Social Traders Convene 2024, brought together over 220 social enterprise, business and government change makers and one of the most talked about topics: measuring the impact of social procurement.

Suzie Barnett from Two Good Co said “reporting is one of the biggest challenges facing us today” and many echoed her sentiment that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.

Michael Stuart, a self-confessed data-nerd and Head of Social Impact and Data at Social Traders, said unfortunately as a sector, social enterprise is often data starved, so his role is focused on giving data back to the sector as evidence to help grow and upskill.

“In starting out on the measurement journey most organisations are only looking at their social procurement spend from a dollar figure perspective. What we can do is help them understand what is the actual impact of that spend; data that really shows the positive outcome of that spend such as employment hours created or how much waste was redirected from landfill.”

Measuring this true impact of social procurement has long been a challenge for organisations… until now.

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Focusing on the ‘S’ in ESG

There are enormous benefits for organisations who set targets, track and measure their procurement spend and showcase the impact they are having on their community and the environment through their partnerships with social enterprises.

Carmen Garcia, CEO and Founder of Community Corporate, said we need to reframe the narrative of ‘S’ in ESG – ‘Social’ is people and what is more important for businesses, for communities than our people.

This deeply resonated with those operating in the infrastructure and property space. Andrew Cole, Group Head of ESG at Charter Hall, said at the turn of the century, sparked by Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australia undertook a green building transformation and now, two decades later the ‘E’ in ESG is very much embedded across planning, building and reporting in the property sector.

“The ‘S’ is how we impact communities, people and societies and measuring that is not as easy,” said Katrina Brooks, Mirvac’s Social Sustainability Manager. “How do you put a price on changing people’s lives. It is harder and it is still emerging as there are more and more demands on corporates being held to account.”

Anna Davis, Manager Future Focus at the Green Building Council Australia said: “the ‘S’ in ESG can now stand on the shoulders of the success of ‘E’. It is such a good starting point, especially in the built environment space.”

Check out our "S" in ESG whitepaper to get practical examples to how social enterprises can deliver on your social goals.

It is not just about data but storytelling

What drove sustainable change over the long term was a strong business case that showed being environmentally friendly and creating social impact would make money. This is where storytelling comes to the fore.

“Storytelling and data go hand in hand,” said Sharon Gray, GM, Diversity and Social Inclusion at CPD Contractors. “Make it normal within a business to have data and reporting in place – but capture and tell the stories that go along with that data.”

“We use our data to tell a lot of stories in a lot of different ways and help change minds,” Social Traders Michael Stuart said.

Diego Uzzun, Sustainability Project Manager at Infrastructure Sustainability Council said: “Numbers, percentage, metrics alone don’t provide the full picture that we need. It needs to come together with a qualitative approach that brings that next level of insight.”

“It doesn’t boil down to one number,” said Mirvac’s Katrina Brooks said. “It comes to a range of numbers. And data tells one aspect but we love when we can bring human stories to the fore. The true impact is difficult to quantify over time so telling the story to our stakeholders is critical. Corporates are made up of people and they want to hear stories of other people.”

Aaron Reid, GM Social Sustainability at Ventia said for them it was understanding their impact – what is working what is not – and how do we communicate this to our stakeholders to encourage change that is bigger than just our business.

“We have to encourage everyone in our ecosystem to make positive change,” Aaron said. “We are trying to make a positive outcome and drive behaviour change.”

Abigail Peak from Social Traders summed up the many data and impact discussions by concluding there isn’t a one size fits all approach.
“It is a journey and should be a bespoke approach that responds to your own organisation’s culture.“

“Get started,” added Social Traders Michael Stuart. “It can be hard and intimidating but get the journey started.

“What gets measured gets done and you get better and better over time,” said Sharon Gray. “Enjoy the journey as you go a long and the wonderful stories shared and told.”

Want support to deliver and report on your responsible business goals? Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help.