Whether it’s creating local employment, improving career development opportunities, sourcing local suppliers or planning routes to reduce our environmental impact. At CWR we recognise that everything we do provides an opportunity to positively impact the community which we serve.

As with many other organisations, we have found it challenging to robustly quantify our positive social impact. We found the answer in partnering with Thrive, an independent organisation working within the public and private sectors, including FCC Environment, The Met Office and the NHS.

The Thrive framework utilises a series of robust metrics and proxy values to track, benchmark and monetise social value. This includes over 100 metrics developed by industry experts and aligns directly with the UK Government’s Social Value Model. This is based on five key themes: COVID Recovery, Equal Opportunity, Fighting Climate Change, Tackling Economic Equality and Wellbeing.

This partnership will enable us to make more informed decisions, placing social value at the heart of the choices we make and ensuring we live our social and cooperative principles.

Utilising the Thrive online tool we have been able to capture the intrinsic value of the service we provide, including the number of staff we employ, and the volume of materials collected for recycling. Alongside this, we have also captured the added value CWR generates through the way we operate as an organisation, examples of this include apprenticeship opportunities, carbon efficiencies delivered, and supplier spend within the borough.