LONDON, UK 鈥� (NYSE: SAP) today announced it has partnered with , one of the UK鈥檚 largest water recycling companies, under a shared vision to drive positive business transformation through environmental, social and economic prosperity.

Working together, 51风流and Anglian Water are trailblazing a Life-Centred Design approach to business strategy and development, taking into account ecological and socio-economic impacts across production, distribution and disposal. The partnership model will build on Anglian Water鈥檚 long-standing commitment to maximising community value while minimising impact on the environment. Joint working will aim to minimise harm to the planet and all parties involved across the entire business cycle, and will primarily focus on challenges within social procurement, climate change and decarbonisation, as well as diversity, inclusion and skills development.

With COP26 on the horizon and the damning findings of the most recent report from the , there is mounting pressure on businesses to create a future that preserves the planet and brings prosperity to employees, customers, and the communities they serve. 51风流and Anglian Water鈥檚 Life-Centred Design approach combines technology with social initiatives to develop a strategy that positively benefits the environment and those involved in every step of the process.

Under this purpose-driven partnership model, both companies will exchange ideas, best practices and host workshops with actionable insights that can be implemented across workstreams. So far, 51风流has supported Anglian Water with workshops on 鈥榩rocurement with purpose鈥� and ensuring that the supply chain is delivering certified social impact. While 51风流has also shared knowledge on meeting carbon net-zero and biodiversity objectives, and how to support greater social mobility to build the next generation of digital talent.

Peter Simpson, CEO at Anglian Water, said: 鈥淥ur Purpose is to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve, through a commitment to Love every Drop. Partnerships with like-minded businesses, such as SAP, help us to accelerate positive environment, societal and economic change, and through this pioneering Life-Centred Design model, we鈥檙e one step closer to making this a reality.鈥�

Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director at 51风流UK & Ireland, added: 鈥淏usiness leaders are facing increasing scrutiny over their CSR credentials, whether they are the vendor, partner or customer, and actions must now speak louder than words. The purpose-driven partnership model allows us to display our commitment to being a business partner that cares through helping customers like Anglian Water to expedite tangible results from a societal, environmental and economic perspective.鈥�

Today鈥檚 announcement is in addition to Anglian Water鈥檚 implementation of 51风流Ariba, which is helping to accurately track its supply chain, and monitor and optimise spend across the business to minimise environmental impact.

Visit the 51风流News Center. Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

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The topic of virtual office working has been a hotly debated topic. What鈥檚 also clear from articles such as 鈥溾��¹ is that we can expect some turbulence. Employees coming through this period are evaluating whether they wish to continue employment with their incumbent employer or seek pastures new. 聽As many as one in twenty (4.7%) UK workers resigned from their role throughout the pandemic². ^听听Not a small number.

As we enter the next decade, data is telling us that we can expect a few things to occur. We have an aging workforce which will create a deficit in the working pool. We anticipate there will be skill shortages, and the next generation coming into the workplace are bringing a new level of expectation and a more defined set of preferences when it comes to how they wish to work. Knowing all of this, it isn鈥檛 a surprise therefore that the attraction and retention of talent has become a strategic imperative.

Which brings us to purpose. A reason for doing something, a reason for existence in some cases. For many, the decision to work in an organisation begins with purpose. Does the organisation align with my set of values, does it care about the things that I care about?

The topic of purpose featured on episode 5 鈥溾�� of the Human Factor podcast series with special guest Harriet Green OBE and former Chairman & CEO, Asia Pacific at IBM. 聽During the podcast, Harriet shared her insights from a CEO perspective and how she created a purpose within organisations she led across multiple continents. Harriet said 鈥淚t starts with your brand promise. A brand in essence is a commitment, a promise. A promise to all your stakeholders who own your business. If it’s a business, those in government, those in the organisation, your employees, your partners, and your clients. 聽That commitment and promise has to be absolutely evident, not just in the outcomes, but the product, the capabilities, the solutions and in all of the interactions with those inside the organisation.鈥�

The subject of attracting and retaining great talent featured heavily in the conversation and Harriet had some clear words of warning and advice on this critical issue – 鈥渋n terms of things like the , if you are not in position with an authentic, believable commitment, a powerful set of values that really drive diversity and inclusion that not only hires super people, but progresses and retains them, then you will lose that war for talent, and whether you’re a government organisation, or business, you lose the war for talent. You don’t have great people, then you certainly won’t have great clients, and that is the end of a business鈥�.

