Iconic achievements in social trading recognised

Data presented at Social Traders Convene in Melbourne showed that 6200 identified social enterprises in Australia, including 780 certified, were sustainable and having a positive social impact. In the past five years, 10 per cent have experienced growth in trade revenue, and 47 per cent of certified social enterprises have created jobs for people otherwise shut out of work.

In the past seven years, $1.1 billion has been spent with certified social enterprises, Social Traders said, with an 11 per cent growth in membership to Social Traders from business or government members.

Since 2020, businesses’ motivation to achieve ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals has increased by 20 per cent. This growth goes beyond tender requirements that oblige organisations to demonstrate their commitment to social value – for example, by joining Social Traders.

Banking, education, energy, finance and fast-moving consumer goods enterprises were among those joining the construction and property sector in taking social performance seriously within their business strategy, over and above tender obligations, Social Traders said.

One of Australia’s leading diversified property groups, Mirvac, achieved net zero direct and indirect carbon emissions in 2021 – nine years ahead of schedule – and is now focused on reducing emissions across its entire supply chain and business activities. It has also achieved a zero gender pay gap for nine consecutive years, and is reportedly rated “a force for good” by 93 per cent of its employees, more than half of whom participate in community volunteering.

Social procurement is one of the main ways Mirvac achieves social impact, and it has committed $100 million to the social sector by 2030, according to Social Traders.

For Nicole Donnison, Icon Construction’s social procurement and inclusion manager, it wouldn’t make sense not to incorporate social performance into the company’s buying chain. In fact, her commitment to including social value in every part of Icon’s work saw her win the 2025 Game Changer Award for Business/Government at the Social Traders Convene conference.

“I’ve worked in that social sustainability space for a really long time and I think if you can go to work and do your job and get the outcomes you need from a commercial perspective, but also give people a hand up at the same time, then what a great opportunity that is. I mean, why not? Why wouldn't you do it?” Donnison said.

“I think it’s really easy [to embed social performance] and I often get told that I’m doing something special, but I don’t think I’m doing anything special at all. I just think that I’m having the right conversations with the right people and aligning people’s personal values with their buying decision making. It’s really as simple as that,” she said.

Donnison admitted she had driven structural and operational change hard since joining Icon, to make ESG business as usual. “I think I’ve sat on every panel this year, so everyone’s sick of me. I’m sick of me, to be honest,” she said. “Maybe my point of difference is that I’ve been able to make the right connections, pull all the loose threads together and support a bit of ground-up change in our business, just thinking differently about what business as usual looks like.”

Wallara Australia CEO Phil Hayes-Brown was also named a Game Changer of the Year – Certified Social Enterprise, for his work championing social procurement and advocating for an economy where everyone who wants a job can get a job.

Wallara helps 544 people across its disability support programs, its five social enterprises and its accommodation, including 236 in supported employment. It helps people living with disability to build skills, earn income and take steps towards independence.

Donnison said that in her corporate sphere, companies that leant into embedding ESG in all their work, not just where a tender might demand it, quickly realised the benefit of it. “Businesses have said there are these policy levers and these kind of expectations of winning work, and if we can do it there, why can’t we just do it on all our jobs? What’s so different? The sky hasn’t fallen in, we haven’t lost a heap of money, it hasn’t changed our profit margins, all that kind of stuff. It’s really been about getting businesses to think differently about how they’re doing everything they do.”

In other awards announced at Social Traders Convene, WV Technologies was recognised as a Social Enterprise Pioneer, “for exceptional innovation and creativity in tackling social and environmental challenges”, while ACCIONA – SPA x Navaroo was named Social Procurement Impact Partnership of the Year for “unlocking new opportunities and delivering social impact through collaboration”.