Why the social value shift is underway
Population pressures and increasing development densities mean the property industry must find new ways to deliver and demonstrate social value, says Ethos Urban’s director of social strategy, Allison Heller.
There’s a shift underway globally, Heller says, which is recalibrating the way we live and work.
“There is a growing focus on social sustainability and how businesses are delivering shared value for shareholders, clients and communities.”
The context for this shift is multifaceted.
“At the global level, nations are grappling with the social impacts of mass migration linked with conflict and climate change. Enlightened organisations – governments and businesses – are aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and meeting other challenges, notably modern slavery, which are forcing them to look beyond profit and towards purpose.”
In January, Larry Fink, chairman of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, told shareholders that “society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose”.
At the same time, city-level leadership, notably the Greater Sydney Commission’s liveability agenda, is encouraging developers to “see themselves as community builders” and to commit to improving quality of life, Heller adds.
“As these drivers coalesce, they are forcing the property industry to go above and beyond its social licence to operate and demonstrate a genuine commitment to shared value as core to business strategy.”
A member of the Property Council’s social sustainability committee, Heller helped develop A common language for social sustainability, which was launched in March. She says the “shift to social value reflects the transformational shift that occurred in terms of environmental sustainability 10 or 15 years ago”.
“Developers once argued about meeting environmental standards and their impact on the bottom line. But today’s progressive developers want to be at the leading edge of sustainability because they recognise its inherent value to their business over the long term. This is the shift underway for social sustainability.
“Essentially it’s about creating places that improve people’s wellbeing and resilience. It’s about recognising that the social life and dynamism of our cities is what makes them successful – socially and economically – and the need to recognise the value we create when we build new places well,” Heller adds.
She points to the delivery of new landmark public spaces in Sydney – including the new headland park at Barangaroo – as a lighthouse example of social value in action.
“The creation of new social infrastructure, such as the stunning Kengo-Kuma designed Darling Exchange library, delivered through a development deal between Lendlease and the City of Sydney, is another fantastic example of how development can deliver public benefit for the long term,” she says.
Last year, JBA, Planisphere and Buckley Vann formally merged to create Ethos Urban, and Heller says her team’s ethos is “people”.
“We want to work with developers from the outset, so we aren’t just delivering a social impact assessment at the DA stage, but integrating social strategy throughout the design and planning phases. That’s how we can create the most sophisticated social strategies that deliver great social outcomes and benefits for businesses and communities,” she says.
“Having worked in this space for the last 20 years, it’s exciting to see how rapidly it’s changing. After a long time of arguing hard for social sustainability, people are now really getting it.”