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Social procurement week, demonstrating social value in action

7 September 2026

Sector News

Joanne Barrow
Head of Marketing & Digital

Bringing the sector together to celebrate, advocate and inspire action.

Image: ASCR Cleaning

Social Procurement Australasia, the Social Procurement Network, Social Traders and a range of key partners collaborated to bring the sector together for a week of celebration, advocacy, and action, to:

Raise the profile and promote the activities and outcomes of Social Procurement.
Activate stakeholders and build energy and pride in what has been achieved, and what is possible.
Celebrate the work of Indigenous Businesses, social enterprises, Australian Disability Enterprises, employers, procurers, intermediaries and partners in delivering incredible outcomes for so many.
Ensure social procurement is firmly on the agenda, demonstrating to decision-makers what’s working, where barriers exist, and what improvements are needed to continue to deliver sustainable outcomes for our most vulnerable communities.

Over 20+ events took place during Social Procurement Week between 31 August - 4 September across Australia. Here's the wrap-up of events we were fortunate to participate in.

Evolving from compliance to value creation in Victorian transport

Social Traders and Kinetic recently brought together procurement and social impact professionals, along with social enterprises to discuss social procurement in Victoria's transport sector.

Transport has been one of the earliest adopters of social procurement, driven by Victoria's Social Procurement Framework since its launch in 2018.

Roundtable participants shared how far the practice has come:

tangible KPIs for social procurement,
tenders asking how businesses are delivering social procurement not will they,
onboarding sessions to help those suppliers succeed, and
social enterprise inclusion built into contracts rather than treated as optional.

For some organisations, the work has moved beyond hitting targets and into building lasting relationships with their social enterprise suppliers.

Real challenges remain.

Roundtable participants

Finding the right social enterprise supplier for a specific project or category can be hard. So is gathering the evidence needed to show the impact of social spend and build the case for doing more.

Participants agreed on what would help social enterprises grow: consistent long-term work, support to build capability and businesses willing to break large contracts into smaller packages so more social enterprises get a chance to compete.

One idea stood out: businesses in the same sector could pool investment and resources to build the capability of some social enterprises, helping them grow into a category they can own in that sector.

And some of the best outcomes come from simple moves: bringing a social enterprise onsite early to help solve a problem, innovative solutions realised.

To continue moving social procurement forward, participants agreed thinking outside the box and making it easier to work with social enterprises is highly valued. Sessions like these give like-minded peers in the same sector a chance to share common challenges and solve them together.

Deep dive into the social procurement trends in transport and logistics.

Opening speeches

Contracts can change lives

We joined certified social enterprise Collective Impact and Social Engine Australia for a morning tea with a difference. We heard how social procurement creates meaningful employment opportunities and lasting social impact for young people, refugees and Indigenous communities across Victoria.

Collective Impact delivers commercial printing, mail and digital marketing services, and every job it prints, mails or runs digitally creates a pathway into workplace training and long-term mentoring. Profits are reinvested into Social Engine and Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia whose volunteer mentors support participants for years after their first placement.

Social Engine creates employment, training and work readiness opportunities for people facing barriers to work, including young people, refugees and humanitarian entrants, through catering, site canteens, warehousing, printing and PPE supply.

The founders shared their purpose and vision, and how businesses partnering with them help create meaningful social impact while achieving its procurement goals.

As Mark Watt AM shared, "We are not short on talented youth. We are short on opportunities. Your contracts and spend can change lives."

Explore the Special Feature on Social Procurement Week published by the Bendigo Times, packed with examples on how organisations are using their purchasing power to create social value.

Increasing practitioners that do good

Social Traders joined Ventia and John Holland to discuss how organisations can embed social procurement across their value chain to deliver social value. The Supply Chain Sustainability School hosted the discussion.

Social Traders shared how we work with business and certified social enterprises to grow the collective impact of social procurement, a sector that has grown steadily since the Social Procurement Framework launched in 2018.
Ventia explained how it generates social value through social procurement, and the internal change it drove to embed the practice fully across the business.
John Holland made the commercial case for social procurement. The company showed how social impact becomes material to the business and how it delivers real value for employees.

Organisations that practice social procurement create jobs, build skills and grow revenue for certified social enterprises, simply by directing spend they already make. That shift turns everyday contracts into lasting outcomes for the wider community.

The sector needs more practitioners to carry this work forward. Ventia and John Holland show what social procurement can achieve when organisations commit to it fully.

City of Melbourne’s Councillor Gladys Liu addressing the crowd

Partnerships that build

Certified social enterprise, Security Sisters, partnered with Social Traders to bring together construction, procurement, social enterprise and employment leaders together for a networking event with a difference. Thank you to The Little Social for the food on the day.

Founded by Sonya Karras, Sacha Kaluri and Sam Giacomin, Security Sisters provides professional security services to the construction, infrastructure and commercial sectors while creating meaningful employment opportunities for women.

Their purpose: to deliver exceptional security outcomes while changing lives through employment.

City of Melbourne’s Councillor Gladys Liu, reinforced that having businesses like social enterprises are vital to supporting our communities and maintaining a city that celebrates diversity.

Rebecca Green at Social Traders, reminded us that organisations have the power to create positive change not just through social procurement but also through the way businesses take care of their employees, customers, communities - people at the end of the day.

Over the last eight years, we've been tracking and measuring the social spend among business and government with social enterprise.

More than $1.4 billion has been spent and in FY25, 71% of member organisations increased their spend YoY with certified social enterprises.

Discover how social procurement is reshaping the construction industry.

Creating brighter futures

Ability Works Australia, a certified social enterprise, hosted business and social enterprise sector visitors for a factory tour at its Kew site, giving them a firsthand look at social procurement in action.

Employees spoke about the role meaningful work has played in their lives, across packing and repacking, mailroom operations, third party logistics, assembly, and wire metal and wood fabrication. Visitors also asked about Ability Works' Customised Employment and Inclusive Design Consulting services.

Ralph Fallows, Strategic Partnerships Manager, told visitors:

“This isn’t new. Ability Works has been operating for 63 years, as have many other social enterprises. We’ve taken on a new name for an emerging sector, a sector where organisations can continue to buy from in order to extend the social impact they have on the communities around them. It doesn’t cost any more, the quality’s great and we’ve got the capacity and capability to process a wide range of jobs. We’re always keen to hear from people with problems to fix”.

Procurement decisions can create value beyond contracts. It can create employment for people with disability and deliver strong commercial outcomes for government agencies, councils and businesses across Victoria; strengthening local supply chains and supporting inclusive workforce participation – generating social and economic value for Victorian communities.

Every dollar we spend is a choice.

So, let's continue to make social procurement business as usual, for a fairer more equitable Australia.