SDG10 Social procurement in the construction and infrastructure industry

Project summary

With a $230 billion infrastructure pipeline from Australian government entities over the next 5 years there is an estimated $767 million in untapped social value for governments to leverage from their construction and infrastructure spending at no extra cost. 
 

Through social procurement we can:  

• Build our much-needed infrastructure; 
• Address the critical skills shortage facing the construction industry;  
• Diversify our workforce; 
• Address growing disadvantage and inequity in society; and 
• Contribute significantly to economic growth, productivity, and social harmony. 

Distinguished Professor Martin Loosemore from the School of the Built Environment has enabled many companies in the construction industry to benefit from social procurement including a unique 20-year partnership with Multiplex Construction. This partnership has resulted in three Australian Research Council Linkage Grants which has contributed significantly to the development on  
 

Multiplex’s international leadership in equity and diversity and social procurement. Implementation of their Connectivity Centres which have secured sustainable and meaningful employment opportunities for over a thousand of Australia’s most disadvantaged job seekers. This includes Indigenous peoples, refugees and migrants, people with a disability, ex-offenders and young people at risk of incarceration. 

These partnerships have included government organisations such as the Human Rights Council of Australia; community-based organisations such as yourtown and Aboriginal Employment Services; and partners in Multiplex’s supply chains such as The Heyday Group. 
 

UTS academic Distinguished Professor Martin Loosemore is the most highly cited academic in the world in social procurement and UTS is pioneering the use of social procurement internationally to ensure that the construction and infrastructure industry leaves a positive legacy in the many communities in which it builds. UTS research led by Professor Loosemore is having a major impact on industry and policy practice in this area in Australia and internationally.  

Out of this and other research going back over 25 years, Martin has developed a Social Procurement Community of Practice (CoP) to disseminate UTS’s leading research into industry and government policy circles. The CoP provides short Plain English summaries of UTS research and other important policy and industry developments in this area, including best practice case studies from its members produced by UTS. The CoP has grown to over 75 members in two years, with members representing the largest and influential organizations leading the social procurement debate from the business, government, not-for-profit, minority business and social enterprise sectors. With members from other countries such as Canada, UK and Asia-Pacific.   

Project timeframe

2000 - 2024

SDG targets addressed by this project

Reduced inequalities:

10.7 - Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.

Decent work and economic growth:

8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.

8.5 - By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.

8.6 - By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training.

Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure:

9.2 - Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry's share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries.

Partnerships for the goals:

17.17 – Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships Data, monitoring and accountability. Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships Data, monitoring and accountability.

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