The built environment is inseparable from the idea of social and environmental impact. This may seem obvious – after all, it’s where we live and work. Of course that’s going to affect our lives. But we can sometimes under-appreciate just how much it affects. The safety and sense of community it brings when designed well. The increased opportunities and economic empowerment it can afford people.
How we design, construct, and maintain these environments echoes down the generations. These can’t simply be fit for function; they need to be fit for the future. Every decision made across every infrastructure project has the potential for positive change. The power to bring that about lies in the hands of the councils and companies working across our infrastructure.
So, with that pressure on your shoulders, how can you shift your view and aim to achieve more? Something that might help is to adjust how you define value and your approach to the built environment. We have a few terms you can add to your vocabulary that will widen your lens and help you extract even more from the infrastructure projects you’re involved with.
Intrinsic value
Integral to squeezing as much value out of infrastructure as possible is understanding that the impact of the built environment is twofold. On the one hand, you have an asset’s intrinsic value. That is, the ways in which it will directly impact the wellbeing of society or the environment.
Intrinsic social value is the positive change an asset or space will generate simply by existing. And it will often be the reason why a project is happening in the first place.
This is about the value your projects are delivering first and foremost. Using the example of a new train station, you may create it to ease congestion and create new travel links. But its intrinsic value will be reducing carbon emissions by giving more people the opportunity to use public transport instead of their cars. Or bringing greater connection and opportunities for people in more isolated communities.
These are the direct benefits of your project. They are intrinsic because you cannot separate them from the project itself. So when you look at any upcoming ones, ask yourself what intrinsic value they are adding. Everything should be contributing something, but if it isn’t, you know something isn’t quite right.
Extrinsic value
Then you have an asset’s extrinsic value. Which is anything additional that will be generated, but isn’t essential to the project delivery. In the above example, this might be the employment or volunteer opportunities generated throughout the station’s construction, or any biodiversity planning done to reduce its environmental impact.
Extrinsic value is anything over and above the asset itself that helps amplify its long-term impact.
To ensure the greatest possible outcomes from every project, it’s important to consider both intrinsic and extrinsic value from the outset. By bringing these into focus early on, you ensure all parties involved are on the same page about a project’s aims. And that opportunities for positive, long-lasting impact – both intrinsic and extrinsic to the built environment – shape how you deliver the project.
Multi-capitals approach
When it comes to value, what gets in the way of achieving the greatest impact? Arguably, it’s the fact that value for money supersedes the social value. This can find itself coming secondary to securing the greatest price.
But to ensure value for money is balanced with meaningful social and environmental drivers, we like the multi-capitals approach. Put simply, it works to extend the definition of ‘capital’, moving beyond finances and incorporating broader sustainability issues. Just as you can invest in financial capital, you can invest in natural, human, and social capital, too.
By viewing all capital as equal, we can transform decision making across projects.
Rather than hunting down materials or services for the best value for money, procurement teams and their suppliers can approach the built environment from a more balanced point of view. Juggling value for money with, say, an asset’s impact on local communities and the natural world.
Putting this into practice
As above, the earlier you identify these outcomes and benefits, the better position you’ll be in. Big-picture thinking in terms of a project’s impact comes from the top-down.
So the sooner you can align all suppliers and stakeholders on the varied value you hope to generate, the more seamless you can expect delivery of that value to be. And the easier you’ll find it to define and capture the data needed to identify whether these outcomes have actually been realised by a project’s conclusion.
Infrastructure projects are a powerful place to generate social value. Mainly because the assets you create serve as the core foundation for a lot of our daily lives and experiences. While we’ve come a long way in recent years, we still have some work to do to ensure all projects can have the greatest possible impact in your built environment. Sometimes, a simple tweak of mindset can be all it takes to think bigger and align everyone around the same goals.
Impact allows organisations to quantify their efforts against an unlimited range of social, environmental, and governance disclosures. Benefit from streamlined data capture, visualisation, and reporting, and measure, monitor, and analyse the social impact of your projects like never before. To find out more, schedule a demo or get in touch with the team on 0161 532 4752.