The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published a guide for delivering social value on built environment projects. As the cost of living crisis intensifies, the 'S' in ESG is beginning to take the spotlight with developers and (albeit to a lesser extent) landlords coming under increasing pressure to demonstrate the social value of their assets. The guide is described as "a step-by-step process for delivering social value that can be flexibly applied to any built environment project of any scale" and is designed to enable the delivery of social value across the whole project lifecycle.

As reported in Facilitate Magazine, Simon McWhirter, the UKGBC’s director of communications said "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."

The first three steps are to agree a social value purpose, identify priority stakeholders and understand those stakeholders' needs. Whilst this may seem obvious, it is important to remember that needs will vary depending on the location of the project and the time at which it is being undertaken. In addition, the needs of different priority stakeholders may be contradictory and will continuously change due to changes in external pressures, so the task is not a simple one. As such, once the social value outcomes have been agreed and implemented, the guide calls for ongoing measurement, monitoring and reporting and for continuous adjustment and improvement throughout the entire asset lifecycle.

Focus is clearly shifting from pure profit to increased social responsibility. However, a building generally changes ownership numerous times across its lifecycle and owners and occupiers are not always one and the same. Could we begin to see drafting in sale contracts and, particularly, in leases requiring the continuation of these efforts to deliver social value?