Construction contractor ISG has commissioned economists to come up with a new way to value property that includes their ethical worth.

ISG commissioned economics consultant Centre for Economics & Business Research (CEBR) to produce a comparative index of “holistic potential property value” across the UK.

The methodology uses traditional financial and commercial metrics, alongside environmental and social metrics, including energy supply, emissions, quality of life and transport infrastructure.

The hope is that public sector clients will be persuade that demonstrably ‘ethical construction’ gives a better financial return.

“To be accurate and build resilience, our asset valuation system must be as flexible and multifaceted as the market,” the report says.

One of the findings of the resulting report is that while buildings in the south of England outperformed the north of England in the environmental and social metrics, and people and workforce metrics, but it fell behind in the financial and commercial metrics due to higher input costs.

Read the full article and the referenced Cebr research for ISG.