we look at one the Australian social enterprises that will benefit from the pledge.

The Good Good: Better tea, better world

https://youtu.be/PzFOf7Jrr-4

Your next cup of tea could do so much more than taste good. It could feel good. The fast-growing social enterprise��sources premium organic tea from responsible plantations and uses 50 per cent of profits to fund education for disadvantaged kids.

Its products are sold in planet-friendly packaging including biodegradable infusers, plastic-free tea bags, recyclable foil pouches, and reusable glass jars to reduce its environmental impact. Seven teas are available including popular varieties like Earl Grey, lemongrass and ginger or peppermint.

It also has three ‘’ – Brain Focus, Immune Booster and Stress Buster – designed to boost wellbeing and performance at work. So it’s no surprise that some of the biggest Australian corporations are already supplying The Good Good tea. But anyone, anywhere can buy the products too.

Half-owned by women, The Good Good is doing its bit for gender diversity. It also partners with another local social enterprise, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance’s supported employment division,��, for the preparation and shipping of most orders. Packforce, which has operated for more than 50 years, offers employment opportunities to Australian workers with disabilities.

“We use business as a force for good by donating 50 per cent of our profits to programs that help disadvantaged kids get access to education. We also partner with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supported employment division, , to employ Australian workers with disabilities. Our tea is better not only for the employees but for the planet and the community. Our partnership with �鶹ԭ�� represents a great opportunity to create impact at scale in Australia. We hope that more organisations will be inspired to join us on the exciting journey of purposeful procurement, so we drive fast, positive and systemic change together.”

Elise Perpetua, Managing Director, The Good Good

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�鶹ԭ�� Launches 5 & 5 by ‘25 Initiative, Rallying Businesses to Spend More with Social Enterprises and Diverse Suppliers

�鶹ԭ�� News — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 08:11:15 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� targets 5% of annual addressable procurement spend to social enterprises and 5% to diverse businesses by 2025 to tackle social inequalities and environmental imperatives

today announced 5 & 5 by ‘25, a corporate initiative targeting five per cent of addressable spend[1] with social enterprises and five per cent with diverse businesses by 2025. In setting this target, �鶹ԭ�� aims to inspire organisations around the world to buy more goods and services from purposeful suppliers, making a positive collective impact on the societies they operate in.

Social enterprises are businesses culturally and operationally focused on changing the world. They are similar to other commercially viable businesses, but with three crucial differences: They are founded and governed on the basis of a clear social or environmental mission; they reinvest the majority of their profit back into this mission; and they are majority controlled solely in the interest of this mission. A diverse supplier is a business that is at least 51% owned and operated by an individual or group that is part of a traditionally underrepresented or underserved demographic; such as women-owned businesses, minority-owned business, and indigenous-owned businesses, among others.

Global commitment, Australia leading

The commitment will impact all �鶹ԭ��’s global markets,��but will initially be focused on��Australia,��the UK and Canada.��Commenting on the announcement,��Victorian Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs and champion of the Victorian Government’s Social Enterprise Strategy, the Hon Jane Garrett said: “It is incredibly exciting to have a leading global company like �鶹ԭ�� helping to transform lives by growing this important sector. We hope to see more partnerships of this kind in future, to further boost Australian social enterprises and Indigenous businesses.”��

According to , an organisation that certifies Australian social enterprises and connects them with business buyers, Australian corporate procurement spend is estimated at more than AUD$600 billion. The World Bank estimates global procurement spend in 2019 was at least AUD$19.85 trillion. By directing even just a small fraction of this spend to certified social enterprises and diverse businesses, organisations have the power to tackle some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

Based on early pilots in select markets, �鶹ԭ�� estimates it could direct up to AUD$82.5 million (EUR€50 million) of its global addressable spend per year to social enterprises and diverse suppliers by 2025. In Australia, meeting the commitment would equate to roughly AUD$1.01 million per year directed to local social enterprises and diverse suppliers.