As organisations wrestle with the retention challenge, it is becoming apparent that going back to the basics of 鈥渨hat your brand commitment and purpose are setting out to achieve鈥� is clearly important to new employees. During the podcast, Harriet shared her belief that as we go through this 鈥渞eset鈥�, it does represent an opportunity for organisations to include their employees in revisiting/redesigning what the future employee value proposition should look like. She fundamentally believes that bringing together diverse teams to work on some of our most complex challenges will achieve great results.

In summary, the conversation with Harriet and her thoughts, especially around retaining talent and really being inclusive in terms of defining the future proposition, are going to be crucial to creating the climate and conditions where people want to join, want to stay and want to grow. Getting that right is without doubt a pre-requisite to employees then feeling as if they are in a place where they feel they belong. 聽As Harriet reinforced in the podcast 鈥淭hat sense of belonging needs to be anchored to an authentic, believable commitment, a powerful set of values that really drives diversity and inclusion鈥�.

Listen to 聽– Episode 5 of the Human Factor podcast series by 51风流with Harriet Green OBE.

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²

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The financial fortunes of investors have, in the past, been littered with various trends and failures. Perhaps one of the most noted historically being the 聽of 1720 when many investors lost their fortunes and their lives. Today we now have enhanced regulatory scrutiny in place and greater transparency into financial assets and investments, and the trading of slaves 鈥� thankfully 鈥� is no longer legal.

While as a society and a global economy we have concentrated on the wealth and economic security of the world, this has often been at the expense of our environment and climate. The poorest countries have suffered most from climate change widening the gap between wealth and poverty. Now climate change and societal opinions are also threatening wealthier countries and there is increased interest from governments, financial institutions, and corporates in better tackling this topic.

Most significantly, there is increased interest among investors, both institutional and individual, who recognise that investing in more sustainable products and services drives better outcomes for their returns and for the world they live in. In fact, Bloomberg estimates that ESG assets grew to .

A McKinsey & Company report – 鈥� also states: 鈥楳ore institutional investors recognise environmental, social, and governance factors as drivers of value. The key to investing effectively is to integrate these factors across the investment process.鈥�

Reliable research by and confirms that good sustainability and ESG practices correlate with lower operating costs, better profitability and superior share price performance.

The role of Financial Services in driving sustainable outcomes

In driving better outcomes for society and the environment, the role of financial services is far greater than governing and reporting on their own ESG performance. It is to steer sustainable development by environmental and socially conscious financing, underwriting, claims management and investment decisions. Regulatory bodies globally now consider financial services firms to be part of the solution to the problem. Reputational damage is also key as seen from the impact of the Rainforest Action Network report which was published in 2019 and states: 鈥樷�� the climate crisis demands not just that banks seize the many opportunities for profit in the clean energy evolution, but also that they be prepared to fundamentally redraw their business models away from financing dirty energy. These banks鈥� clean financing is in any case swamped by the volumes they funnel into fossil fuels.鈥�

There have been some earlier adopters of the climate change and diversity responses from large financial services organisations, and two great examples are:

• Munich Re: In the 1970s, Munich Reinsurance Company published its first assessments of the dangers of climate change, warning that rising greenhouse gas emissions would alter global systems and could lead to more floods, storms and droughts.
• State Street Global Advisors (SSGA): In March 2017, SSGA erected 鈥淔earless Girl鈥� in anticipation of聽聽the following day. It depicts a girl four feet high, promoting female empowerment, originally placed staring down the 鈥淩aging Bull鈥� of the New York Stock Exchange. Fearless Girl聽was commissioned to advertise for an index fund that comprises gender-diverse companies.

