Business Talk Magazine

Environmental Social Governance (ESG) risk management has emerged as a critical aspect of business strategy for companies worldwide. It is no longer just a matter of corporate social responsibility or ethical investing but a crucial part of the overall business strategy of investors and businesses alike. However, the prevalent framework of investing in ESG is not without flaws and criticism. Most ESG rating firms measure how environmental, social, and governance factors a company’s bottom line instead of computing their relation to sustainability practices.

ESG is all the rage. More and more businesses need to realize how the right ESG proposition can create value and improve reliance. For that, they need the right partner for building up their sustainability credentials. This is where Fair Supply comes in. Founded by visionary entrepreneur Kimberly Randle (Founder and CEO), the company specializes in providing cloud-based ESG risk management and compliance services to large Australian and global organisations.

PUTTING A REVOLUTION INTO ACTION

The process of revolutionizing is one of vision, change, and creation. It demands putting effort and passion into developing original solutions. Kimberly laid the foundation of Fair Supply with a focus on revolutionizing the visibility of ESG risk throughout the supply chain. At her heart, she has always been a tenacious, contentious, and passionate activist, with justice at its core. This pivoted her to study law and begin her career in corporate litigation in the US. She would also volunteer with her husband at an orphanage in Mexico on weekends. “The juxtaposition was crazy, but also a necessary antidote to the deeper insanity of entitlement,” says Kimberly.

She returned to Australia and began practicing family law in Australia. This was followed by a pivot to International Justice Mission Australia. Being an activist at heart, she wanted to bring a change in modern slavery, and this was her stage. She became Director of Corporate and Legal.  She lead teams into Uganda to see justice systems strengthened. She also helped shape Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). When the Act was passed, she took a bold step and launched Fair Supply – the first law firm exclusively dedicated helping companies comply with Australia’s Modern Slavery Act.

It quickly became clear that organisations required to report under the Act were not only unaware of slavery but also lack the means to be visible, particularly in supply chains. She sought change, which led her to Dr Arne Geschke (CTO), an environmental-economic supply-chain assessments specialist. Combining her human rights knowledge with Dr. Arne’s Mathematical genius, the duo created proprietary technology that enables companies to identify and address modern slavery risk along their entire supply chain.  This same technology now enables organisations to assess carbon emissions and the impact of their supply chain or investements on biodiversity loss. Today, Fair Supply works with some of Australia’s largest companies as a trusted partner, supporting them to make ethical investment decisions that can improve the lives of others.

PIONEERING THE WORLD’S FIRST

Fair Supply is drawn on a simple idea – to simplify ESG action by using only objective business data to reduce the time, cost, and effort associated with compliance and risk management. As mentioned earlier, ESG concerns are growing fast, and organizations should pay attention to their impact on the environment. In Australia, the regulatory landscape, access to data and metrics, understanding of short- and long-term goals, investment costs, increasing awareness, changing customer behaviour, supply chain ESG risks, inconsistent reporting standards, engaging stakeholders, and greenwashing concerns are some of the pressing concerns.

Through Fair Supply’s proprietary technology, companies can realize their modern slavery footprinting, biodiversity loss footprinting, and emissions footprinting and impact all the way down their supply chain with no extravagant budget or consultants. 

SETTING A PARADIGM IN INNOVATION

Kimberly launched Fair Supply as a tool to make ESG risk management and compliance simpler for organisations. Fair Supply believes the path to a sustainable future will be found by aligning sustainability with business objectives and reducing the overhead to where ESG simply becomes part of business as usual.

Fair Supply’s business goals centre around rapid SaaS product innovation and development, enabling them to scale their offerings not just in the Australian market but also beyond. According to Kimberly, the Modern Slavery Act in Australia has critical to creating the addressable market. “We’ll concentrate on markets where comparable reporting is developing,” she sretches. 

A UNIQUE TEAM OF LEADERS

Innovation and leadership are deeply entwined. Kimberly holds on to the adage, “Everyone leads, everywhere, all the time.” Kimberly emphasizes that leadership begins not only at the top of the corporate chain but also at its base and pretty much everywhere else in between. In Kimberly’s eyes, she is a leader of leaders. Over the years, many exceptional individuals who have mentored her helped her develop her forte. Kimberly owes a lot of who she is to their insight and teachings.

ONWARD AND FORWARD ALL THE WAY

It has only been a few short years Fair Supply has made great strides. Last year, Fair Supply closed a Series A cap raise led by AirTree, one of Australia’s leading VCs. This year, Fair Supply was recognized as “Sustainability Pioneer” in AFR Sustainability Leaders 2023. They also won the title of “Best ESG Data Provider” at the Australian Enterprise Awards 2023. 

Kimberly believes this is just the beginning. Given the growing importance of ESG issues, it is clear that Fair Supply’s mission to help businesses become accountable for their sustainable impact without relying on deep expertise, big budgets or consultants is an idea whose time has come.

A NOTE FROM THE VISIONARY CEO

“Giving up and complacency are the adversaries of positive change. As an entrepreneur, you cannot bear either of them. You have faith. This is a resource that should be diligently stewarded and deployed for positive impact.” 

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