�鶹ԭ�� Executive Board member for Customer Success, and recently appointed Global Buy Social Ambassador for Social Enterprise UK, Adaire Fox-Martin announced the 5 & 5 by ‘25 initiative at �鶹ԭ��’s Procurement Reimagined event. “Every company in every industry needs to procure,” Fox-Martin said. “We all need soap in our washrooms, landscaping for our offices, food and drink in our cafeterias, marketing services, office supplies, and even pest control. These and many more are all products and services provided by social enterprises and diverse businesses. This is money we are spending anyway. Why not spend it with suppliers who are delivering social impact as well?”

Procurement with social enterprises

Recent efforts have shown promise. In a pilot in the United Kingdom, �鶹ԭ�� teamed up with Social Enterprise UK in 2019 to define and execute on a social-procurement strategy. Within nine months, �鶹ԭ�� had identified addressable spend of approximately GBP £30 million and directed more than 2 per cent of this to over 20 different UK social enterprises.

�鶹ԭ�� has since expanded relationships with social enterprise interest organisations in other markets, including a partnership with Social Traders in Australia, to introduce similar programs and further globalise and scale its social procurement efforts.

Mark Daniels, Executive Director, Social Traders says, “This pledge is one of the largest of its kind in the world and demonstrates a huge public commitment to social procurement. Our research estimates that for every AUD$1,000,000 spent on social procurement, 7.5 jobs are created for disadvantaged Australians. By encouraging other organisations to participate in this initiative, �鶹ԭ�� Australia will help drive enormous change.”

�鶹ԭ�� is also growing its support of potential suppliers through capacity building programs like MovingWorlds’ S-GRID (Sustainable Growth of Revenues in International Development}. “What makes this moment in time so pivotal is that inequities and environmental degradation tend to increase after recessions,” said Mark Horoszowski, CEO and co-founder of MovingWorlds, SPC. “By investing in social enterprises today, we can help them integrate into the post-COVID recovery to build a more equitable society, while using regenerative business models to address the ongoing environmental crisis.”

Procurement with diverse businesses

�鶹ԭ�� Australia already works with a diverse range of social enterprises and indigenous businesses, including:

Elise Perpetua, Managing Director of organic and sustainable tea supplier The Good Good says, “We use business as a force for good by donating 50 per cent of our profits to programs that help disadvantaged kids get access to education. We also partner with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supported employment division, , to employ Australian workers with disabilities. Our tea is better not only for the employees but for the planet and the community. Our partnership with �鶹ԭ�� represents a great opportunity to create impact at scale in Australia. We hope that more organisations will be inspired to join us on the exciting journey of purposeful procurement, so we drive fast, positive and systemic change together.”

https://youtu.be/PzFOf7Jrr-4

David Laity, Founder and CEO of online wine retailer Goodwill Wine says, “Following the Black Saturday bushfires, I lost almost everything. After the humbling support offered by my community, I wanted to start a social enterprise that would allow me to give back. Since our inception we’ve contributed $360,000 to a wide range of charities that support everything from those living in poverty to environmental sustainability, and we’ve done this just by selling great quality��wine. Quite frankly, I’m amazed by this step from �鶹ԭ��, which is an incredible signal of intent from one of the world’s biggest companies. If it can inspire even a small proportion of businesses to follow its lead, this commitment will help accelerate a huge number of meaningful social initiatives”.
Mitchell Ross, Founder and CEO of Indigenous-owned office supplies provider Muru Office Supplies (MOS) says, “As a business certified by Supply Nation, we have a strong commitment to supporting Indigenous community projects in the areas of education and employment. �鶹ԭ�� has already placed orders with MOS, which will allow our community programs with partners like IndigiGrow and Mudgin-Gal to deliver even greater social impact. We hope this initiative leads to a step-change in how big businesses think about using procurement as a force for good.”

Procurement with purpose with �鶹ԭ�� Ariba

�鶹ԭ��’s Ariba Network is the largest business-to-business marketplace in the world, supporting nearly AUD$5 trillion in transactions each year. In partnership with leading social-enterprise and diverse-business interest organisations, the company is opening this network up and connecting corporate-ready purposeful suppliers with more organisations who want to make a difference with their spend.

