Thriving People
There is an increasingly urgent need to embed social sustainability within Aotearoa New Zealand’s workplaces, communities and wider society – and business has an important role to play.
Our vision
SBC’s vision for Thriving People involves members contributing towards a just transition and working to resolve the most material issues facing society. They are building prosperous businesses that work with communities, so no-one is left behind.
In October 2023, we launched our flagship report ‘Thriving People – Strengthening the ‘S’ in ESG’, which showed the New Zealand business community has an exciting role to play in progressing social impact and equity. We’ve made significant progress in activating the report’s recommendations and are establishing a strong foundation to achieve collective impact. Collaboration, innovation, and responsible business practice combined can be a powerful lever for change, delivering impact greater than what a single business could achieve alone.
Our Thriving People programme supports members through thought leadership and best practice, fostering connection, capability building, and collaboration across communities of collective action with focus on:
- Thriving Communities – moving community investment beyond philanthropy, by building relational based approaches to deliver greater impact and value by embracing reciprocity.
- Sustainable supply chains – adopting an ‘end-to-end’ view, addressing Modern Slavery and applying human rights due diligence to catalyse positive social impact.
- Employment practices – building on existing strengths to drive excellence.
Underpinning all of our mahi is a focus on weaving te ao Māori into our thinking and delivery.
Work programme
Capability building
Promoting uptake of the social sustainability maturity matrix in our ‘S’ in ESG report and deliver practical guidance on good practice
Collaborations
Facilitating three scalable collaborations across community impact, supply chain due diligence and employment practices
Collective action
Galvanizing businesses around a series of common social sustainability challenges to support just transitions
Future of Work
Building adaptive skills, workforces and ways of working to support Just Transitions to Net Zero. Learn about SBC’s Future Skills ecosystem here.
Connection
Hosting in-person networking events and delivering bimonthly webinars to lift social sustainability practices
Thought Leadership
Providing access to thought leadership and insights from members on emerging social sustainability issues
Completed areas of work
- Lifting the living standards of Aotearoa (3 part series)
- Moving Beyond Diversity – Creating Workplaces of Belonging. SBC members are integrating ways of working that support greater diversity and inclusion within their businesses and reporting progress transparently
- Social Impact – SBC members are collectively increasing and measuring their positive impact on the communities in which they work
Robert has over 20 years’ experience providing strategic leadership on critical sustainability issues and solutions in business, consultancy and public sector organisations in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Pages and resources
Redefining employee health by moving to holistic wellbeing
Better Futures Thrive Report 2024
Kiwi businesses not taking enough action on social issues, say consumers
Results from the THRIVE Future of Work pilot
What does Better Futures reveal about the ‘S’ in ESG?
Thriving People Working Groups
What FY2025 has in store for Thriving People
Chorus: Putting inclusion and diversity at the heart of good business
The Warehouse Group: Tackling the challenge of ethical sourcing
Putting the heart in our mahi – Activating ‘S’ in ESG
How should businesses measure and maximise social impact?
