Adding green spaces is one way to deliver strong benefits to both local communities and the environment. By 2025, 40% of corporates plan to complete biodiversity projects with 33% intending to create green spaces for public use.

Wedemeyer points to CapitaLand, whose 280 meter skyscraper CapitaSpring in Singapore’s central business district, is designed to bring an array of biophilic health benefits to its community of residential tenants and office workers, including an edible sky garden and rooftop urban farm.

Some actions can be as simple as forming partnerships with local businesses or restaurants to offer discounts to employees. “It costs little, connects an organization to the community, delivers economic benefits and elevates social value,” says Puybaraud.

Sharing private space for public purpose – something 43% of those surveyed are doing - is another low-cost example of using the built environment for social good.

In Dubai, a global bank lets farmers hold a weekly market in the company’s lobby, and while this supports local growers and their families, it simultaneously contributes to employee wellbeing by providing access to healthy food with a low carbon footprint.

Elsewhere, stakeholders across real estate are joining forces to add value to the wider community.

In Washington D.C., for example, a public/private partnership called Washington Housing Initiative (WHI) is aiming to deliver affordable city housing and family neighborhoods for key workers in the ‘missing middle’ – those who face rocketing rents but don’t qualify for housing assistance.

“Investors, developers, occupiers and city authorities are starting to work together to deliver greater social impact, not just in their buildings, but across communities via placemaking,” says Wedemeyer.

In the UK Aviva and property developer Stories recently agreed £100m venture, partnering with landowners to optimize existing property assets for social good, while Schroders Capital has announced an impact investment strategy for affordable homes, workplaces and mixed-use town centre re-purposing projects, to address social deprivation and inequality.