Social Value UK

Topic: Environment and animal welfare

iGA’s Beekeeping Project SROI analysis

“This analysis focuses on measuring the impact of iGA’s Beekeeping Project, an ongoing project that was initiated in 2022. The evaluation utilizes the Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis as a framework, which is based on eight fundamental principles that are applied throughout the entire report. Adhering to these principles, the report provides transparent information regarding the measurement of the Project’s social impact.

The SROI framework allows for a comprehensive assessment of the Beekeeping Project’s outcomes, taking into account not only the financial returns but also the social benefits generated by the initiative. By analyzing the social value created by the Project, the SROI approach provides a holistic understanding of its overall impact on the community and stakeholders involved.

Transparency plays a pivotal role in this analysis, ensuring that all relevant data and findings related to the social impact measurement are disclosed. By presenting the information in a transparent manner, stakeholders and interested parties can gain insights into the Project’s effectiveness and contributions to the well-being of the community.

The SROI analysis considers various dimensions of social impact, including economic, environmental, and social aspects. It aims to quantify and monetize the social benefits generated by the Beekeeping Project, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of its value to society. By applying this robust evaluation framework, iGA can gain a deeper understanding of the Project’s strengths, areas for improvement, and the overall social return on investment.

Through this impact measurement analysis, iGA demonstrates its commitment to accountability, social responsibility, and evidence-based decision-making. By assessing the social impact of the Beekeeping Project, iGA can identify strategies to enhance the positive outcomes, optimize resource allocation, and ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the initiative.

Overall, this analysis provides a transparent and comprehensive evaluation of the social impact of iGA’s Beekeeping Project, utilizing the SROI framework as a rigorous methodology. By measuring and communicating the social value created by the Project, iGA demonstrates its commitment to making informed decisions and fostering positive change within the community.”

06/12/2023
The Social Value of Explorer Cluband Young Rangers
Explorer Club and Young Rangers have significantly increased the environmental awareness and responsibility of participants. Young people are more resilient, and families are stronger. When this impact is extended to households who have barriers to accessing activities like these, the value is increased. The average value per person for lottery funded cohorts is higher than for core funded cohorts (24% higher on average). And specifically, in lower income households represented in the 2020/21 cohort, respondents valued their outcomes more than others.

1.1 Background

The North York Moors National Park Authority’s (NYMNPA) Outdoor Learning Team works with educational providers, families and young people within and outside of the National Park.

1.2 Scope

The analysis evaluated two of the Team’s activities:
- Explorer Club is for families to engage in environmental play and conservation tasks in the National Park. Children are usually aged between 4-11 and take part for 6 months.
- Young Rangers is a monthly club for young people aged 11-17 who are interested in learning about the work of the ranger service and how they too can practically help look after the National Park.
This report brings together five evaluations of these two projects. The evaluations took place from 2019 to 2023 with 2 distinct groups of cohorts, according to funding streams:
- Core funded cohorts: Two pilot projects were undertaken to engage with young people and families in helping them to understand and care for the National Park. These core funded projects have continued.
- Lottery funded cohorts: A grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has enabled families and young people, for whom there are barriers to engaging with the National Park, to participate in the projects.
The aims were to:
1. Evaluate the social value of the lottery funded cohorts; and
2. Contrast the results with core funded cohorts.
All five evaluations, therefore, followed the same method to enable comparisons. This report does not recommend any actions. It is simply an account of the social value. Business planning, strategic and management processes should conclude what actions should be taken now the value of stakeholders’ outcomes are known, the most important outcomes revealed and contrasts observed.
23/10/2023
Measuring Impact of Food Rescue in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Social Return on Investment

“Over the past decade, food rescue organisations have emerged across Aotearoa New Zealand, responding to two key issues – food insecurity and food waste. Food rescue organisations rescue surplus, good, nutritious food destined for landfills and redistribute it to people in need. Food insecurity and food waste have been longstanding issues in Aotearoa. However, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the entire food system, exacerbating these issues. In 2020, the Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance (AFRA) was established through funding provided by the NZ Ministry of Social Development’s Food Secure Communities programme. AFRA is a national body encompassing 23 of Aotearoa New Zealand’s major food rescue organisations. Food rescue in Aotearoa New Zealand, predates AFRA, with the first food rescue organisations starting in 2008. However, AFRA was set up in response to issues regarding Covid-19 and ongoing concerns about food insecurity and to provide cohesion and coordination of the sector through capacity building, best practice, collaboration, and advocacy, for an effective food rescue sector.

