The short answer

Green Star rewards buildings that create social value, through credits focused on employing people from priority cohorts and spending with diverse suppliers. The most relevant is Credit 33, procurement and workforce inclusion. It asks projects to direct a share of contract value toward employment for disadvantaged and under-represented groups, and to report the outcomes at practical completion.

How Green Star addresses social procurement

Green Star, the sustainability rating system run by the Green Building Council of Australia, is best known for advancing environmental performance. However, the Green Star Rating System also recognises social procurement contributions as a means to enhancing the sustainability of a building.

For Green Star, social procurement is about two things at its heart: employing people from priority cohorts, and spending with diverse suppliers.

A few parts of the framework look at these elements directly. Indigenous inclusion recognises buildings that celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culture and heritage, and shows how a project team plays an active role in its organisation's Reconciliation Action Plan. Credit 33, procurement and workforce inclusion, is the credit that deals most directly with social procurement, and it spans two elements: social procurement spend and employment opportunities.

Green Star Credit 33 covers procurement and workforce inclusion

Credit 33 recognises projects whose construction supports the workforce participation and economic development of disadvantaged and under-represented groups. To achieve it, a project must meet two criteria: a Social Procurement Strategy and Employment Opportunities.

What the social procurement strategy must include

The project team must develop and implement a social procurement strategy, which can sit within the overall project procurement plan. At the Credit Achievement level, the strategy must direct at least 1% of the building's total contract value toward employment opportunities for disadvantaged and under-represented groups, with targets and annual reporting built in.

The plan must set out:

• The project's social procurement and workforce objectives, needs and targets
• A demographic study of the local region to identify target workforce groups and their skills
• The roles and responsibilities for implementing and monitoring targets and contracts
• Data collection and reporting templates, including how data from head contractors will be collected
• Monitoring and reporting requirements, including reporting for the project director

At practical completion, the project must report the dollars spent and the proportion of contract value, the suppliers engaged, the number of jobs created per target group as full-time equivalents where workforce targets apply, and the jobs supported.

How employment opportunities can be generated

Employment opportunities can be generated directly, through workforce targets, or indirectly, through social procurement, and the two can be combined. What matters is that the total spend meets the required share of the building's contract value. Under Green Star, this can be achieved by procuring goods, services and construction from:

• Māori or Pasifika-owned businesses
• Social enterprises
• Disability enterprises

These providers must be independently certified by third-party organisations. In New Zealand that includes Ākina and Amotai. On Australian projects, certifiers such as Social Traders, Supply Nation and Kinaway play the equivalent role.

Reaching Exceptional Performance in Credit 33

Green Star also rewards projects that go further. To achieve Exceptional Performance in Credit 33, a project must meet the same two criteria, but its social procurement strategy must direct at least 2% of the building's total contract value toward employment opportunities for disadvantaged and under-represented groups. On a large commercial project, that is a substantial commitment, and it depends on reporting robust enough to prove it.

Case study: 435 Bourke Street

435 Bourke Street shows what this looks like in practice. The 48-level commercial tower in Melbourne's CBD is being developed by Cbus Property and delivered by Multiplex, and it is targeting a 6 Star Green Star Buildings rating.

Multiplex is using SocialPro to demonstrate how the project will meet the Exceptional Performance level of Credit 33. That means capturing the social procurement spend and workforce data needed to show at least 2% of contract value has gone toward employment opportunities for disadvantaged and under-represented groups, and producing the evidence Green Star requires at practical completion.

Rather than assembling that information at the end, the project captures it as work happens, measured against the targets set in its social procurement strategy. This keeps the Credit 33 evidence aligned with the plan from the outset, and makes the final submission a matter of confirming the record rather than rebuilding it.

How SocialPro supports Green Star Credit 33

SocialPro is a system of record for social procurement that has demonstrated compliance under Green Star's Credit 33. It captures spend with certified social enterprises, disability enterprises and Aboriginal businesses, tracks workforce participation by target group, and holds the data against the strategy's targets so it is ready to report at practical completion.

• Records social procurement spend as a proportion of contract value
• Tracks jobs created per target group as full-time equivalents
• Collects data from head contractors and subcontractors in one place
• Produces the reporting Green Star requires, aligned to the project's strategy

Green Star Credit 33 makes social procurement a measurable part of a building's sustainability performance. Setting up the reporting well from the start is what lets a project team demonstrate its outcomes with confidence. To see how SocialPro supports Green Star Credit 33 and social procurement reporting, book a demo with our team today.