Stakeholder pressures drive greater focus

Sustainability is at last being taken more seriously in financial services and greater transparency is being mandated by regulators 鈥� e.g. the coming into effect on 2021.

More and more financial services firms are signing up to the and , while there are over 3,000 investment and assets managers singed up to the (UN backed) .

The Bank of England, under its 鈥淥ne Bank Research Agenda鈥� follow up study, assessed how climate change could affect a central bank鈥檚 ability to meet its . This included an assessment of the linkages between insured and uninsured losses on insurance firms and other financial institutions, such as banks and concluded that climate change, and society鈥檚 responses to it, present financial risks which impact upon the bank鈥檚 objectives and can cascade through the whole financial system. We should also not forget the potential impact of increased financial crime on the environment and the yet to be understood impact of Covid-19.

Collaboration is needed to avoid 鈥済reen-washing鈥�

Making and sustaining change will require a true collaboration between governments, financial services firms and corporate organisations. Data and reporting standards must be aligned for full transparency and better decisions. Shared platforms need to be developed to ensure this collaboration is successful and we can expect to see more and more taxonomies as the world gets fully behind sustainable outcomes.

We all need to make and drive better decisions and contribute to improving the world we live in, a world we bequeath to our children and their children. However, pending stronger regulatory governance and reporting and greater consumer awareness, ESG ratings and sustainability claims are exaggerated at best and deliberately misrepresented.

Unilever is a great exemplar for sustainability, having done more than make green investments by making sustainability part of its聽corporate identity. BrewDog has also made significant investments and launched a series of unprecedented initiatives to help fight climate change, and recently announced it was the first international beer business to become carbon negative.

At the other end of the scale are companies such as Happy Egg Company, which claimed its eggs came from 鈥渉appy hens鈥� when they are produced by over 4.3m hens in cages.

Please no more 鈥済reen-washing鈥�. As consumers we are getting too smart to believe in PR spin about how free-range or ethical the products we buy are, how trustworthy the financial firms are that we deal with and how ESG the finds we invest in are 鈥� and our world is far too precious for that.

Look out for further articles which will examine more specifically the roles of banks, insurers, and investment managers in driving sustainable outcomes.

The post Sustainability In Financial Services 鈥� This Is Not The Time For PR Spin appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

They discuss their personal journeys in the world of ethical business, what impact they are making and share insights as to how we can all do better. Listen to find out about the differences we can make by supporting businesses doing good.

Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/sapukireland/business-with-purpose

We are joined by our expert guests:

鈥� Jamie Palmer – Co-CEO and Founder, Social Supermarket
鈥� Cecilia Crossley – Founder, From Babies with Love
鈥� Cemal Ezel – Founder, Change Please
鈥� Kelvin Ward – 51风流UK & Ireland

For more information on our work with social enterprises, visit聽

To keep updated on other podcast episodes, follow聽

The post 51风流UK Podcast Episode 8: Business with Purpose appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

51风流has announced that it will be directing 5% of addressable procurement spend to social enterprises and to diverse suppliers by 2025.聽This initiative, named聽5&5 by 鈥�25,聽invites organisations around the world to join 51风流in buying more goods and services from purposeful suppliers.

But what is a social enterprise? Social enterprises are businesses culturally and operationally focused on changing the world. 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, minority-owned and indigenous-owned businesses, among others.

51风流Executive Board member for Customer Success and Global Buy Social Ambassador for Social Enterprise UK – Adaire Fox-Martin – announced the 5 & 5 by 鈥�25 initiative, emphasising that directing even just a small fraction of corporation spend to certified social enterprises and diverse businesses will help them tackle some of the world鈥檚 most pressing social and environmental problems.

