Connecting is fundamental to Aquosum, and we need to connect both internally and externally. Internally, the Connecting phase of Aquosum endeavours to bring together our strengths across global business units, expertise and locations to develop our advisory and innovation capabilities. Though such collaboration has always been fundamental to Aquosum, our strategy drives home the significance such meaningful dialogue can make to our customers and the planet.

Externally, we are connecting with our clients and partners through our go-to-market plans and our research and development. Our Innovation Lab, established in 2021, is bridging the gap between our science and our business by connecting Aquosum with an external innovation ecosystem, linking innovation and sustainability both within and outside our organisation.

Engaging our stakeholders is the foundation of our approach to sustainability. The feedback that we receive enables us to continuously improve our practices and performance. It keeps us responsive to new trends and opportunities while making sure we continue to meet our stakeholders’ expectations. It is essential that we are reactive and accountable to their feedback and concerns.

With our commitment to good business, we engage our key stakeholders regularly through various mechanisms such as informal and formal direct dialogues, surveys and at professional and industry conferences and forums.

Our stakeholders have been identified through consideration of our business operations, products, and services as well as from regulatory requirements. As a software advisory business, our supply chain is based around our office operations, in addition to the specialist subcontractors we engage with on a project basis. Our stakeholders include our own people, our clients and customers, our business partners and our suppliers and sub-contractors, as well as the planet and society downstream within our value chain.

For our first sustainability impact report applying the GRI Standards, we wanted to ensure itreflects those topics most material to us as a business as well as those that create greatest impact in the world. To achieve this, we reached out to our people through a mix of interviews with our ELT and an online survey accessible to all staff at Aquosum. We focused on what ‘sustainability’ means to them personally and how it is expressed in their work. The results of this engagement formed one of the guideposts for our materiality assessment. Looking to the future, we will extend this process to include a wider range of our stakeholders across markets and regions within our value chain.