This Social Return on Investment (SROI) report aims to understand, measure, and value the impact of food rescue in Aotearoa New Zealand. AFRA commissioned the report. It focuses on three case study organisations representing the key food rescue models operating in Aotearoa New Zealand:

• Satisfy Food Rescue (SFR) Christchurch – Community Hub (collects, stores, sorts rescued food. Food is picked up by or delivered to recipient organisations)
• Just Zilch (JZ) Palmerston North – Free Store (collects, stores, and distributes rescued food directly to food recipients via a ‘retail store’ setting where food recipients select food free of charge)
• Good Neighbour (GN) Tauranga – Mixed model (community hub and additional components, e.g., community kitchen, community gardens).

SROI is a framework that aims to understand, measure, and value the impact of an organisation’s activities on various stakeholders. It uses qualitative and quantitative data to tell the story of how change is being created and experienced. Monetary values represent outcomes enabling a ratio of benefits to investment to be calculated, specifying the amount of social, environmental, and economic value created for every $1 invested. The evaluation period for the analysis was the 2020/2021 financial year. This SROI is a forecast analysis, providing a benchmark SROI ratio for future evaluation of food rescue in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is also the first SROI study to measure and value the impact of multiple food rescue organisations in Aotearoa, New Zealand.”

03/05/2023
Tzu Chi Foundation Environmental Protection Missions (SROI) Analysis Report

“The Tzu Chi Foundation (hereinafter referred to as Tzu Chi) has begun its environmental protection missions since 1990. Tzu Chi currently has over 270 environmental protection stations around Taiwan, and is not only involved in the recycling business, but also promotes the concept of “cleaning the source, love the earth by protecting environment” by environmental education promotion, energy saving and carbon reduction, circular economy, waste reduction, vegetarian, etc., We hope to arouse people’s awareness of environmental protection and cherish the earth’s resources. At the same time, Tzu Chi connects the resource network of the community, the environmental protection stations allow neighbors to report their needs, and provides assistance to families with economic or medical needs in the community.

This project uses the activities of “Environmental protection missions” in 2020 as the scope of evaluation and conduct classification and calculation. The overall SROI of Tzu Chi’s environmental protection missions in 2020 was 6.34. It means for every NT$1 of input in Tzu Chi’s environmental protection missions, NT$6.34 in social benefits will be generated.”

12/04/2023
Istanbul Grand Airport (iGA) Social Investment Program SROI Analysis

“iGA’s Social Investment Program, aims to increase the livelihood of the nine adjacent neighbourhoods around Istanbul Airport through meaningful and reliable relationships, based on transparent, timely information supply and open dialogue. The Social Investment Program is carried out in two components; rapid impact projects aimed at meeting basic needs and capacity building, and long-term, tangible-output and income-generating projects through sustainable activities.

With the Social Investment Program, iGA’s priorities are;
• Determining the socio-economic structure in the neighbourhood academically and impartially,
• Designing and executing projects in concrete, effective, egalitarian manner,
• Creating an uninterrupted, reliable and impartial communication channel with local people,
• Implementing original projects that set an example for other organisations,
• Ensuring effective stakeholder management and participation in order to strengthen ownership, responsibility-sharing and co-financing of the activities,
• Ensuring that activities comply with the IFC Performance Standards and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as with national requirements.

Within the scope of the program, iGA implemented 4 main activities and 1 sub activity of iGA Social Investment Program between 2017 and 2021.

The program’s focus is under two pillars:
1- Regional development
2- Upcycling & Recycling

This report elaborates on the social change realised through projects implemented and stakeholder dialogue generated by use of SROI. iGA aims to contribute to the sustainable development of settlements around the airport. The Social Investment Program consists of different activities that are designed for different segments of the stakeholders. Local people are the main beneficiary of the Program and segmented further under two groups;
(1) Local women and (2) Local young people.

The analysis time period covers 2017 to 2021 since each activity started in different years.”

01/02/2023
Social Return on Investment Evaluation Report of Rural Up Program

“Rural Up Program was launched in 2011 for rural development. The program is designed to cultivate students and rural communities for co-creation, and give them opportunities to solve real problems by putting their own ideas into practice.

Through this program, students become practitioner in rural villages for two months who can observe the question behind question, apply essential methods, lead multi-disciplinary teams to address challenges, communicate efficiently and effectively, and implement sustainable approaches that enhance rural development.

The program has been held eight times as of 2018, with many student teams participating every year. The scope of this evaluation is the eighth Rural Up program. This study adopts the SROI methodology to review the social impact of the eighth Rural Up from March 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018. Following stakeholder engagement, the key stakeholders of the program were found to be students, the Soil & Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB) and communities. The benefits of the program’s impact for the students were that they indeed absorbed relevant knowledge about farming/fishing village communities and that they began to think about the possibility of planning their careers in these communities. The organizer, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, was able to get great public recognition via this program. From rural communities’ perspective, the execution of students’ creativity and ideas did change the villages on environment, community cohesion, community prestige and favorable image.”

