Upstream into the Mainstream
Society takes its time to absorb new ideas - even really good ones. A closer look at your typical “overnight sensation” will almost always reveal the slow, methodical build-up behind the meteoric rise.
SROI (Social Return On Investment) is still a relatively new idea, but I think it’s finally starting to work its way up the general acceptance curve. Here at socialmarkets.org, we see it all the time - talking amongst ourselves and the other early adopters in the SROI sandbox.
It is noteworthy (and gratifying) to hear SROI mentioned outside that sandbox. A recent article at Slate.com did exactly that, in a piece entirely devoted to SROI and the challenges behind its calculation. The specific issue at hand was not entirely obvious, but valid nonetheless: the costs and benefits of increased access for the disabled at miniature golf courses.
Apparently, the Department of Justice has released a report on new regulations for greater disabled access to many public venues, including miniature golf courses. The government includes not just the estimated cost of those regulations in their report ($23 billion) but also the estimated public benefit ($54 billion.) Seems like a good deal at first blush - but to Slate’s credit, they ask this critical question:
“How do you calculate the benefits of getting around a miniature golf course?”
I think they do an excellent job in addressing that question - you can click here and decide for yourself. They talk about the many factors to be measured (e.g. value to the disabled, energy savings, time horizon) as well as the challenges in taking those measurements (e.g. questionable assumptions, survey unreliability) and end with this rather sobering statistic:
“Depending on the assumptions the analysts use, they find that there is a possibility the net gains from the regulations could be as high as $40 billion or as low as $4.7 billion…”
One of our goals at socialmarkets.org is to narrow such alarmingly wide ranges of expected social benefit by advancing the science of SROI. In the meanwhile, we’re happy just to see the government demonstrating the constructive use of SROI, and the mainstream media reporting on it.
Tags: government, media, policy, SROI
