Paper short abstract:

The implications of Social Return on Investment, a social impact methodology, as an alternative post-occupancy (e)valuation practice in the built environment are discussed. Rather than measuring technical building performance, SROI valorises the outcomes experienced by the end users of design.

Paper long abstract:

A distinct set of valuation practices have developed in the built environment over the last 15 years, concerned with capturing user experience in occupied buildings. Associated methodologies employed by professional design experts typically measure building performance from a user perspective. However, the findings of such practices, being qualitative in nature, are repeatedly marginalised in the learning loops of sustainable design behind economic and environmental priorities. The transfer of alternative valuation practices from the social impact sector represents an opportunity to drive user-centred learning, whilst broadening the notion of "value" in design. Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a popular framework in the third sector for the quantification and financialisation of complex social outcomes. Originally designed for non-profit organisations to evidence the wider impact of their work, it has a stakeholder engagement focus and produces qualitative narratives, quantitative summaries, and financialised social returns. Representing a new development in (e)valuation practices in the built environment, it directly challenges the accepted technical representation of value propagated by post-occupancy methodologies that measure building performance. Instead, SROI measures outcomes experienced by building users and, in so doing, legitimises a different type of non-expert value and its significance for learning about the design and occupation of buildings. The implications of its ability to evaluate the social value of the built environment, in consort with the accessibility of its methodology and transferability of its results, suggest that SROI is well-placed as a tool for the end users of design, as much as professional design experts.