In Landcom’s experience of sustainability reporting, reporting on social sustainability outcomes has provided us with our greatest challenge because the impacts of our activities and the roles of others are difficult to quantify. After reviewing the effectiveness of Landcom’s existing indicators in telling our sustainability story since 2002/2003, we have decided to commence reporting against three new indicators from July 2009.

The new indicators will record the extent to which we have undertaken due diligence on social sustainability and whether we have included a strategic social plan when masterplanning projects. We will also be reporting on the extent to which universal housing²¹ has been included in our developments.

Influencing urban design

We measure the processes we have in place to influence the quality and sustainability of home designs on all projects where we don’t directly control the built product. All six projects assessed this year for urban design indicators have had design guidelines developed for them. Of the 520 lots within these projects, all of our contracts required the purchaser to build under the guidelines. The degree of control varied, with projects such as Minto and The New Rouse Hill also requiring sustainable design features that minimise energy, water and waste.

How this will change
 

Our urban design indicators will remain largely unchanged except for increases in the ratings required for home thermal performance and water conservation ratings of appliances (in order to meet current industry best practice). In addition, all projects will now have to take into account the Landcom Design Guidelines²².

Providing affordable housing
 

Landcom's aim is to provide affordable housing opportunities to households earning between $53,073 and $79,611²³. The objective is to enable moderate income earners to buy their own homes without significant subsidies.

The Moderate Income Housing (MIH) bracket during the year was assessed as land priced between $27,690 and $111,472 and house and land packages priced between $167,690 and $251,472 (i.e. assuming the construction of a home for $140,000).

This year we delivered 0.7% of MIH stock as a proportion of our total housing product, which is significantly lower than the result for previous years. By way of comparison, in Landcom's first year of sustainability reporting, our initial result was 2.6% and last year's score was 2%. The highest score achieved for this indicator was 12% in 2005.

As in previous years, this result was largely due to high land prices in the regions where we operate and, to a lesser extent, increasing costs associated with materials together with the higher interest rates that applied at the time the calculation is made (i.e. the MIH bracket was calculated at a time when interest rates were at their peak of 9.58%).

All dwellings classified as available for those on moderate incomes during the reporting period were garage-top studio apartments at Park Central.

While these results remain a challenge for Landcom, they no longer reflect everything we do to improve the provision of more affordable housing. For example, eight houses at Redgum in St Marys and four houses at Macarthur Gardens were sold to Argyle Community Housing during the year. However, they do not fall under this indicator because the calculation only includes direct sales to private owners. We are proposing revised indicators that will allow these sales to community housing providers to be included in future years. Furthermore, in 2007 we reported the sale of two sites at Victoria Park to City West Housing for affordable rental accommodation. This site will comprise 72 apartments and construction on this development began during the 2008/2009 reporting period.

How this will change
 

The housing market has changed substantially since Landcom commenced reporting its performance against this indicator in 2003. In order to reflect this market volatility, we have reviewed our approach by adding a relative affordability indicator to reflect current market conditions. This will account for the percentage of housing sold at or below the average sales price for new housing in a defined local area.

Further, when reviewing this indicator, we were conscious of the need to amend the way we have defined the affordable price range, to reflect what is happening in the market. Our definition has always assumed that a household on a moderate income (80 - 120% of the median Sydney region income) will be paying no more than 30% of gross income on mortgage repayments and this remains unchanged. However, we have increased the repayment term from 25 to 30 years as this is now industry standard. In addition, we will now also count affordable access to long-term rental as well as house and land sales, in order to better account for the other affordable housing activities we initiate as referred to in the previous section.

Consulting with our stakeholders
 

Community consultation is reported at the completion of a masterplan or development control plan for a project. As mentioned previously, the two projects with concept masterplans for this reporting period are Bungarribee and Potts Hill.

Community consultation for the Bungarribee project identified 12 key stakeholder groups. These included Blacktown residents and the Blacktown and District Environment Group, who at some point have participated in the stakeholder engagement process.

At Potts Hill, six of the 43 key stakeholder groups contacted have participated to date. All 43 stakeholder groups are kept informed on a regular basis, regardless of their participation levels. Community consultation for this project has involved several group and individual meetings with local residents and other groups including Bankstown City Council and Regents Park businesses. All communications materials have been produced in multiple languages on request, to ensure information is accessible to everyone in the local community. The project also has an interpreter service on request.

How this will change
 

Community consultation now forms an integral part of every project masterplan prepared for our developments. Without it, our projects would not be delivered.

We have acheived 100% compliance for a number of consecutive reports. We will no longer report annually on our performance against this indicator and we will move this requirement to our Environmental Management System (EMS). Our performance progress will continue to be monitored in regular audits of our projects and the EMS to ensure that community consultation continues across all projects.