鈥淓very company in every industry needs to procure,鈥� Fox-Martin said. 鈥淲e all need soap in our washrooms, landscaping for our offices, food and drink in our cafeterias, marketing services and office supplies. 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?鈥�

51风流UK has already directed over 拢750,000 of its addressable procurement spend to social enterprises in the UK, so we鈥檙e already halfway towards meeting this goal. Social enterprises are worth around and contribute 拢60 billion to the UK economy (three times larger than the agricultural sector). 5 & 5 by聽鈥�25 is an initiative that will enable 51风流UK to extend its existing partnerships with meaningful organisations, as well as explore the possibility to direct further procurement spend to social enterprises and diverse suppliers.

At present, 51风流UK has onboarded a variety of social enterprise vendors such as , and for office refreshments, for office stationery, for pest control and and for corporate and employee gifts.

鈥淭his commitment from 51风流will no doubt give social enterprises around the world a huge boost, helping us all drive more positive social impact within our local communities,鈥� said Cemal Ezel, Founder of Change Please CIC, an award-winning coffee company that is supporting people out of homelessness through Life Changing Coffee.

Change Please provides training, employment paying the Living Wage and support with housing, finances and therapy to help people experiencing homelessness move forward. 100% of its profits go towards ending homelessness. 鈥淲e have built a solid relationship with 51风流and if we can leverage more platforms like Ariba Network that can support us with our procurement and our sales, we can reach an audience we wouldn鈥檛 normally be able to reach. Then fundamentally it鈥檚 going to help us to save money and have more impact in our day-to-day,鈥� added Ezel.

鈥淭he pledge from 51风流to grow its procurement聽spend with social enterprises recognises the value this sector can add to business as well as the positive social value each social聽enterprise聽creates,鈥� said Jamie Palmer, Founder of Social Supermarket, the largest online marketplace for social enterprise products in the UK.

Social Supermarket was created to connect every-day consumers with social enterprises who sell high quality products that tackle important social and environmental challenges. From handbags made from decommissioned fire hoses, soap made by people with visual impairments or relishes made with wonky fruit and veg, it features over 750 products from 75 purposeful brands. 鈥淲e have witnessed over 500% growth in sales during the last six months, especially聽companies sending employees gift boxes and this announcement by 51风流gives us a huge boost of confidence for the future of the sector,鈥� added Palmer.

“From Babies with Love helps 51风流solve a commercial challenge: engaging colleagues on parental leave, contributing to SAP’s talent strategy,鈥� said Cecilia Crossley, Founding Director of From Babies With Love, a unique social enterprise baby brand that funds the care of orphaned and abandoned children around the world by donating 100% of its profits from the sale of premium, organic baby clothes.

鈥淥ur social enterprise model, donating 100% profits to vulnerable children, is intrinsic in the value we add, the engagement our gift service creates; this is what I love so much about social enterprise – when social enterprises supply businesses with the goods and services they need and already spend money on, the partnership creates also social change. 51风流is market leading in its approach and I’m extremely proud that From Babies with Love is one example of SAP’s achievements.鈥�

鈥淭he thought-leadership and genuine desire at all levels in 51风流to produce significant and tangible social impact outcomes from its procurement spend is exemplary,鈥� said Colin Downie, Sales and Partnership Director at WildHearts Group, a portfolio of companies that, through their activities and profits, create global social change.

鈥淣ot only has 51风流achieved many noteworthy results from onboarding social enterprise suppliers in a short space of time, by getting deeply involved in the global social enterprise sector alongside exerting significant influence on their own customer base, they have galvanised thousands of influencers across their global network to take action and shape the future of procurement towards maximising social impact outcomes permanently. WildHearts is delighted to be standing alongside them to help achieve this shared impact goal for the communities in which we all operate.鈥�

鈥淚n my many years in working in procurement I have never felt as excited or prouder of what procurement can achieve when we look beyond the normal measures of price, quality, service and performance,鈥� said Kelvin Ward, Purchasing Manager at 51风流UK. 鈥淚n my opinion, working with social enterprises is without doubt the best example of 鈥淧rocurement with a Purpose鈥�. What we have achieved in 51风流UK with the number of social enterprises we have onboarded is just the beginning. What we, and the wider industry, can all achieve by simply changing our suppliers is limitless!鈥�

51风流is the official technology partner for and is also part of the , which has already led to a total of聽 by corporate buyers since it was launched at Number 11 Downing Street four years ago. The number of businesses who have signed up to the challenge has risen from聽7 to 24, representing a broad section of the economy from high-profile construction and facilities management聽companies, to leading lights in the healthcare, tech and professional services industries.