As part of the 5 & 5 by ‘25 initiative, �鶹ԭ�� invites other organisations to begin or accelerate their social-procurement journey based on a simple framework of discovering the right partners, adopting a social procurement strategy, consuming the products and services they procure, and then continuously expanding their base of social enterprises and diverse suppliers.

“Together with our customers, partners, diverse suppliers and social enterprises, we have set out to expand social procurement where infrastructure exists and intend to establish the infrastructure and build capacity where it doesn’t,” Fox-Martin added. “We invite our entire ecosystem to learn more and take part, join us in this pledge, and help build the pathways and the momentum to realise this ambition and find a better way to grow.”

[1] *Addressable spend (as opposed to total spend) includes only a company’s orders for goods and services that can be fulfilled by a social enterprise or diverse business. For specific goods and services such as rent, energy, labor, and some professional services, often neither social enterprises nor diverse businesses yet exist that provide them. Estimates based on assessments of �鶹ԭ��’s own spend suggest that between 10% and 30% of total spend could be designated as addressable spend, depending on country.

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Partnering for Purpose: how �鶹ԭ�� and Social Traders are driving business for good

Suranee Perera — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 05:21:36 +0000

Why does �鶹ԭ�� care about social enterprises?

They’re (often tiny) businesses that are built around a social purpose and use the power of the marketplace to deliver on that purpose. They aren’t charities; they’re viable businesses that produce, sell or deliver goods and services, and reinvest at least half of their profits in their social mission.

From coffee carts creating jobs for the homeless, to community-owned energy providers and organisations delivering health and care services to disadvantaged regions; these are small business with big impact.

So, what do they have in common with �鶹ԭ��?

The concept of social enterprise is closely connected to our own purpose; to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. The social enterprise sector and �鶹ԭ�� are also both centred in innovation, and seek to inspire social entrepreneurship throughout the global economy. The underlying commonality is the belief that we can do good by doing good business.

“In the last few years we have seen profound shifts in the corporate world, as more organisations realise that businesses must exist for more than the singular pursuit of profit,” says �鶹ԭ�� Executive Board Member, Adaire Fox-Martin. “Social enterprises exemplify this and show that commerce can be used as an incredibly powerful force for change.”

Empowering this force for change is why we not only care about social enterprise but take an active role in accelerating this sector. And to extend that active role across Australia, �鶹ԭ�� proudly launched a new purpose-led partnership with last week.

This partnership is designed to accelerate the sector’s impact by creating corporate spend opportunities through �鶹ԭ��’s Ariba network and to support the capability and capacity of social entrepreneurs to scale and deliver to these new markets through mentorship with �鶹ԭ��.

“I hope that by sharing our expertise in technology and operational excellence with Social Traders and its network, we can supercharge the impact of its work in Australia and beyond,” said Adaire at the launch of the partnership. “It’s something that makes significant business sense; your customers demand it, your employees expect it, and your investors are starting to measure it.

It makes good sense to do good business and have a positive impact at the same time.”

The virtual launch event was hosted by Australian journalist and broadcaster, Annabel Crabb and Adaire was joined by Social Traders’ Executive Director, Mark Daniels and the Victorian Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs, The Hon. Jane Garrett.

“�鶹ԭ��’s reach into the procurement industry is phenomenal. As a leader and advisor, the influence �鶹ԭ�� can bring to this is super [and] the benefits to social enterprises can be enormous through this partnership.”

Mark Daniels, Social Traders

“It’s never been more important to have a vibrant social enterprise network as we’re headed into incredibly difficult economic times. We’re going to need companies like �鶹ԭ�� to continue what we have seen around global kindness, around looking out for each other during this horrendous pandemic.”

The Hon. Jane Garrett, Victorian Government

Now, more than ever, is a time to better understand how we can all – as individuals and organisations – make a significant and positive impact on our economy and communities.

Look out for more news about �鶹ԭ��’s commitment to social enterprises and diverse suppliers, and the commitments we’re making to the sector with our own corporate spend.

Please reach out if you’d like to find out how you can be part of the movement to help accelerate social enterprise and scale its positive impact across our communities.

Suranee Perera, Head of CSR and Employee Communications, �鶹ԭ�� Australia and New Zealand

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