How Bilbo Baggins defined my 2021

As the year is coming to a close, I wanted to share my personal experiences of the year.

I started off this year with the intent to overlay all decisions with the quote: “some things are better not spread too thin: yourself and peanut butter”, but, like many of us my year was more like Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings when he told Gandalf, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread”.

When I reflect on ‘why’ Bilbo’s quote resonated, it is a consequence of the global pandemic and the role of ‘Chief Juggler’ that I took on, particularly during restrictions: from leading a committed GCNA team, to home schooling, managing a household, overseeing a major renovation, and being mental health advocate for my family and team. Whilst this year has left many of us feeling exhausted and over-stretched, it has taught us when to say no – not just to others, but also to ourselves.

GCNA’s Year

And it’s with this overlay that I am even more proud of what GCNA has delivered for our members, for businesses across Australia and for our broader stakeholders.

As of today, we have 192 members (growth from 148) which is demonstrative of the commitment to sustainability within Australia’s business sector. I look forward to getting to know our new members and continuing to build our relationship with our existing members. See our full list of members on our website.

We held 30 events in 2021, including Making Global Goals Local Business Australia – our first hybrid event hosting over 300 people and amazingly squeezed in between two Melbourne lockdowns; the Sustainable Finance Forum held in partnership with Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Australia Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI); and our annual dialogues - the Australian Dialogue on Bribery and Corruption and the Australian Dialogue on Business and Human Rights.?

We produced 12 thought leadership publications, including one on the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), two on modern slavery grievance mechanisms and two on adequate procedures on foreign bribery for businesses and SMEs. And, we launched the SDG Ambition Accelerator with 25 business members. (Watch out for this programme in 2022!)

We also continued to work with our key partners: Australian Border Force (ABF), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Bribery Prevention Network (BPN), Dhawura Ngilan and WWF-Australia.?These partnerships are fundamental to how we lead, enable, and connect our members and create a sustainable future.

And, most importantly, we expanded our team and welcomed Sarah Day, Audrey Hardha, Greta Korthaus, Emilia Maubach, Nick O’Sullivan and Evangeline Sanopoulos. See our full team here.

In 2022, we are looking forward to exploring some new content and modes of delivery, including launching an ‘Insight Series’ where we will connect our members with some of the world’s voices on key trends across human rights, climate change, environment and anti-bribery and corruption.

The World… Briefly

Our activities were delivered in a year where we have all witnessed continued disruption to what we hoped would be a ‘new and better’ world. Extreme weather events were experienced globally in 2021 and the sobering IPCC Report which told us that Australia’s temperature has already risen by 1.4 degrees Celsius. COVID-19 has claimed more than 5 million lives globally, with many more experiencing the effects of long-COVID. We continue to see the squeezing of labour markets globally with the cost of many essential items putting downward pressure on households. And geopolitical tensions continuing to rise – be it between the US and China, Australia and France (remember the submarines), or Russia and Ukraine.

However, it is not all ‘doom and gloom’. Many of the tensions we see in the world can be fixed through collaboration. COVID-19 vaccinations would not have been produced and distributed in the time or at the scale they have been without collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, universities, governments and manufacturers. Our attention must now shift to the crisis of the ‘unvaccinated’ to ensure that we reduce the disparity between the north and the south. We saw President Joe Biden take office in January, paving the way for the US to be one of the global leaders in climate action. Their commitments, alongside countries like the UK, pushed businesses and other governments to set 2050 net zero targets and work together with communities to ensure a fair and equitable transition to decarbonisation. And we saw increased momentum towards implementing mandatory human rights due diligence across Europe – a sign perhaps of what is to come in Australia through the 2022 review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act.

Looking Ahead

As Bill Gates said in his 2021 Year in Review, “my personal world has never felt smaller than it did over the last twelve months. At the same time, this year was a reminder that our world is more connected than ever”.

I hope that this new form of connectedness will see us all develop new models for collaboration and partnerships to achieve the outcomes of the 2030 Agenda and meet the SDGs. There is no longer the time for incremental improvements – we need re-think, re-imagine, and implement the new ‘business-as-usual’.

So, as we depart for our summer break, my ask is that we all think about the role we play in setting a new era for responsible business – one that is founded on working collaboratively and in partnership to shift our planet onto a more sustainable and resilient path.

?