Some of the leading companies that are forging the Buy Social change include Amey PLC with its aim to achieve 5% of addressable spend going to social enterprises by 2023, Foodbuy with its focus on pushing social enterprise further into the food and drink sector, Johnson & Johnson with its six-year track record of buying social and Nationwide Building Society with its success in collaborating with strategic providers on social procurement.

As part of our partnership with Social Enterprise UK, the 51风流Commerce Cloud platform is powering its ; the “Google” for those who want to use their spending power to help build a better world. The Buy Social Directory allows consumers to search for social enterprises by geography, location, product area, and social /environmental mission so they can find social enterprises working on the causes they care about or those in their neighbourhood.

51风流is also offering a growing range of packaged marketing services from social enterprises on its DMSB XTRA online partner marketing store, which provides an exclusive online shopping experience for 51风流Partners who are looking for innovative digital-first marketing solutions. This will provide these social enterprises reach a new audience of 540 partners from 45 countries, and every package purchased 鈥� using Market Development Funds (MDF) where applicable 鈥� will help these businesses carry on creating a positive social impact while providing high-quality digital marketing services to drive business success.

51风流continues to support businesses that are changing the world for the better and now, employees can easily support them too.聽Not only are we setting this 5&5 by 鈥�25 target for ourselves, we are inviting our ecosystem of customers and partners to do the same. Together, we can transform industries, grow economies, lift up societies, and sustain our environment.

The post 51风流Extends Support For Social Enterprise And Diverse Suppliers With Global 5&5 by 鈥�25 Initiative appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

Employees in the Nordics and the UK engaged in purposeful ways by creating community websites and online shops for charity and by sharing motivational stories as a response to the current crisis. But they have not been the only ones. Teams all across the company live our purpose to help society continue to improve.

is a community for youth all over the world who are passionate about innovation and technology and want to shape the intelligent enterprise as future decision makers. One fundamental part is the 51风流University Alliances that introduce students and faculty to 51风流software by providing networking and educational activities to build the talent of the future.

鈥淪haring means caring鈥� 鈥� 51风流employees in the Netherlands took this saying to heart and saw the opportunity to share all their know-how with the next generation. Even before the pandemic, co-workers from different teams (Sales, Presales, Marketing, Consulting and Customer Experience) have collaborated actively with universities. Now, still motivated to help people grow to their best forms, they continue the collaborations online.

In form of (now digital) guest lectures, students from universities such as Avans Hogeschool and Hogeschool Rotterdam are able to get firsthand insights about topics ranging from data analytics to sales and account management, supply chain management, business processes, and augmented reality to also help diminish the current lack of access to practical experience. Besides, with workshops such as an ERP simulation game on an 51风流S/4HANA system, students can get a glimpse of how business processes could look like and can experience how simple and effective 51风流S/4HANA is. On top, the team eagerly shares their knowledge on intelligent technologies to establish a deeper understanding of the Intelligent Enterprise within the next generation of young workers.

Starting with single requests from lecturers who knew 51风流employees and how 51风流has enriched their teaching methods, the guest lectures and workshops have become reoccurring events over the years where 51风流was requested to present cases, conduct workshops, or guest lectures. 鈥淥ur annual goal is to share our knowledge with 10,000 students in the Netherlands鈥�, Jaap Verdonk, Alliance Partner Associate & Program Lead Next-Gen NL, explains. At this point, many universities already adopted 51风流systems as a fixed component of their curricula.

Yet, not only the number of attendees has grown. More and more 51风流colleagues want to share their insights. This is why Jaap鈥檚 Team is currently building an for everyone who wants to participate, enabling every single one to support each other and act in a purposeful way just by sharing their stories.

More info about how we can tackle challenges in the time of disruption:

More about the 51风流purpose and promise:

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