The property industry is one of the largest in Australia employing 1.4 million Australians and generating more than $106 billion in tax revenues to fund community services, according to the Property Council of Australia.
The industry has the potential to create more social value alongside profit—driving social performance further.
Social performance is effectively looking at your business impact on people—staff, customers, suppliers and communities. It’s set to become a point of competitive advantage to retain top talent, win more customers and attract investors.
Forward-thinking leaders are already baking it into their corporate strategy and ESG reporting.
76 per cent of leaders expect their company’s investment in social impact initiatives to rise over the next 12 months (2025 Executive CSR Report)
94 per cent of CFOs believe social will be an important priority in 2030 (The ESG Revolution—KPMG Australia).
The “Social” pillar in ESG is broad and these are some of the ways companies can enhance their social performance.
Fair and inclusive employment: Ensuring fair wages, supporting diversity and inclusion in the workforce to create opportunities for underrepresented groups and contribute to social equity, provide learning and development opportunities and create a positive and safe work environment.
Supplier diversity: Promoting ethical sourcing practices, ensuring fair labour conditions (human rights/modern slavery), and supporting sustainable supply chains with diverse supplier programs/social procurement (that is, buying from social benefit suppliers such as social enterprises).
Ethical product design: Creating affordable and accessible products or services that are priced responsibly and designed to include more people in the community. Be more successful with your customers.
Workplace giving and corporate philanthropy: Contributing to charitable causes, supporting social programs, volunteering, corporate donations and grant programs.
Community wellbeing initiatives: Participating in local initiatives, supporting overall education, health and economic stability of communities they operate in.
As a founding member of Social Traders, Mirvac—an Australian property group, is actively looking to lead in social performance and proactively showcase the positive impact it has on communities.
For Mirvac, the social and commercial benefits of social sustainability are intertwined and both equally important. Their social performance strategy focuses on three key areas:
People: Ensuring active, inclusive care for their employees.
Connection: Leaving a positive legacy and building strong bonds with communities.
Inclusion: Creating a sense of belonging and investing in the social sector.
An example of Mirvac putting social sustainability strategy into their operations, is through embedding supplier diversity in their supply chain to unlock social value. In 2024, Mirvac and Green Connect, a certified social enterprise, won the Social Trader’s National Social Procurement Impact Partnership Award for their focus on sustainability, waste diversion and ethical labour hire.
In FY24, Mirvac was not only able to recycle 66 per cent of its total operational waste through this partnership but also supported 250 staff from Green Connect being employed to assist with waste auditing for Mirvac. These are people from marginalised communities that would have been shut out of work.
This winning partnership fosters inclusive employment while reinforcing Mirvac’s commitment to directing $100 million to the social sector by 2030 and achieving zero waste.
Social enterprises are businesses that exist to create positive impact for people and planet. They support marginalised communities, including people with disabilities, youth at-risk, refugees, people escaping domestic violence or homelessness—and also the environment. By partnering with them, the property industry can use its collective buying power for good.
Embedding social procurement in business strategy is a simple but powerful tool for double value creation—achieving commercial objectives while also supporting communities where you operate.
In the property industry, the two most common social procurement spending categories with certified social enterprises are:
Human resources services and recruitment (26 per cent)
Building trade, repairs and maintenance (15 per cent)
Horticulture and arboriculture (12 per cent)
And through the industry’s social enterprise procurement spending, it supports:
Marginalised youth (15 per cent)
Marginalised women (12 per cent)
People with disabilities (10 per cent)
Social Traders has been tracking the state of social procurement through their business and government members’ spending with certified social enterprises since 2018. Social procurement spending has gone up every year, reaching a milestone $1.1 billion spent with social enterprises over the past seven years. This cumulative spending has created:
10,000 jobs and more than 918,000 training hours for people otherwise shut out of work
$88.1 million delivered in affordable and accessible community services
56,500 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill
$13.1 million donated to charity partners.
Now more than ever the businesses that proudly deliver on social performance will stand out from the crowd. Customers and employees are watching, and the brands with genuine commitments will be rewarded with long-term profitability. Companies are expected to go beyond their KPIs, delivering social value and not just profit.
It’s only a matter of time before social performance is part of mandatory reporting. Although shifts in regulatory and stakeholder expectations are a complexity for businesses to navigate, it can also be seen as an opportunity for organisations to innovate and get a competitive edge.
Businesses that champion social performance now will future-proof their success and set the gold standard for leadership in the 21st century. Using the power of business to create more social value alongside profit will translate into long-term business performance and shareholder value. It’s the future of good business.
The Urban Developer is proud to partner with Social Traders to deliver this article to you. In doing so, we can continue to publish our daily news, information, insights and opinion to you, our valued readers.
Social Traders has been a leading industry body for social enterprise and social performance since 2008. They’ve worked with more than 300 businesses ranging from ASX listed companies, SMEs and governments to deliver, track and report on social performance. Social Traders is Australia’s certifier of over 740 social enterprises—businesses with a social or environmental purpose, creating a fairer, more equitable and sustainable Australia. www.socialtraders.com.au
