Spotlight on our Social Enterprise Program

Partnering with Social Traders, Mirvac is working alongside four social enterprises to help boost their capabilities and capacity to enable their growth.

Sarah Clarke, Mirvac Group General Manager, Sustainability commented that it’s important for companies like Mirvac to provide genuine support to social enterprises.

“Social enterprises are businesses that work to improve communities and have a social purpose at the core of what they do.  Many deal with major global problems like environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic empowerment,” she said.

“They help to build the knowledge and skills needed to drive meaningful change in our communities.

“Our aim is to empower these social enterprises to scale-up, so we can do more business with them and in turn, they can grow their business.

“Buying from suppliers who make a positive social impact allows us to use our purchasing power for good.”

Over the next few months, a group of Mirvac mentors will share their skills and expertise with these high potential social enterprises, giving insights and learnings into how to become ‘revenue ready’ to supply materials and services to large businesses like Mirvac.

The four social enterprises taking part are:

1. YMCA ReBuild who proudly deliver commercial construction services while employing young people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system. The team’s aim is to reduce the rates of reoffending and reintegrate young people into the community. Through training and support, YMCA ReBuild helps young people to transform their lives and become valuable members of society.
2. ReGround helps create positive change through waste collection and minimisation. They collect ground coffee and chaff (the husks from coffee beans) from businesses and divert it back to a local community garden. They also divert soft plastics from a lifetime in landfill and turn them back into a useful resource. The Melbourne-based team provide strategies and solutions in reducing waste for businesses, councils, and commercial sites – downsizing the excess waste and upsizing the benefits to the environment and the balance sheet.
3. CommUnity Construction is one of Australia’s pioneering social enterprise construction companies with the aim to empower those who have sought refuge and asylum in Australia to build new lives. The team provide traditional construction trade services such as tiling, waterproofing, and painting across residential and commercial building projects.
4. Green Connect is on a mission to create jobs that are good for people and the planet by reducing waste. Green Connect provides zero waste services whilst providing employment opportunities to over a hundred former refugees and individuals facing barriers to employment. In the last year they’ve:

• employed 131 young people and former refugees;
• kept 160 tonnes of waste out of landfill
• grown and distributed 55,000 kg of fair food.

Find out more by clicking on the video below  #socialenterprise #buybetter #socialgood #socialimpact