+IMPACT MAGAZINE ISSUE 27

INSIGHT
INSIGHT
BEYOND
SUSTAINABILITY:
social impact across
the built environment
The Social Impact Across the Built Environment position paper marks a significant
change in thinking around the scope of a green project’s sustainability reach.
WORDS Abi Godsell, GBCSA
IMAGES WorldGBC
Authored by the World Green Building Council’s
Better Places for People programme, the Social
Impact Across the Built Environment position paper
– to which the Green Building Council South
Africa (GBCSA) is proud to have been an active contributor
– aims to recentre our understanding of sustainability on the
people who design, create, occupy and visit green buildings.
Already, the GBCSA is responding to an observed need to
hone, adapt and update its own tools (see +Impact issue 26 –
V2 People Category Deep Dive) that give a voice to the silent
“S” of ESG (environmental, social and governance) pillars.
Because of this, we are excited by the lenses and frameworks
that this report offers to start the work of people-centered
thinking in other spheres of the green building space.
This is not an area of green construction where there
are existing pathways that we must simply commit to
walking, or where the tools and techniques for effecting
transformation must simply be applied. We are all partners
in the development of the map towards a sustainable future
where green buildings are developed through processes
that support and actively increase: Diversity and Inclusion;
Health, Comfort, and Safety; Privacy and Security; and
Positive Climate Impacts.
A MESSAGE FROM CRISTINA GAMBOA, CEO, WORLD GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL:
“People are not just a part of the solution – they are the key to it. Social value is about the impact the built environment
has upon all of its inhabitants, as individuals and communities. It can be overlooked in many ways, yet it is fundamental
to creating high-quality buildings and surroundings that can affect all aspects of people’s lives. It is time for the sector to
action the “S” in ESG by putting people first.”
This position paper offers two sets of tools for beginning
this map-making:
The first set of tools, as shown above, are a series of
scopes – which may feel familiar to the community already
engaged in Carbon Emissions Reporting – that frame
how different scales, timelines and theatres of operation
can impact social equity, and therefore help increase the
positive contribution of green projects.
These lenses range from Scope 0, which examines
the implementing organisation’s internal practices and
protocols (so that the values that green projects intended
to champion in broader society are lived and practised
by those champions), through Scope 3, which examines
details of supply chain, ethical and accountable labour and
construction practices and life-cycle environmental risks
of buildings. They serve to break down green construction
into distinct systems that have different characteristics
and require different kinds of responses.
Sustainable
development
cannot be
achieved
without
focusing on
social impact.
– Social Impact
Across the Built
Environment
position paper –
page 14.
The next set of tools deals more explicitly with those
responses that will be assistive in the different systems:
The 5 As (below) are less a list of specific actions that
can be taken, and more a recipe for organisations to begin
crafting an action plan that is responsive to their contexts,
needs and resources. Like the scopes, these are ways of
thinking about bringing about a positive social impact, and
pro-actively taking steps towards increased social equity.
The GBCSA is excited to be part of the ongoing
exploration of how green buildings can be at the heart
of strong, inclusive and empowered communities. We
are weaving some of these principles, framings and values
into our existing work and programmes to produce tools,
leadership and recognition of, and guidance towards,
a socially sustainable future, where the built environment
is rapidly and robustly transforming for people and planet
to thrive.
https://worldgbc.org/article/social-impact-paper/
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