Today, the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), published a guidance toolkit that prioritizes social value delivery in built environment projects.
The toolkit guidance is intended to empower builders to support and increase the delivery social value in built environment projects. This can be done in a simple and straightforward 8-step process.
Social value is what the toolkit guidance focuses on.
The UKGBC‘s guide provides checklists to equip decision-makers with the tools to complete day-to-day tasks whilst ensuring that community and occupant needs are prioritised throughout a projects lifecycle.
The toolkit guidance is a concise guide to social value. It offers a shared approach to social delivery that has been developed in collaboration with industry experts and informed through real-world case studies.
Each project is unique, so the toolkit guidance provides a flexible approach for social value. The guidance can easily be modified to support any project in the built environment, at any scale, or at an organizational level.
Adding social value to buildings projects unlocks socio-economic and environmental benefits for society
Social value should not be neglected when considering sustainability of the built environments. Prioritizing social values in our building projects has a variety of benefits for society, including economic, environmental and social.
It can be used to combat economic inequality, combat climate change, improve health, and protect vulnerable people from rising living costs.
The Social Value Act 2013 is the leading example of social value in the built environment.
2013 saw the publication of the Social Value Act, which provides guidance on social value in the built environment sector. These included everything from measurement to embedding social values into procurement, planning, and design.
The industry must address the key issue of translating this guidance into a format that can be easily applied to specific circumstances and the nature of individual project.
The UKGBCs Guide for Creating Social Value from Built Environment Projects,Today’s publication is available. It is designed to address the current industry barriers by providing a step-by, flexible process for delivering socio-economic value to any built environment project. This could be a single asset or a whole town’s regeneration project.
Building on UKGBCs Framework for Determining Social ValueThe guidance toolkit was developed by testing the process of delivering social value using a variety of case studies, and then applying the results to improve understanding. The updated 8-step process includes:
- For senior decision-makers who are responsible for leading built environment projects, here are additional delivery checklists
- These detailed guidance notes are for practitioners who are responsible to deliver projects day-today.
- best practice examples
The new guidance makes it easy for project teams to follow and ensures that social value is at top of sustainability in the built environment.
‘With our communities in ever more need of support, delivering social value across building projects should no longer be viewed as nice to have, but a necessity’
Simon McWhirter, UKGBC’s director of communications policy & places, said:
“Whether it’s climate change, rising energy bills or community well-being and safety, the places we live, work and play are at the forefront of many of societys most critical issues. Building social value through building projects should not be considered a luxury, but a necessity, as our communities are in greater need of our support.
“Through setting out a logical process – which has been tried and tested in the real world – this guidance equips those tasked with delivering social value with an easy-to-use toolkit to ensure community and occupant needs are put front and centre as we design and deliver new developments and regeneration projects across the country.”
‘We want to give our staff the best tools to deliver places and spaces’
Avison Youngs community and charity manager, Hannah Baines, and corporate responsibility manager Chris Whetstone, said:
“As a business that believes in the positive impact real estate can have, we want to give our staff the best tools to deliver places and spaces that promote environmental, economic and social wellbeing. UKGBC Social Value Delivery guidance provides useful support and advice on complex topics that are increasingly important to clients.
“As a UKGBC Gold Leaf member, we were pleased to test the UKGBC Social Value toolkit on a pilot project at Swinton Square Shopping Centre, Salford, working in conjunction with our partners Groundwork and the EU UIA funded Ignition programme. We used our findings to inform this delivery guide, which is an essential tool for anyone keen to maximise the impact of their social value strategy.”
