While much attention is often given to environmental sustainability (or the E of ESG), the pillar of social responsibility (the S) deserves equal emphasis in terms of its importance to an operator’s ESG strategy. This aspect of ESG emphasizes the impact that businesses and organizations have on the people and communities around them.
In this joint blog between ASK4 and Spike, we explore how prioritizing social responsibility can transform multi-tenant buildings into vibrant communities that benefit both residents and the wider community in which developments are located.
Creating Healthy and Vibrant Spaces
At the heart of social responsibility lies a commitment to the well-being of residents. Building owners and operators can enhance the quality of life within their buildings by prioritizing health and safety standards, ensuring comfortable indoor environments, and providing amenities that promote physical and mental wellness. By fostering spaces where people feel safe, supported, and connected, multi-tenant buildings can become hubs of vitality and positivity.
Technology can help facilitate this within buildings. ASK4’s pervasive connectivity makes it much easier for residents to take advantage of communal spaces, with private WiFi networks extending across an entire development. This enables residents to take their devices wherever they want around the building with no loss of connection and no need to sign up to public networks. This allows for secure connectivity when working, for example, or continued connection to devices within their apartment, giving them control of their home environment, even when using amenity spaces.
Pervasive connectivity also enables smart building and ESG technologies which monitor and control environmental factors like air quality, temperature, and lighting in real-time, ensuring optimal indoor conditions.
Additionally, Spike’s resident engagement portal, Spike Living can provide residents with access to health and wellness resources, from booking onsite amenities such as yoga rooms and gym sessions to accessing virtual fitness classes. As well as receiving mental health support through relevant content and quick access to staff, in addition to community wellness events, promoting a holistic approach to well-being.
Engaging with the Community
Beyond the four walls of the building, social responsibility extends to the surrounding community. Building owners can actively engage with local initiatives and organizations, supporting causes that address social issues such as homelessness, poverty, and education. Spike Living, for instance, provides a much-needed lifeline to the local high street. Operators can offer residents a guide to all the places around them, and by partnering with local businesses, provide exclusive discounts via their residents’ app, encouraging residents to fall in love with their independent chains. By investing in the well-being of the broader community, multi-tenant buildings can become catalysts for positive change, driving impact far beyond their physical footprint.
Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
Inclusive communities are stronger communities. By promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within their buildings, owners and operators can create environments where all residents feel valued and respected. This includes implementing policies and programs that support underrepresented groups, providing equal opportunities for all, and fostering a culture of acceptance and belonging. Spike Living allows residents to create their own clubs and forums, allowing them to find like-minded people who share similar interests. As the app caters exclusively for building residents, it offers a safer alternative to groups on Facebook or other social media, which are easily infiltrated by spammers and strangers, helping residents to make truly local new friends. By embracing diversity, multi-tenant buildings can harness the collective strength of their diverse occupants.
Fostering Stakeholder Engagement
Lastly, social responsibility requires open and transparent communication with stakeholders. Building owners should actively seek input from residents, employees, investors, and community members, listening to their concerns and incorporating their feedback into decision-making processes. Solutions like Spike Living can also serve as a virtual town square, allowing residents to voice their opinions and preferences regarding local initiatives. This can make communication between residents and operators much more transparent, helping to build trust and ensuring that residents are kept informed about ongoing projects. By fostering a culture of collaboration and accountability, owners can build trust and credibility, driving collective action towards shared social responsibility goals.
Social responsibility is not just a moral imperative—it's a strategic imperative for owners and operators of multi-tenant buildings. With 75% of residents expressing a desire to expand their social network and get to know their neighbours, it’s clear that many crave access to a connected community. Yet less than 40% feel they belong in their community. By prioritizing social impact alongside environmental sustainability and governance practices, building owners and operators can create communities that thrive, contribute positively to society, and leave a lasting legacy, not only for future residents, but for the wider locality.
What’s more, a recent study by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that resident satisfaction is strongly correlated with retention rates. Communities with higher resident satisfaction scores tend to experience lower turnover rates, with 75% of residents reporting that addressing wellbeing is important to community management. In addition, according to the Social Market Foundation, maximising social value in real estate can also lead to a 5% uplift in the market value of an asset.
Investing in developing a community not only enhances the resident experience but it can also lead to better outcomes. This is evidenced in our Changing Behaviours report - a joint report released by ASK4, Spike and Utopi - where we foundthat building owners could reduce carbon emissions in the region of 7% - 35%. There is also a growing priority for sustainability amongst Gen Z evidenced by 72% willing to spend more on services produced in a sustainable fashion. The need to have sustainability at the forefront of development is only growing across the new generation of residents.
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