News & Views

Volunteering Australia have released  "The Volunteer Management Online Project" which  will create a single, centralised gateway to a curated selection of national tools and resources that support volunteer involving organisations to recruit, train, manage and retain volunteers.

The project, funded by the Australian Government will allow organisations and individuals to connect, manage, and enhance the volunteering experience and will:

- help reduce duplication across various existing online and digital services and provide a more streamlined experience across Australia.

- assist volunteer involving organisations to increase the number and diversity of volunteers, improve attraction and retention strategies, build capability and capacity.

 - help make volunteering easier to do and manage.

Find out more about this project HERE 

In 2016, a seminal opinion written by Noel Hutley SC and Sebastian Hartford-Davis, advised that Australian company directors had a duty under the Corporations Act to consider climate-related risks or face legal consequences.

A new opinion suggests that under the Australian Corporations Act, nature-related risks are within the scope of directors’ duties to act with care and diligence.

See more about this, as well as the opinion, in an article from Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative HERE and in another article from Pollination,  a specialist climate change investment and advisory firm, HERE

As reported by ESG Today, Canada has released proposed reporting standards, based on the International Sustainability Standard's Board (ISSB)  guidelines, which may form a significant step towards the introduction of mandatory climate-related reporting requirements for Canadian companies.

The goal of the proposed reporting standards is a positive move towards ensuring companies not only report their sustainability performance, but also take meaningful action.

Read the ESG Today article HERE

The NSW Government is offering up to $4,500 financial incentives for NSW buildings to receive their first-ever NABERS Energy and Water ratings, and to embed a culture of measurement improvement of energy and water performance.

To find out more about this offer, click HERE You can also attend an online ZOOM meeting (being held on March 20) which will provide additional information. CLICK HERE to register.

As previously reported by HR Leader, new regulations will require employers with 100 or more employees to disclose gender pay gap data, which will then be published by WGEA. These regulations were launched on 27 February 2024. 

WGEA has revealed that every industry has a median gender pay gap in favour of men. WGEA believes that this really is a significant step forward in our understanding about gender equality in Australian workplaces.

See HR Leader's article about the changes HERE

In a recent article from GreenBiz, CSO's from three major businesses talk about who to do and what to avoid when trying to embed sustainability into an organisation's DNA.

As with any change process, it's about learning what the existing organisational process and structures are, explaining what sustainability is, getting leadership and stakeholder buy-in (even from the 'non-believers') and understanding your material issues.

See the article HERE.

 Volunteering Australia released their updated  National Standards for Volunteer Involvement (National Standards), which are a best practice framework to guide volunteer involvement, on February 22 this year.

These are an essential resource for all organisations and groups that engage volunteers and can be used flexibly, recognising that volunteering takes place in highly diverse settings and ways.

The National Standards  have been refreshed to ensure they are contemporary and inclusive of the diversity of volunteering and volunteers and were informed by a sector wide consultation process conducted across each state and territory in 2023. The project was funded via the Australian Government’s Volunteer Management Activity.

See Volunteering Australia's homepage for the Standards HERE

Despite the themes of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) emerging in the 1960's, some organisations still take the view that DEI is discriminatory in its own right. 

Clearly, however, the results speak for themselves when DEI strategies are simplified and employed correctly.

Read this excellent analysis from HR leader HERE.

More and more companies are not speaking up about their sustainability initiatives for fear of exposing failures, or being afraid of 'not doing enough'

This is discussed in this article from Sustainable Brands.

In the wake of governments cracking down on greenwashing, and facing the reputational risk involved, organisations are becoming more cautious. To avoid risks of greenwashing under increased scrutiny, it is necessary to be able to back up your claims with evidence — and as this can be difficult without the right data and tracking in place, it becomes easier and safer to communicate less.

A new collaborative study from climate risk analysis firm EMMI, UNSW Sydney, Griffith University and the University of Otago has found that reported emissions from over 1200 companies, under-estimates their scope-3 emissions by 44 percent.

Scope 3 emissions account for the highest proportion of total emissions, however it’s the least likely scope to be reported on because companies typically focus on emission categories that don’t generate huge amounts of emissions, like business travel, while avoiding the carbon emissions involved in carbon intensive categories like 'product use'. Read the article from the UNSW Newsroom HERE.