New Green Space SROI Report welcomed by MSP
01 January 2010
Dr Bill Wilson, an SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, has congratulated Greenspace Scotland on producing its benchmark report, "State of Scotland's Greenspace 2009", and drew attention to the first social return on investment (SROI) evaluation of a green space project which showed that every pound invested yielded the equivalent of a £7 return.
After lodging a motion making these points, Dr Wilson said, "The
environment people live in can have as significant an impact on
their health and wellbeing as income and diet. The new
Greenspace Scotland report will serve as a benchmark for local
authorities throughout Scotland to improve and expand the green
space in urban areas.
"As I have pointed out previously, Renfrewshire is one of the
leading local authorities when it comes to green space. It
was one of the first to complete the mapping process and also has a
system in place to keep its records up to date.
"SROI measures what matters to people, enabling the integrated assessment of economic, social/community and environmental outcomes. To use a metaphor, it allows the meaningful comparison of apples and pears, converting their value into pounds. It can also be adjusted to the availability of resources. It unequivocally demonstrates that money invested in green space is money well spent, reducing expenditure by the NHS and in the criminal justice system, for example. The first greenspace project evaluated in this way, a cycle pathway from Strathclyde Country Park to Motherwell Town Centre, has huge benefits for the community, as SROI makes clear, with community involvement high, healthy outdoor exercise on the increase and vandalism and anti-social behaviour significantly down. The police are enthusiastic supporters!
"Communities seeking funding for their projects would do well to justify them in SROI terms, and I would welcome the widespread use of SROI by public bodies. I am confident that this would lead to expanded green space and happier, healthier people."
