Embedding social value into business operations is critical to delivering more value in communities, supporting businesses in meeting their own sustainability goals and rebuilding trust in the real estate industry, explains Guy Battle, CEO, Social Value Portal
The construction industry plays a huge part in society; building places for us to live and work, creating the infrastructure that enables us to get around, and providing access to clean water and energy. It is also one of the biggest employers and contributors to the economy.
This alone means that organisations in the construction industry, from small, local suppliers to blue chip construction firms take a lead position in the social value movement.
And yet, many businesses still do not understand the direct link between the value they create for society and their own sustainability strategies, often believing that the two are separate and exclusive, rather than being interconnected and, when done well, mutually supportive.
What is social value?
The only real difference between social value and sustainability is that social value has a legal status and has been defined by Public Services Social Value Act 2012 whereas the roots of sustainability stretch back to the Brundtland Report published three decades ago. This is where the differences end, for both the Act and the Brundtland Report use the same broad triple bottom line definition – social, environmental and economic wellbeing.
Put simply, social value is the umbrella term used to describe the value an organisation creates for individuals, communities and society. This can range from creating more employment opportunities for disadvantaged people to committing to using local resources and suppliers wherever possible or supporting community projects.
Why is everyone talking about social value?
Although the Social Value Act came into force a decade ago, it has taken a while to climb the ladder of priorities. The public sector has driven the normalisation of social value in commercial activities over the years and this has, eventually, led to a really positive response from the supply market.
More specifically for the construction industry, Public Procurement Note PPN06/20, published in June 2020, requires all government departments to embed social value into their procurement decision making (a minimum of 10%). This was followed up with the publication of the Construction Playbook, which made it an explicit requirement for all new construction.
In the last six months alone, we have seen an enormous increase in the number of organisations across all sectors who are approaching us to find out more. Businesses want to know how they can not just embed social value into their business practices, but also measure and report their social value endeavours in a meaningful way.
What does this mean for sustainability in the construction industry?
As the largest industry in the UK – with a turnover of over £110bn every year – the potential impact of the industry is enormous.
Our work shows that by embedding social value into its decision making, each business within the sector can add an additional 35% in value to society. This leads to a potential added value of over £40bn by the manner in which the sector spends its money, creates local jobs and supports local communities.
No industry has this level of direct and immediate impact, which is why every business within the sector needs to develop and implement its own social value policy and delivery plan.
Whilst it is easy to encourage (and lecture!) businesses to be more responsible and sustainable, there will be some business owners thinking that this is an unwanted distraction to getting the job done and yet another drain on profits.
Although it always takes time (and investment) to change course and develop new ways of working, there is now a clear business imperative for those organisations wishing to win work with the public sector either directly or indirectly. Bluntly put, if you do not have a social value policy, you will soon not be able to win work with the public sector. As the private sector inevitably adopts the lead that the public sector sets, this will become a much wider challenge.
What does a good social value policy look like?
If you don’t yet have a social value policy and implementation strategy, then now is the time to develop one and to put in place the resources to make this a reality – including how you set targets, measure, monitor and improve your performance.
One way of doing this would be to adopt the National TOMs as a way of structuring your social value strategy. The National TOMs were developed in 2017, by Social Value Portal working alongside the independent National Social Value Taskforce. They have now become the principal framework for describing social value across the construction sector and have been endorsed by the Local Government Association. The National TOMs describe social value across 5 core themes; jobs, regional growth, community, the environment and innovation.
These themes reflect the triple bottom line of sustainability and can be used to develop an integrated approach to both social value and sustainable development. Adopting them will also help you win more work as they will ensure that your strategy mirrors public sector requirements.
Rebuilding trust
In a recent report published by Grosvenor Estates, less than 10% of the public trusted developers and by implication our industry, to look after a community’s interests.
This matters enormously not only because, without the support of the community, the hands of our planners will be tied, leading to a much more cautious approach to development but also because we need our industry to be trusted in order to continue to attract the best people to build their careers with us.
Social value is one of those cross-cutting opportunities – it provides a business with a way of articulating a purpose beyond its core business activities whilst also providing a clear set of measurable activities that can make a real difference to communities, helping them to flourish and thrive.
A more sustainable future where social value is core to business success
Social value is here to stay and whilst it is fair to say that we all still have much to learn, businesses need to now embrace it as a core business strategy. The public sector is leading on its adoption, bound by new legislation but this is now impacting the planners and private sector developers who also have their investor interests to see to.
The construction sector should be well suited to make this shift and need to consider how they can adapt their existing sustainability strategies to deliver more social value. This will require resources, new thinking and a social value strategy supported by measurement and reporting to ensure you are doing what you say. This will also help you to improve performance.
As we face into the post-Covid world, this will become a fundamental necessity and as one of the largest industries in the UK, construction will be expected to lead the change.
