News & Views

The last few years in the workplace have seem enormous shifts - in working from home, flexibility, isolation and feelings of dislocation - all of which affect employee mental health and happiness, to the extent that some would choose to be unemployed rather than to be unhappy. Employers need to understand what is happening here and have agile strategies in place to monitor and fine tune the environment and keep a pulse on the feelings at the coalface. See some interesting statistics about this in an article from HR Leader HERE.

While there is still a high percentage of staff working from home, a recent survey has found that employees who continued to work from home are spending an average of $450 on their setup - and are seeking compensation from their employers. While there are some ATO guidelines about claiming for WFH expenses, the survey warns that companies may be up for high expenses as the trend continues. 

Read an article about this from HR Leader HERE.

Following the recent collapse of the soft plastics recycling project, REDcycle, major supermarkets have formed a taskforce and released a 'Roadmap to Restart' the process, but it may not run all that smoothly. The taskforce is still looking for partners and considering safety processes, but paramount is the restoration in public trust that soft plastic recycling is still viable. Read a report from ProBono Australia about the issue HERE.

60% of how we communicate is through storytelling. So if your firm is doing something about sustainability - tell the story - but make it the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

As noted at the latest GreenBiz conference, companies should get credit for what they are doing and get over the trap of thinking that 'story telling' is 'greenwashing'. See what they said HERE.

Seen as a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, UN Delegates have agreed on a legal framework which would place 30 per cent of the world’s oceans into protected areas, put more money into marine conservation, and cover access to and use of marine genetic resources. Under discussion since 2004, the new 'High Seas Treaty' is crucial for addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and  is  vital for achieving ocean-related goals and targets by 2030. Read the UN release HERE

REGISTER NOW for this webinar on Thursday, 23 March 2023 at 11am AEDT.

Hosted by Informed 365 with subject matter experts:

Prof. Justine Nolan (Director - Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Facility of Law) and Amy Sinclair (Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific - Business and Human Rights Resource Centre).
Topic: Broken Promises Essay

Margaret Stuart (Director - Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Nestlé Oceania)
Topic: Nestlé - The Journey So Far

Henry Ford said that you could have any colour Model T-Ford as long as it was black. Fast forward from 1908 into today's hydrogen debate and it seems you can have blue, green grey or pink. So what's the difference?

If you don't know, see the great article that explains it all from GreenBiz HERE 

The 'Say on Climate' initiative was launched in late 2020 with the aim of urging listed companies to create and execute Paris-aligned transition plans with annual shareholder votes providing increased accountability against those plans.

While an average of seventy-five percent of shareholders voted for these climate strategies, disappointingly opposition was nearly twenty-five percent which was higher than the global average of 9.6%.

See Investor Daily's analysis of this issue HERE.

The UN Global Compact Network Australia (UNGCA) will be releasing a series of short videos unpacking key modern slavery risks and topics for Australian businesses. See Professor Justine Nolan, from the UNSW Faculty of Law and Justice, talk about modern slavery and broader human rights due diligence and outline what business must do. See the video HERE. Also, register for a free Webinar on 23 March 'Modern Slavery - 4 Years On' from Informed365 which also features Professor Nolan HERE.

To assist in consumer understanding of terms like “carbon neutral” and “net zero” claims in advertising, the UK Advertising Standards Authority ('ASA') have released guidelines to  simplify and standardise the definitions of such terms and for claims to be policed by an official body, such as government. While this is a UK based example, the same issues exist in Australia and we may well see this trend followed here. Read their release HERE.