The Collaborative Advantage: driving ethics and benefit for all in New Zealand business and supply chains

What is The Collaborative Advantage?

The Collaborative Advantage is a working group of New Zealand business participants. Co-hosted by Kathmandu and Deloitte, the group shares insights and drives collective action to collaboratively address the social and environmental challenges common to all.

The Collaborative Advantage is based upon the premise that we are all connected and can collaboratively improve sustainability and ethical best practices. It also recognises that collaboration is needed to respond to the myriad of social and environmental challenges both meaningfully and effectively. 

The group launched in October 2020 and membership has been growing steadily since. Meetings are held virtually once a month and are limited to one hour, enabling open discussion on a range of issues related to ethical sourcing and sustainable business practices including a benefit for all mindset, company purpose, stakeholder engagement, worker voice, supply chain transparency, modern slavery and climate change.

Every session begins with a brief mindfulness practice. “The research is clear that mindfulness can empower us to approach challenges with a more open mind, greater self-awareness, compassion and creativity,” Gary, co-host from Kathmandu explains.

What is the purpose of The Collaborative Advantage?

The purpose of The Collaborative Advantage is to create and participate in a more ethical and sustainable way of doing business that benefits all stakeholders by developing a deeper perspective on the purpose of good business, social impact, performance measurement and how to communicate these.

The key objectives of the group are to:

• Create a safe environment to share and ask questions in a non-competitive context
• Develop a new mindset and new ways to conduct truly sustainable business
• Learn from each other about our journeys, the good and the bad
• Learn from experts, government groups, NGOs about new developments, tools and initiatives
• Accelerate collective impact and drive action

The group share best practices as well as imperfections and mistakes, to learn what it means to take authentic action to achieve shared social, economic and environmental goals.

Meetings are structured to enable members to reflect on and gain greater insight on specific themes for their respective businesses, and to discuss practical ways to convert these insights into actions.

Who is involved?

The group is open to all businesses throughout New Zealand with an interest in promoting sustainability, ethical supply chains and a benefit-for-all mindset.

To help address specific topics, select members of the academic, Government or NGO community are invited to participate.

The group currently consists of a wide variety of organisations in terms of size and industry. Some of New Zealand’s largest businesses are involved, as well as smaller retailers and start-ups.

Professionals with a background in sustainability are involved as well as those who are embedding sustainability into their roles across divisions such as procurement, finance, supply chain management, corporate affairs, marketing, strategy, risk, design and quality.

How do I sign up?

Registrations are monitored centrally through the secretariat of The Collaborative Advantage. Please send your interest through to NZCollabAdvantage@deloitte.co.nz and you will be provided with further details and a calendar invite to the next meeting.