Sustainability Indicators and Social Enterprises
Lead Researchers: Lauren Darby (Alumni), Heledd Jenkins, Frances Hines (Alumni)
Background
This project was developed after a local social enterprise; Newport Wastesavers identified the need to develop a set of sustainability indicators in order to help prove their contribution to sustainable development. Due to BRASS’ ongoing interest in the social enterprise business model, it was agreed that BRASS and Newport Wastesavers would work together to develop the indicators.
Wastesavers is a social enterprise that comprises of a charity (Newport Wastesavers Charitable Trust, est. 1995) and a not-for-profit business (Wastesavers Recycling, est. 1996). The enterprise started in 1986 as a small voluntary organisation whose main concern was raising awareness about material reuse and recycling. Since then it has been developed into one of the premier community recycling organisations in Wales.
As a social enterprise Wastesavers exists by covenanting all its profits directly to its charitable trust. Funding comes from the sale of materials for recycling and reuse, from its annual recycling contract with Newport City Council, and through grants from various sources. The enterprise also works in partnership with a number of organisations. The Welsh Assembly Government has awarded Wastesavers ‘exemplar status’ due to the success of its partnership with Newport City Council. This means that the enterprise receives additional funding to invest in recycling and re-use initiatives to reduce the amount of waste landfilled and increase Newport’s recycling rate from 17% to 50% by 2006.
This reliance on external sources of funding and close working partnerships with various organisations means that it’s important for the enterprise to demonstrate the diverse nature and value of its operations. Sustainability Indicators can help to show the ‘added value’ of an organisation by evaluating its ‘performance’ in social, environmental and economic spheres. Wastesavers decided to develop and use a set of Sustainability Indicators as a means of building a full and fair picture of the organisation to be used both internally by the enterprise and externally by partners, funders and customers.
Aims/Objectives/Key Questions
To develop a set of sustainability indicators for Newport Wastesavers
Methodology
The researchers worked with three senior members of staff at Wastesavers to develop the indicators. The first stage of the process was a review of existing sustainability indicator sets and sustainability tools, which were summarised and presented to the enterprise as a means of learning more about the nature of sustainability indicators and their suitability for the company. The enterprise was then presented with a set of questions that were designed to clarify:
• Why the company wanted to develop Sustainability Indicators.
• What the company wanted to achieve.
• The feasibility of developing and maintaining the indicator set over coming years.
• The scope of the work; and
• The prospective audience of the Sustainability Indicators set.
In the second stage of the process the set of Sustainability Indicators was developed. Initially, a list of potential indicators was constructed covering economic, social and environmental aspects of the enterprises’ operations and through a process of discussion and elimination, this list was narrowed down to eight key indicators using the following criteria:
1. What did the enterprise feel were the most important aspects to cover?
2. Which indicators would give the fullest and most accurate picture of the enterprise?
3. What information would stakeholders expect to be presented?
4. The current availability of information for each indicator.
5. Time and personnel resource constraints.
The indicators were developed with consideration to current data, time and resource availability. Therefore, the suggested indicators were intended only as a first step (or a pilot study) towards the development of a full evaluation of the sustainability performance of the enterprise. Where necessary, suggestions were made about future developments. Once the indicators had been established, they were refined and information requirements identified, and then the third stage of the process involved the collection and collation of relevant data.
Data collection tasks were assigned to various members of staff who were best placed to access the required information. When this had been collected, the researchers worked with Wastesavers to draw out and collate the most relevant data and apply it to each indicator. The final stage of the process will be to report on each of the indicators to two key audiences, external partners and funders, and Wastesavers employees.
