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

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Capability building

Promoting uptake of the social sustainability maturity matrix in our ‘S’ in ESG report and deliver practical guidance on good practice

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Collaborations

Facilitating three scalable collaborations across community impact, supply chain due diligence and employment practices

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Collective action

Galvanizing businesses around a series of common social sustainability challenges to support just transitions

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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.

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Connection

Hosting in-person networking events and delivering bimonthly webinars to lift social sustainability practices

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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.

021477510
[email protected]

Robert Perry

Manager, Thriving People