SROI Toward Sustainability As a Transformative Practice

Abstract

The awareness of sustainability issues has gained greater prominence in today’s investment. Moreover, fueled by the emerging practice of sustainability, the accounting framework opened a window, shifting sustainability from a “concept” to a “transformative practice.” SROI plays a crucial role in attaining performance excellence and sustainable growth as it not only recognizes benefits from the investment but also continues to prove, improve, and become more sustainable. Therefore, transformation of “investment as usual” and building of a more sustainable future will be a good milestone in SROI. Sustainability in SROI can be achieved through the triple bottom line (TBL) approach which captures the essence of sustainability by measuring the impact of investment based on the three important pillars: social, economic, and environmental elements. The importance of integrating sustainable return ((i) social, (ii) economic, and (iii) environmental) into considerations in every investment is to give it the same priority. This chapter defines sustainability as the intersection of TBL in the case of Sungai Muda Flood Mitigation Program. The SROI methodology provides a way of expressing social, environmental, and economic return in a mixed-method framework which involves both qualitative and quantitative data using monetary ratio. This study found the net social benefit comprising of sustainable return to be positive. Hence, the program is a beneficial social investment and brings a huge impact on the individual, community, and society. Consequently, SROI provides a certain toolset for stakeholders that intend to measure sustainability using a ringgit-oriented approach and to engage in social investment in today’s economic age.