In early 2023, following the release of B4SI’s annual private member benchmarking report, and coinciding with our internal strategic planning period, we invited the B4SI to present an update to our ESG Social and Governance Steering Committee on Pacific National’s social impact performance. B4SI focused the presentation on the opportunities for improvement relative to strengths as an organization and the larger sector trends. Simon Robinson, Director of B4SI APAC presented a compelling story of progress and highlighted areas within reach of our existing resource availability that we could tap into.

We joined B4SI to be part of a club of companies that care about creating a positive social impact for communities, and our membership provides us with this and more. The annual benchmark report keeps us up to date with performance in our sector and region and it enables us to see what our global B4SI peers are contributing to, what social issues they’re predominantly seeking to impact and how they contribute.

The benchmark report is a resource which provides rich data to support the development of business cases to resource increases in an organisation’s positive societal impact. At Pacific National, we have used the benchmark report to inform the development of our social impact strategy and some of the data within the report has been pivotal to informing key elements within the strategy and the strategic action plan for the coming 1-3 years.

• Melanie Withers, Head of Communications, Pacific National

Pacific National is Australia’s largest private rail freight operator