Property Council of Australia teams up with Informed 365 to spearhead industry-first initiative to combat modern slavery
The collaboration delivers a groundbreaking model for other sectors to follow suit and tackle modern slavery in supply chains
Nicholas Bernhardt, CEO and co-founder of Informed 365 and Frankie Muskovic, National Policy Manager - Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs of the Property Council
The Property Council of Australia has today announced it has collaborated with corporate social responsibility (CSR) tech platform, Informed 365 to help the property industry and its members take a proactive approach to engaging their suppliers around modern slavery risks.
This follows the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act which requires companies with over $100 million annual revenue, which are based or operating in Australia, to report every year on the actions they are taking to identify risks and remediate instances of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
This industry-first collaboration, championed by 15 of the Property Council's leading members who are committed to tackling modern slavery in their supply chains, allows Property Council members to engage with suppliers on what they are doing to manage modern slavery risks through an online questionnaire.
Frankie Muskovic, National Policy Manager for the Property Council said: "The property industry has a strong track record of collaboration when it comes to sustainability, and we are pleased to see our members keen to share resources and collaborate on this issue."
"Modern slavery is a complex and challenging issue that requires long term commitment from businesses to address. We won't get to the bottom of our entire supply chain tomorrow, but that must certainly be the long term objective we are working towards," she said.
"Our strong intention is to create resources that are open-source for the entire sector, and that remove the barriers for suppliers to engage with our members on these issues. It is for that reason that the supplier questionnaire developed for this platform will be freely available for anyone to use, and it will be free for suppliers to log into the platform and provide responses to these questions. By only answering these questions once on the platform, we are also streamlining the reporting burden on our supply chain, a critical component of this initiative," she added.
Informed 365's web platform is the industry-leading tech solution for over 3,000 Australian companies which are now legally required to report under the Australian Government's Modern Slavery Act.
Nicholas Bernhardt, CEO and co-founder of Informed 365, said the platform gives members an efficient and consistent way of reporting that will save them time - each supplier through the supply chain needs to complete the relevant information only once, not multiple times for multiple clients - and help them keep their legal obligations front of mind.
"It's the first time we are seeing an entire industry adopt a strategy of collaboration to gather accurate reporting on human rights and modern slavery risks - across clients, suppliers and sub-contractors, including organisations that might usually be seen as competitors," said Mr Bernhardt.
"The model offers more transparency and a game-changing solution to hold companies accountable and for other industries to follow suit," he added.
With the launch of this platform, the Property Council will focus its efforts on broadening the uptake of the platform across the property sector.
Informed 365 is becoming one of the key players around the conversation on CSR in corporate Australia. It recently partnered with entrepreneur and 'shark' on Shark Tank, Andrew Banks, announcing its commitment to transforming the growing global supply chain management market, which is on track to reach $19B in 2021.
Following its collaboration with the Property Council, Informed 365 plans to work with more organisations and industry bodies who need assistance with their supply chain management data collection, tracking and reporting as the full weight of the Modern Slavery Act comes into play with the first year of data due next year.
List of participating Property Council members:
- AMP Capital Investors
- Stockland
- Dexus
- Mirvac
- Charter Hall
- Frasers Property Australia
- GPT
- ISPT
- Cromwell
- Vicinity Centres
- Brookfield
- Investa
- Landcom
- Abacus
- Goodman
About Informed 365:
Informed 365 provides tech-based turnkey solutions for organisations in the supply chain management, business intelligence and climate change adaptation space. The supply chain management application allows organisations to track, monitor and engage with their suppliers. The application is aligned with ISO20400, TCFD, CDP and other internationally recognised reporting frameworks and covers Governance, Human Rights, Labour, Environment, Community, Fair Operating Practices, Consumer Issues and Climate Change. The platform can be customised to suit an organisation's exact requirements and it can also draw on existing, historical and third-party data via APIs (Application Programming Interface). It also allows organisations to efficiently manage compliance with regulatory requirements such as the recently introduced Modern Slavery Act and stakeholder expectations.
About Property Council of Australia:
The Property Council of Australia champions the industry that employs 1.4 million Australians and shapes the future of our communities and cities. Property Council members invest in, design, build and manage places that matter to Australians: our homes, retirement villages, shopping centres, office buildings, industrial areas, education, research and health precincts, tourism and hospitality venues and more. On behalf of our members, we provide the research and thought leadership to help decision-makers create vibrant communities, great cities and strong economies. We support smarter planning, better infrastructure, sustainability, and globally competitive investment and tax settings which underpin the contribution our members make to the economic prosperity and social well-being of Australians.