Providing community facilities
 

Our aim is to provide appropriate facilities for the communities we create. This indicator provides information on community facilities included in our projects such as sporting fields, playgrounds and parks. This year we delivered:

• Eleven hectares of passive open space (e.g. bushland)
• Three hectares of active open space (e.g. sports fields)
• Three multi-purpose sports court facilities
• Nine community halls located at Discovery Point, Newbury, Parkbridge (two), Prince Henry (two) and The New Rouse Hill (three)
• Four children’s playgrounds located at Discovery Point, Minto and Parkbridge (two)

How this will change
 

We recognise that our existing indicators only provide a crude indication of the part the community facilities we provide play in promoting community development. A better appreciation of Landcom’s contribution will come from better understanding the impact of some of our other initiatives.

Therefore, while we will continue to report the types of facilities delivered through a given year, we will also include their value to help build a picture of our annual relative contribution. We will also begin reporting the type of community sponsorship we provide.

Encouraging new communities to be more socially sustainable
 

We measure how effectively we deliver our Welcome Programs, a community development initiative that contributes to the social sustainability of new communities.

These programs help to foster a sense of belonging among new residents, promote a culture of welcome and hospitality, and help new residents create networks.

This year, 10 out of a possible 14 projects had a Welcome Program in place²⁴. Of those residents who were visited, 61% received their initial visit and welcome kit within the first two weeks of moving in.

In addition, a total of 171 events, including several large community events, were held within our existing projects and were well attended by residents.

In Garden Gates, 88 events were held over the year, with almost 900 residents attending. At Newbury, 11 events were held with over 2,700 residents participating. These included a Christmas in July community barbeque, sustainable living workshops and Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea fundraising activities.

How this will change
 

Our Welcome Programs have now become standard Landcom practice in our new projects and we have subsequently expanded the types of community programs we now deliver.

For these reasons, from July 2009, we intend to report our performance against a new indicator entitled "Sustainable Community Programs", which will measure the types and value of our community programs through the year. The Welcome Program and other education programs will be reported under this indicator.

Educating consumers about sustainable living
 

We aim to promote sustainability within the wider community by raising awareness of sustainable design and products, as well as sustainable living opportunities.

This year, sustainable living information was distributed to residents within the following projects:

• Sustainable Living Guides were distributed within Welcome Packs at Greenway Views and The Ponds.
• "Sustainability Blitz" fact sheets were distributed in Welcome Packs at Garden Gates and Park Central and were made available in our Garden Gates and Minto sales offices.
• Sustainable education material, such as recycled water and water efficiency information, was distributed to residents at The New Rouse Hill.
• Sustainable living workshops were held at Garden Gates and Park Central, featuring advice on composting, worm farming, no-dig gardening and waterwise gardening
• Earth Hour promotional material was distributed to residents in Garden Gates and surrounding communities.

All Landcom projects that have a Welcome Program receive materials on sustainable living, such as environmental education fact sheets.

How this will change
 

As part of our sustainability indicator review, we received feedback suggesting that this indicator was too narrow in scope. As we are now delivering a range of community programs and events, the nature and value of these will be included in future reports to identify the value we are adding to community development. Landcom sponsored events will also be included in this indicator.

Respecting indigenous and non-indigenous heritage
 

We aim to consult relevant indigenous communities about our developments and conserve objects and places that have both indigenous and non-indigenous cultural significance.

This indicator is reported at the masterplanning stage and, of those projects reviewed this year, only one (Bungarribee) contained indigenous heritage items and places of significance. Landcom worked closely with two indigenous groups to identify areas and places of significance on this project. As a result of this work, funds have been dedicated to restore, enhance and protect the creek line area where items have been identified.

How this will change
 

Landcom’s obligations with regard to the protection of indigenous and non-indigenous heritage are largely determined through legislation and the development consent process. Since reporting our performance against mandated requirements has little value, we have decided to no longer report these results. We will however continue to report the extent to which we have prepared appropriate management plans for the items and places conserved through the development process. Furthermore, our performance will continue to be monitored in regular audits of our projects, in order to ensure that we continue to meet our obligations regarding the protection of indigenous and non-indigenous heritage.

Employees

We measure the effectiveness of our human resources management and employee relations by disclosing our annual employee retention rate. We also assess the overall satisfaction of our permanent and long-term contract employees and run staff surveys to measure our performance against a number of employee satisfaction indicators²⁵. In addition, we attempt to provide employment and training opportunities to people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

Employee retention
 

Landcom’s employee retention rate for 2008/2009 was 93% - with nine permanent staff resigning from a total of 125. The 2009 retention rate result is comparable to our 2007/2008 and 2006/2007 results. The result for the NSW public sector average retention rate was not available at the time of print. However, by way of comparison, the result for the NSW public sector in 2008 was 93%²⁶.

