The Australian Government established the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) to support 7 priority areas of the Australian economy. The NRFC can provide finance in the form of debt, equity and guarantees to support Australian projects that drive high-value industry transformation.

New NAB Business Insights reports that 1 in 4 SMEs still report supply chains as a “significant” issue for their business. New research shows 1 in 2 SMEs are “very” or “extremely” likely to increase their use of Australian based suppliers and over 4 in 10 would support new local start-ups.

The global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how interconnected today’s world is. Multiple factors have contributed to the disruption of global supply chains – people, companies, transport, delivery services and pandemic restrictions.

A soft plastics recycling scheme operating at major supermarkets has been suspended after the company running it said it could no longer offload the material to recyclers.

The 61st annual Australian Supply Chain and Logistics Awards took place in Melbourne on November 4th, 2022. Full list of winners here.

Many Australian retailers are also seeing a significant portion of their online sales being returned by customers after shipping. With late-stage order cancellations becoming a growing issue for Australian retailers trying to balance customer demands against the capabilities of current systems,

An incorporated sustainability focus is on the rise in freight and logistics as businesses respond to increasing customer demand for more environmentally friendly supply chains.

Increasingly, customers are choosing to buy from businesses that demonstrate leadership and embed social responsibility goals within their operations.

Today’s consumers are placing increasingly higher expectations on the companies they choose to do business with. With a new breed of buyer comes a new battleground: the customer experience.

A quarter of Australian retailers with 2050 net zero targets expect to miss them, according to a new report into progress on sustainability from Microsoft Australia and New Zealand and a research team led by Dr Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation at Goldsmiths, University of London.

An organisation’s supply chain is at the heart of its consumption of resources and environmental impact and therefore a logical point of focus.. While there are a lot of broad statements around the ‘greening’ of the supply chain, here we look to cover some practical steps on the journey to a sustainable supply chain.

Since the pandemic, supply chains have been no stranger to product shortages. From the toilet paper saga that saw supermarket shelves laid bare in mid-2020, to the latest shortage of lettuce – of all things – it has become a recurring theme that shortages do happen more often than consumers, and retailers, think.

The modern consumer frequently over-orders: an eye-watering 30% of online purchases are returned on average – a number that’s more than three times higher than the 9% return rate experienced by traditional brick-and-mortar stores. One of the implications of this trend that cannot be ignored is environmental damage at the expense of convenience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a dramatic eCommerce boom, altering the way companies do business. It has also changed consumer buying experiences, shifting the retail landscape.

New Zealand’s industrial property market has seen a steep rise in the demand for green warehouses, specifically warehousing that incorporates environmental initiatives. Given the built environment in New Zealand is responsible for about 20 per cent of New Zealand's carbon emissions, the focus on the environmental footprint of industrial property is likely to intensify in the coming years.

From quick delivery to split shipments, the current eCommerce boom has put supply chains to the ultimate test – but it comes at a great cost to the environment. To combat this, technology will always be a useful tool to innovate retail operations for the better, and for the greener. However, on top of this, new customer expectations for sustainability are proving that today’s consumers care more about sustainable delivery than retailers may think.