Embedding social value: a mindset shift, not a mandate

From my experience, social value is frequently treated as a compliance checklist: volunteering hours, emissions targets, skills pledges. But what I’ve observed at BMT is that it becomes more powerful when embraced as a mindset - a core part of how we deliver impact, rather than an add-on. When approached as a compliance exercise, social value tends to be seen as a cost rather than a catalyst. What’s shaping how we work is the growing recognition that genuinely embedding social value opens up space for innovation and strengthens our relevance with customers and communities.

On this World Environment Day, we’re calling on industry peers, partners, and customers to rethink what’s possible when social value is built into your core strategy - not bolted on in response to regulatory requirements.

What is Social Value?

Social value means the positive impact our work has on people, communities, and the environment.

In the UK, the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 shifted thinking by making sustainability and social impact a core part of public sector procurement, rather than an added benefit. While the Act initially focused on sectors outside of our services, its principles have since extended to all public services, including defence, education and transport [1].

Beyond the UK public sector, the broader concept of delivering additional social value, is being adopted by public and private sectors worldwide - from social procurement policy and frameworks in Australia [2] and Canada [3] to Singapore’s focus on green public spending [4]. These signals point to a broader trend: embedding social and environmental value isn’t just good practice - it’s fast becoming the standard for future-ready delivery.

Our consultants were delivering positive social and environmental outcomes before the Social Value Act brought these priorities into sharper focus in the UK - guided by our core purpose:

BMT exists to help navigate some of the most important and impactful engineering challenges of our time, creating an environment where people with outstanding technical knowledge strive to deliver a safer, more efficient, and sustainable future.

What has shifted is the broader external environment. Social value, particularly its environmental aspects, has become an increasingly strategic focus for customers and contracts. Current social value frameworks emphasise priorities such as reducing emissions, enhancing biodiversity, and using resources more sustainably through project delivery [5]. While these goals are not new to us, they serve as an important reminder that doing good and meeting short-term profitability can and should go hand in hand.

The evolving landscape

In our view, integrating social value into project delivery - particularly in competitive environments - has the potential to raise standards across the board. It can encourage innovation not only in how resources are used, but also in how organisations collaborate to shape more effective and inclusive approaches to delivering social value.

Yet, from conversations with peers across sectors, one thing is clear: many organisations are still navigating how best to embed environmental, social value in a meaningful way. Some have developed initiative ‘menus’ - volunteering programmes, emissions reduction plans, skills training - for teams to select from when bidding. It is also common for organisations to appoint specialist social value teams to interpret and deliver against the evolving policy and commercial environment.

While I recognise the short-term pressures on organisations, particularly the need for additional resources to plan and deliver social value initiatives, many of these efforts still feel reactive and bolted on rather than built in. My concern is that it risks being seen as a compliance box to tick, rather than a lever for performance. Even well-intended commitments can struggle to translate into measurable delivery on the ground - something that’s being acknowledged, as methods for measurement and accountability continue to mature.

We see embedding social value not as a checklist, but as a leadership opportunity that strengthens delivery, builds trust with customers and communities, and drives long-term success. This mindset shift - from checklist to culture - is where we believe the real transformation lies. But we also recognise that this shift doesn’t happen overnight. True integration requires not only the right frameworks and policies but cultural transformation.

The role of middle management

From both my experience and academic work, I’ve come to see middle management as playing a crucial role.

During my Master of Studies at the University of Cambridge, I focused my thesis on this group, exploring how they can act as enablers - or sometimes barriers - to embedding sustainability across an organisation.

Our middle managers are often the bridge between strategic ambition and operational delivery. They’re the ones working with customers, delivering outcomes, and making key decisions on the ground. Yet across the industry, they can sometimes be handed environmental targets without the support, context, or resources to deliver them.

To bring social value to life, we must bring middle managers with us. That means moving away from a view of social value being an added cost. When framed correctly, initiatives like carbon reduction, biodiversity enhancement, and sustainable procurement become strategic tools for innovation and value creation.

I’ve been reflecting on how this translates into the way we budget and plan for social value. When it is treated as an overhead cost or an obligation, it can limit our ambitions and make it harder for those managing complex projects to see the bigger, longer-term benefits. But when we think about social value as a way to collaborate, build trust with our partners, and deliver value, it opens up new possibilities.

Rather than simply satisfying criteria, this shift is helping middle managers gradually gain the confidence and permission to approach social value differently. While we’re still evolving our approach, it’s empowering people to embed social value more naturally into their everyday decision-making.

Partnerships in action: a community-first approach

I’m excited about the partnerships we are developing organically with local communities. For example, we’re exploring an undisturbed foreshore site on the western shore of Southampton Water near Hythe - formerly used for hovercraft testing - as a flexible R&D hub for biodiversity conservation and blue carbon projects.

This community-led, open-ended approach to managing the site exemplifies how embedding social value requires a shift in mindset - from fixed outcomes to ongoing learning and partnership. We believe this approach will enable us to unlock greater environmental and social benefits over time, fostering lasting positive impact. These include:

• Using the site to educate our people, customers, and wider stakeholders on how to design and deliver nature-based solutions.
• Creating volunteering opportunities that bring together BMT people, customers, and the local community to participate in hands-on conservation activities.
• Exploring how investing in on-site conservation projects can serve as a carbon-insetting mechanism.

Through collaborative projects like these, our sustainability team is pioneering ways to weave social value into our core strategy and the maritime services we provide.

Other initiatives we are focusing on to achieve this include:

• Leveraging our environmental capability to advise on climate and environmental opportunities, enabling strategic guidance, innovative social value approaches, and maximised impact across projects.
• Collating best-practice social value delivery examples in our bidding library, designed to build cultural awareness and demonstrate the strategic value of social impact in winning work.
• Refreshing our volunteering policy to ensure volunteering is embedded as a strategic driver of culture and purpose, rather than seen as an additional employee benefit.
• Launching a carbon reporting dashboard to enable customers to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions across their projects, helping embed social value in delivery from the outset.

A call to action: share your story

At BMT, we’re proud of the progress we’re making, but we know this is a journey.

Embedding environmental social value is not a one-off initiative. It’s a cultural transformation that requires time, trust, and a clear sense of purpose. At BMT, we’re proud to be on that journey with our people, our partners, and our customers.

If you are still looking at Social Value as a compliance requirement that impacts profit margins, maybe it’s time to think again!

[1] What is Social Value? Definitions and examples for businesses

[2] Western Australian Social Procurement Framework

[3] Policy on Social Procurement - Canada.ca

[4] Budgeting in Singapore in 2025 | OECD

[5] UK Social-Value-Model

Laura Blake
Head of Sustainability

At BMT, we see embedding social value not as a checklist, but as a leadership opportunity that strengthens delivery, builds trust with customers and communities, and drives long-term success.