A new report showcases the property industry’s social sustainability agenda in action. But hold your applause, says the Property Council’s Francesca Muskovic. “We are only just scratching the surface.”
The Property Council’s new report, A common language for social sustainability, will be launched at Green Cities in Melbourne tomorrow.
The result of collective efforts from the Property Council’s social sustainability roundtable, the report establishes common definitions for social sustainability, and unpacks many of the industry’s big buzzwords – shared value, ethical governance and social return on investment among them.
The report is also chock-full of case studies for inspiration and ideas.
Among these case studies are Grocon’s partnership with Homes for Homes, which encourages buyers to donate a tiny fraction of their property sale price to build social housing and Mirvac’s profit-for-purpose café in Sydney, which channels 100 per cent of returns into domestic violence services.
Other case studies call out the work of Vicinity Centres which is using social procurement to help young people leaving the justice system and The GPT Group, which has a formalised strategy for reconciliation.
“The leaders in our industry are delivering some great outcomes, but we are in the early stages of defining and plotting a course for the social impact of the industry as a whole,” Francesca Muskovic, the Property Council’s policy manager for sustainability and regulatory affairs explains.
The report is a “conversation starter”, rather than a definitive roadmap, Muskovic adds.
“Social sustainability is something our industry needs to take very seriously. We only have to look at how other industries – notably finance – have lost the community’s trust to understand the value of our social license to operate.
“We have an obligation to leave a positive legacy, and many of the industry’s leaders are doing great work. But there is much more work to be done.”
Muskovic says the next steps will be to work on metrics to measure the social value created by various initiatives, as well as their economic contribution.
“The case studies throughout the report illustrate that putting the needs of the community at the heart of placemaking is also good for business. A common set of metrics will support greater benchmarking and place a more robust value on the ‘people’ part of the triple bottom line.
“This will help investors, governments and other stakeholders to understand the social value created, and our great hope is that this will drive further uptake of initiatives with a positive social impact,” Muskovic says.
Industry leaders agree. Bruce Precious, the GPT Group’s national sustainability manager says the property industry is a “proven rapid adopter of best practice” and benchmarking will “incentivise the industry to make ever more meaningful contributions to society”.
Davina Rooney, Stockland’s general manager of sustainability says benchmarking will “normalise best practice” and allow smaller companies to leverage the learnings from the industry’s leaders. “It’s undoubtedly the next step on our sustainability journey,” Rooney adds.
The Property Council is seeking project partners across business, government and community sectors to develop a collective approach to social indicators. For more information, contact Francesca Muskovic on (02) 9033 1997.