National Breast Cancer Foundation – ESG Support

The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) is Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisation funding world-class breast cancer research towards our vision of Zero Deaths from breast cancer. 

Since its inception in 1994, NBCF has invested over $200M into more than 600 world-class research projects across Australia. In this time, death rates from breast cancer in Australia have improved by over 40%. 

As a leading national not-for-profit body and steward of significant funding, the NBCF aspires to conduct business operations in a manner that continually improves its sustainability performance and aligns with its cancer control mission, corporate vision, and organisational values.

As the demand for sustainable practices grows among donors, partners, and stakeholders, there is an increasing need to comprehensively understand and implement environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies. To meet these expectations and to craft a framework that will steer sustainable investments, partnerships, and supply chain decisions, NBCF engaged Anthesis for expert sustainability guidance.

This project represented a departure from traditional impact measuring in the not-for-profit (NFP) space and consisted of two main steps: 

ESG Materiality Assessment : Anthesis conducted a double materiality assessment that explored NBCF’s impact on the environment, society, and the economy, as well as the inbound impact of sustainability issues like climate change and regulatory shifts on NBCF over the long-term. This was achieved through an Anthesis-led stakeholder engagement employee and leadership workshop and an extensive desktop review of stakeholder positions to identify, assess, and prioritise ESG impacts relevant to NBCF.

The materiality assessment resulted in the incorporation of NBCF’s most significant topics into its strategic and operational considerations.

ESG Principles: With consideration of NBCF’s Materiality Assessment, cancer control considerations and strategic directions, Anthesis developed a set of ESG principles that provided NBCF with a framework to guide consideration of future partnerships and assessment/ selection of vendors and service providers.  

This partnership between Anthesis and NBCF has enhanced NBCF’s ability to manage key ESG issues and integrate sustainability into strategic decision-making and operations.