Kat Brown, social impact and ESG manager at Bruntwood, and Wojciech Szewczak, principal consultant at Ramboll and chair of ACE Emerging Professionals, explore social value.

This piece forms part of a series, what sustainability means, which brings together two of ACE’s Emerging Professionals to explore what how sustainability impacts their own lives and day-to-day work.

“Social value is critical to ensuring sustainable outcomes”

Whilst studying civil engineering at university, sustainability was usually defined in the context of the environment, over the social and economic aspects. As a an emerging professional working in the built environment industry, a feature of my role is to consider the social impact and realised value through sustaining our built environment, and safeguarding it for future generations.

In recent years, environmental, social & governance (ESG) has risen up the agenda, with a spotlight on the ‘S’ due to global challenges, such as pandemics, climate change and social inequality. In my role as Social Impact and ESG Manager at Bruntwood, I work across the business to understand our non-financial impact, including social value.

In the UK, the Social Value Act 2012 calls for social value to be considered when procuring and awarding public-sector contracts. I believe social value is a critical to ensuring sustainable outcomes for our planet and people. Unlike financial value, social value can be hard to quantify as it may mean different things to different people and places. The complexity of social challenges in this diverse world, require governments, organisations and communities to collaborate for positive outcomes.

Kat Brown (Bruntwood).

“Creating environments which improve the lives of a community”

When somebody mentions sustainability, we usually think about the environmental, rather the economic and social aspects. Considering social sustainability ensures we create projects with a lasting legacy.

During my engineering career, I had the opportunity to volunteer with Bridges to Prosperity and to go to Uganda to assist with building a 70-metre-long suspended footbridge. The new footbridge transformed lives of the isolated community of 1,300 by providing direct access to basic services, such as schools, training centres, market, government offices and healthcare clinics.

While supervising the works on site, I developed a new set of skills for volunteers from the local community. In transferring knowledge about prefabrication techniques and raising awareness of health and safety on site, we increased their chance of future employment opportunities in the construction industry. After completion of the footbridge, employment income in the village has increased as locals have worked on new projects outside of their communities.

Thanks to this experience, I really learned what social sustainability means and how important it is to consider its impact on society. For myself it is ultimately about creating environments which improve the lives of a community by understanding and addressing their needs and challenges. New projects in the construction industry should ensure they create and enable future societies to both function and flourish.

Wojciech Szewczak (Ramboll).

Read more from the What Sustainability Means series. Find out more about ACE's Emerging Professionals.