What sets social sustainability apart from the other two pillars is that it relates directly to people, focusing on the importance of human sustainability, both now and in the future. It means thinking about your staff members as whole people with lives outside of work, not just another resource when they’re on the clock.
The basics
Key aspects of social sustainability include:
- Equity and justice: The fair distribution of resources and opportunities across different social groups. Equity acknowledges that everyone starts at a different level, so it's providing the tools for each person to have the same opportunities to succeed. For example, you wouldn’t expect a builder in good health and one with a shoulder injury to complete the same work, in the same way. They can both still work, but you might need to make some adjustments to how it’s done.
- Diversity and inclusion: This isn’t just about hiring all sorts of different people from different backgrounds and with different skillsets, it’s also about how you value, respect, and celebrate those differences within your team.
- Community engagement: This creates room for active participation of citizens (or your team) in decision-making processes.
- Livelihood security: Ensuring stable employment and income for individuals. This ties into economic sustainability – to provide stable employment, your business needs to be economically sound and resilient to outside pressures.
- Quality of life: For society, this looks like access to essential services like healthcare, education, and housing. For businesses, this might look like subsidised health insurance, consistent working hours, flexibility for your team for family commitments, or even prioritising social time for your team on a Friday afternoon.
- Cultural preservation: This is about maintaining and respecting cultural heritage, which aligns with diversity and inclusion. What are you doing to ensure your team can bring their whole selves to work each day? Do you encourage them to embrace their cultural identity on site? Are they allowed or encouraged to speak their languages, as well as English?
While many aspects of social sustainability need government support to be fully effective, there’s still plenty you can do at an individual or business level.
Putting it into practice
Prioritising social sustainability gives you a framework to make sure your team are well looked after and have everything they need. There’s loads of international research which shows these types of actions lead to a productive and happy workforce with higher staff retention. It’s just good business.
Here are some tips on how to enhance social sustainability in your business.
Fair labour practices
While we have solid labour laws in New Zealand, social sustainability means making sure employee rights and benefits don’t come second to profits. In practice, this could look like:
- Prioritising your team’s wellbeing – Mates in Construction
- Ensuring safe working conditions
- Fair wages - you could pay the living wage, which is independently calculated to cover the cost of basic needs and leave room for rest or savings
- Contracts with job security, as well as paid sickness and annual leave
Health and safety practices
We reckon you’re probably all over this one already, given how essential it is on a building site. Good health and safety practices ensure a safe working environment, reduce the risk of accidents, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to the welfare of your team.
In 2023, the industries with the highest incidence rate of work-related claims were:
- Manufacturing – 151 claims per 1000 FTEs
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing – 149 claims per 1000 FTEs
- Construction – 127 claims per 1000 FTEs
While we can all give ourselves a pat on the back thanks to constructions claims and injuries being on the decline, there are still plenty of hazards on a construction site. Make sure you are looking after yourself and your team out there.
Construction | WorkSafe has all the basics covered, if you are looking to improve your health and safety performance on site.
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Equal employment and growth opportunities for all employees, without prejudice, is an essential part of promoting an inclusive workplace culture. But what does that look like in reality? It could mean:
- A workforce which has visible representation of women, Māori, Pacific Islanders, and other different ethnicities, people with disabilities, across all levels of the team – from labourers to site managers
- Active recruitment strategies to attract diverse candidates, including targeted outreach to underrepresented communities
- Flexible working arrangements, so people can fit in personal needs and family commitments
- Cultural awareness training
- A work environment with physical modifications to accommodate different accessibility needs
- Gender neutral bathrooms and changing rooms
- Open communication about diversity and inclusion concerns, including clear and safe reporting mechanisms for addressing issues
- Mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for staff
- Celebrating cultural events, like Matariki, Diwali, or the Lunar New Year
The most important thing for your team is that they can see their leaders are committed to diversity and inclusion and that they’re actively promoting these values throughout the business.
Extra for experts
Healthy Homes standards
The Healthy homes standards are a great example of a government-led initiative to deliver on social sustainability, preventing disadvantaged people living in poorly ventilated, damp or cold homes. They’re also important for builders across the country to understand, as these minimum requirements apply to all rental and state-owned properties to ensure they’re warm and dry.
These standards encompass five key areas – heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage, and draught stopping.
Other standards
For businesses which are really committed to social sustainability, there are a couple of internationally measured and reported frameworks which have valuable guidance on ethical business practices, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability reporting.
ISO 26000 is a global standard that encourages businesses to consider the social and environmental impacts of their operations, making sure they align with internationally recognised principles of social responsibility.
https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/iso-gri-26000_2014-01-28.pdf
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards are a set of guidelines to help you report on your environmental, economic, and social impacts. The GRI Standards are used by organisations around the world to communicate their sustainability efforts.
https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/
