Alternatives

When I work with organisations to clean up their supply chain, we often look at alternative Australian-based suppliers.

Here are a small handful in the software space that come up frequently:

• Booktopia is an Aussie owned and run online book store, headquartered in Sydney. The Booktopia app for smartphones has an audiobook feature which is an alternative to Audible.

• Xero (the accounting software) is an NZ owned company, and an alternative to QuickBooks/Intuit, MYOB, and Freshbooks. There is also an Aussie alternative called Rounded.

• Serversaurus are an Australian green web hosting company based in Melbourne, with Aussie-based support, and are recognised by the Green Web Foundation. They’re an alternative to every website hosting company from Webcentral to GoDaddy.

In the absence of a green or ethical alternative for your suppliers, choosing a local alternative brings your support back to your local economy, and minimises footprint in the transfer of data, as well as any physical products you might exchange.

Changes like this may seem small on the emissions scale particularly if you’re a smaller org, but the signal it sends about your values can be powerful.