18/08/2022
Headwaters at the Comal Education and Nature Center Project

“This report contains a forecast of the economic, social, and environmental outcomes expected from the Phase II expansion of the Headwaters at the Comal Education Center in New Braunfels, Texas. New Braunfels is a city of over 90,000 residents in Comal County, slightly north of the San Antonio Metropolitan Area in Texas. A great amount of analysis was done prior to embarking on the development of the site and that work is not repeated or reproduced herein. We reference other work as appropriate to support our assumptions and conclusions, but this report is focused on determining the environmental, economic, and social benefits created as a result of planned work.

Ultimately, the long–term development of the site will encompass many phases covering a number of years. This specific report focuses on value created to date from Phase I relative to pre–Center conditions and predicts benefits to be created by the planned Phase II intended to commence in 2022. In large part, the phasing is for financing and planning purposes. For the purpose of this analysis and to determine baseline, the “project” is the center and pre–project conditions were the vacant maintenance facility and lot. Value created is based on a start year of the first year operating with a completed Phase II, defined as Year One. Future phases will be evaluated when appropriate and this report updated accordingly.”

22/07/2022
OVO Foundation – A Forecast Social Return on Investment Analysis on the Impact of OVO Foundation programmes

OVO Foundation (the Foundation) is OVO Energy’s charity. Created in 2014, OVO Foundation shares the belief of OVO Energy that businesses should be better for everyone. The Foundation’s vision is for all children and young people to have equitable access to a sustainable future. By funding meaningful and impactful organisations and projects, the Foundation wants to make sure that:

● All children and young people have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to take actions on sustainability issues and to help make their own communities more sustainable.
● All children and young people live in a sustainable community.

This SROI report summarises the results of an independent forecast of the social return on investment (SROI) of three programmes at OVO Foundation (Project Jua, Future Builders, and OVO Gives Back). This SROI report was compiled with advice and support from Social Value UK, and a separate SROI report focused on Project Jua has been assured by Social Value International.

15/03/2022
TCC DAKA Open Eco-Factory Social Return on Investment Report

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis focuses on “Community Rejuvenation” in respect of the operation of the TCC DAKA market and local employment and “Social Dialogue” through the Plan B guided tour. In terms of Community Rejuvenation, TCC calls on villagers neighbouring around the Hoping Plant to run the DAKA market by offering specialty meals, handicrafts, and quilts; TCC also provides job opportunities for local villagers to operate and maintain TCC DAKA. On the part of Social Dialogue, employees on the Hoping Plant act as guides to show visitors around the 3–in–1 Port, Power Plant, and Factory Hoping Circular Park and communicate with them on TCC’s innovative utilization of resources across industries and its commitments and efforts to zero emissions, zero pollution, and zero waste, as well as resources recycling.

15/03/2022
OVO Foundation – A Forecast Social Return on Investment Analysis on the Impact of Project Jua

Delivered by Energy4Impact, Project Jua aims to improve the health and education of residents in rural Kenya by designing, supplying, installing and maintaining sustainable solar solutions across 300 schools and health clinics in five least developed counties in Kenya, i.e., Turkana, Kilifi, Taita-Taveta, Kwale and Kilifi. Project Jua, in its current form, is a scale up of a pilot conducted between August 2017 and April 2018, that involved solar panel installation of 20 institutions (16 schools and 4 clinics) in Turkana and Kilifi counties in Kenya.

This report summarises the results of an independent forecast of the social return on investment (SROI) of Project Jua, a programme funded by OVO Foundation and delivered by Energy4Impact. It is analysed that the SROI of Project Jua is in a range of GBP 11.99 to GBP 16.01. This study was conducted between March and June 2021.

01/11/2021
Supplier Guidance Project for the Implementation of ISO 14064-1 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Social Return on Investment (SROI) Report

Major manufacturers worldwide are beginning to take the green management of supply chains more seriously. ASE hopes to gradually promote carbon management measures to suppliers by assisting suppliers with the implementation of ISO 14064-1 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) management systems. This will allow suppliers to monitor their energy use and carbon emissions, and further lower their operating cost and improve their business reputation. In 2018, ASE and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Industrial Sustainable Development Center (ISDC) jointly carried out the guidance project for the implementation of ISO 14064-1 GHG Inventory by 10 suppliers, in hopes of further developing a green supply chain.This study adopts the SROI methodology to review project data from May 3, 2018 to April 12, 2019 from the perspective of stakeholders. After engaging stakeholders, we found that the project’s main impact is improving the business reputation of suppliers that received guidance, and strengthening the energy conservation and carbon reduction concepts of the organization and employees. This changes the company’s procurement decisions and individual purchase choices in daily life to further increase environmental benefits.

07/04/2020