Case Studies
This section shares real examples of social procurement in action across Australia and New Zealand, from short stories and videos to project examples and reports, showing how buying with purpose creates jobs and lasting change in communities.
Video on the award-winning partnership between construction company Icon and social enterprise Assembled Threads, which supplies hi-vis vests made from recycled materials. The partnership was named a 2023 National Social Procurement Trailblazer in the Social Traders Game Changer Awards.
Two Good Co's own video on how it supports women who have experienced family violence and homelessness to rebuild their lives through work. It pairs with the written case study on Two Good's partnership with Charter Hall.
Mirvac contracts Mates on the Move, a social enterprise employing people leaving the corrections system, to collect problem waste from 19 of its Sydney office buildings. About 695 tonnes have been diverted from landfill since 2017, and the contract helped Mates on the Move grow to more than 100 buildings.
A 2021 tender for washroom soap grew into a partnership worth over $1 million a year between Charter Hall and Two Good Co, a social enterprise supporting women leaving family violence and homelessness. Two Good now supplies close to 20,000 litres of washroom products a year to Charter Hall buildings.
What started as a small traffic management job in 2014 has grown into a multi-million-dollar partnership between Downer and social enterprise GAME Traffic & Contracting in north-east Victoria. Downer spent $5.8 million with GAME in 2024, helping fund programs that have supported 2,000 young people.
The Level Crossing Removal Project bought plants and landscaping for the Mernda Rail Extension from Yarra View Nursery, a social enterprise run by disability service provider Knoxbrooke. The partnership shows how landscaping on major infrastructure can create meaningful work for people with disability.
Spark, the consortium building the North East Link tunnels, is connecting Aboriginal jobseekers and businesses with work on one of Victoria's largest road projects. The story shows how a major contractor can open pathways into construction careers and supply chains for First Nations people.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation engaged disability-inclusive social enterprise All Things Equal to run a food and beverage outlet at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Twelve trainees worked on award wages and served about 3,000 customers. The partnership began with office catering in late 2024.
Since 2008, drainage and underground services social enterprise KADYN has worked with John Holland on more than 17 rail and infrastructure projects across Sydney, including Sydney Airport and the Botany Rail Duplication. In the last six years it has supported 50 at-risk young people into construction careers.
SPA’s report on how Australian governments are putting social procurement into practice, drawing on interviews with three State government departments. It includes case studies of the NSW Aboriginal Participation in Construction policy, SA’s Department for Communities & Social Inclusion, and WA’s Australian Disability Enterprise exemption, plus five local economic development snapshots from Queensland, Victoria, SA and the Gold Coast.
Social Procurement: The Business Case is a 12 page booklet which demonstrates why procurement is an effective and efficient means of achieving social, environmental and local economic objectives.
This publication provides insights on effective approaches to developing and implementing social procurement strategies. It also provides provides five case studies that highlight how social procurement can assist delivering social and local economic development objectives.
Social Traders research on demonstrating social value without costly measurement. It introduces the Social Value Handprint: five questions (Function, Focus, Form, Fidelity, Funding) for choosing a “right fit” way to show the social value a procurement creates.