How this will change
 

Employees leaving Landcom tend to give varied explanations for their decision. These can include advancement within their profession following from the experience and training that Landcom has offered, through to more preferable career progression becoming available elsewhere.

Employee retention rates are actually a crude measure since they do not distinguish between positive or negative perception and performance. In addition, employee retention rates are also reported elsewhere in our compulsory Government reporting requirements. Accordingly, we have made the decision to longer report this indicator as a component of our sustainability program.

Employee satisfaction
 

Landcom’s human resources strategy this year focused on refreshing the organisation, focussing on changing competencies, attitudes and behaviours in order to grow our people and the business. Its objectives were to: Further align initiatives of the Landcom Executive, management team and staff.

Develop leadership and communication competencies across the next level of business within the organisation. Support the development of the Executive and management teams in performance management and communication. Ensure morale remains high and the culture healthy during times of adverse market conditions.

To achieve these objectives, specially targeted initiatives were designed for each audience: namely the Executives, managers and staff. These initiatives were specifically designed to address the impact of adverse market conditions on staff and professional development needs.

How this will change
 

Landcom conducts staff satisfaction surveys approximately every two years. The survey provides us a great opportunity to understand the level of engagement and satisfaction of staff with the organisation’s sustainability directions and programs. We will continue to report our employee satisfaction through this process but, in future, we have also decided to include feedback on how Landcom employees perceive our sustainability initiatives.

Providing training for staff and service providers
 

In order to raise industry awareness of better design, housing choice, sustainable development and affordable housing, we host training, seminars, courses and industry forums for our staff and service providers. These enable us to exchange ideas and promote issues and initiatives that either have a high profile or are of strategic importance to Government.

This year’s training and development program was designed to meet our strategic business needs and the individual career and performance needs of our employees. It encompassed the following streams:

• Behavioural coaching and mentoring;
• IT training;
• Individual or position specific training;
• Knowledge briefings; and
• The Seminar Series

The latter was a new initiative to increase awareness and knowledge of best-practice in the development industry involving a series of external experts, often of international standing.

In addition to the above, a separate program of initiatives was developed to deliver on our objective to refresh the organisation. Training initiatives under this objective included: skills in financial management; writing skills; mentoring; team building; corporate planning workshops; and management programs.

Employees are also offered study time and payment for relevant training and tertiary studies. Individual training needs are also identified through career development plans as part of performance development reviews.

An example of the way we expose our staff to industry best practice is through the Sydney Forums, which are held to present information relating to the built environment and which support and promote greater sustainability. Landcom is a partner in this initiative which also includes the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the City of Sydney. The first of the Forums, held in June 2009, attracted over 100 industry representatives from government and private organisations.

Several stakeholder workshops were also held throughout 2008/2009. The Landcom Guidelines were launched in July 2008 followed by a series of workshops in greater Sydney and Newcastle. Each workshop included seven presentations by each Guideline’s principal authors. They attracted over 300 participants, mainly from local government. Two Water Sensitive Urban Design workshops were conducted. These were mainly targeted for council staff and included consultation associated with the development of a Water Sensitive Urban Design Maintenance and Operation Guideline.

How this will change
 

Feedback from stakeholders during this year’s review of Landcom’s sustainability indicators suggested that there would be benefit in providing more context and qualitative feedback in order to support better understanding of the direction and success of our training and development initiatives. Therefore, in future, while we will continue to report the training offered to internal and external staff. We will also provide more detail in areas such as results of any evaluations and the reported outcomes of the annual training strategy.

Providing employment and training opportunities to people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background

This indicator monitors our efforts to provide employment and training opportunities to people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

Following the creation of Landcom’s indigenous scholarship in 2007, an indigenous student, who enrolled in a full-time undergraduate degree at Charles Sturt University, was engaged in September 2008. The scholarship provides financial assistance with study fees and materials and paid work experience. We collaborate with the University of Western Sydney to identify suitable and prospective indigenous students for employment opportunities.

²¹ Universal housing provides the opportunity for people to stay in their homes as they age with no or minor modifications to the home (see Landcom’s Universal Housing Design Guidelines).
²² www.landcom.com.au/TheGuidelines
²³ The assessed income level for moderate income households during 2008/2009.
²⁴ The decline in the percentage of projects with a Welcome Program was a result of the inclusion of two Newcastle projects and two other projects where the Welcome Program had either stalled or stopped. The Newcastle-based projects will be receiving the Welcome Program in future years.
²⁵ Employee satisfaction surveys are conducted every two years, with the last undertaken in April 2008.
²⁶ www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/public_employment/workforce_profile/