Infomate ( Pvt ) Ltd, Sri Lanka’s first BPO and Business Process Management firm with clients across Australia, UK, USA and Northern Europe, has embraced and ushered in a new era of sustainable business in the IT/BPM sector.
From setting ESG objectives and goals, developing a strategic ESG roadmap and framework, setting action plans and KPIs and reporting and communicating their progress, Infomate has gained much credibility amongst stakeholders and clients.
With their mandate for the future to be carbon neutral, improve employee health and well-being, support communities and strengthen their gender equity and diversity among board members and other leadership positions, Infomate looks at ESG as an important investment in the company’s future resiliency.
Speaking of their journey in adapting to ESG Jehan Perinpanayagam CEO of Infomate stated “many investors and stakeholders today want to support companies that align in fighting climate change and promoting equality. Companies that accept and play this role effectively will prosper in the years ahead, while those that do not, will experience increasingly limited prospects and eventual failure. ESG and sustainability therefore is a board level topic that also offers new growth opportunities. To avoid ESG being seen as “greenwashing,” it needs to be integrated into the organizations overall strategy and risk management, so it transforms the way they operate. Governance is also an important part of ESG, which begins with a thorough assessment of the materiality and implications of ESG for the enterprise. The board and senior leadership must share accountability for developing a strategy to address the associated risks and opportunities, and for implementing strategies to achieve near-term and longer-term ambitions. At Infomate these were some of the first steps that we took in adapting to ESG”.
Upon designing an integrated sustainability strategy that reinforced environmental, social and governance being incorporated into their important business and operational decisions, Infomate’s next steps were in making significant strides in terms of inclusion and diversity and has today, one of the largest female workforces amongst the BPM organizations in the country. At a time when women employment has experienced drastic drops, Infomate’s strong focus on successfully implementing gender diversity policies in their organization is clearly a benchmark to be celebrated in their adaption towards ESG. Aligning with their goals of supporting disadvantaged communities, Infomate set up three BPM centers in Mahaviliachiya, Seenigama and Jaffna thereby supporting job creation which has led to self-sufficiency of the people in these rural communities as well as training them to engage and work with international companies. Infomate further launched a project to reduce its carbon footprint, by planting of over 200 mahogany trees, in Ratnapura.
Measuring performance through a set of criteria developed for rating and reporting these activities has resonated well with their clients in the west and helped tap into new businesses, leading to expanding their portfolio of businesses from offering finance and accounting services to now including shipping documentation, sales, admin support, and HR and legal process outsourcing with automation being a key enabler in these activities.
Outlining the future of ESG, Jehan explained that it will be the next billion-dollar opportunity in terms of green tech. Businesses in general would have a standardized and universally applicable definition of what counts as green. Data would be key to unlocking ESG and providing a framework to efficiently channel funds towards solutions that can eliminate emissions, where capital will need to flow to solutions with Carbon returns.