Kier, Thrive partner to launch new social value calculator

Construction giant Kier has announced it has formed a partnership with online software platform Thrive to launch a new social value calculator which aims to allow Kier to capture, track, and demonstrate social value across the group and in future projects.

Sheryl Moore, Group social sustainability manager at Kier, said: “The delivery of social value across Kier is important to us as a Group and due to this we have been recording our social value impact for many years. Through our sustainability framework ‘Building for a Sustainable World,’ we have recognised the need for an enhanced social value platform that allows us to report on the requirements for all of our clients and stakeholders. Building on the legacy of our existing calculator, we completed an in-depth appraisal of suppliers and concluded that Thrive was the best fit to capture our social value impact.

“Thrive is the perfect partner to help us demonstrate our social legacy and drive the social value agenda. It has a unique combination of being user-friendly, having the ability to effortlessly capture data across both our business and throughout our supply chain, as well as providing robust and credible metrics and having the flexibility to support our various customer requirements,” she said. 

Thrive’s platform - what will it allow Kier to do? 

The Thrive platform, which is aligned to Kier’s Building for a Sustainable World framework, aims to enable Kier to track the social value targets of each project, as well as provide a suite of environmental metrics and a range of corporate-wide reporting. This will then allow Kier to provide its clients and other stakeholders with crucial data on a project’s social value impact and success, the company said in a statement.

According to Kier, it will also allow the company to track its supply chain’s social value to capture the work its subcontractors do to support its projects. As well as this, Kier is working with Thrive to further enhance its measurement methodology to include additional cost-benefit analysis metrics and its work with social mobility organisations such as LM3 to monitor regional spending.

Neil Macdonald, Chief Executive at Thrive, said: "Thrive is delighted that, after a 12-month selection process, Kier has chosen our social value platform to measure its innovative and extensive social value activities. The unique flexibility of our software compliments Kier’s broad requirements; easy data capture from site, configurable client reports, and a robust way of showcasing their corporate values and purpose. We are very excited to see the positive influence this partnership will have on the sector."