Manage Stakeholder Relationships at Sustainable Melbourne Fund

Sustainable Melbourne Fund (SMF) facilitates and invests in initiatives that create economic and environmental value. Unique in Australia, SMF supports building owners, businesses, investors and local councils to improve asset value, develop new enterprises, improve workplaces and reduce risk.

SMF Initiatives

SMF can provide up to 100% loan finance for building retrofit projects or for innovative technology that delivers wider environmental benefits. To date, SMF has facilitated $12.6 million in energy and water efficiency finance resulting in annual cost savings of $571,000 to two building owners and abating 6,267 tonnes of carbon.

In 2016, SMF financed the solar array which powered the 149 apartments in the boutique Hero Building on Russell Street, Melbourne. Source: SMF

SMF designed and implemented the Environmental Upgrade Agreement (EUA) program for the City of Melbourne, the first Australian municipality to offer EUAs. By establishing an EUA building owners, tenants and investors get access to long term finance for building upgrades at attractive terms. SMF is now the Third Party Administrator for the EUA program, engaging actively with the finance and property sectors as a trusted intermediary for building owners.

Signing of an Environmental Upgrade Agreement. Source: SMF

Managing Stakeholder Relationships with Darzin

Darzin was used by SMF for several years to help manage interactions and collaborations with key stakeholders in delivering development initiatives. Darzin provided tools to help SMF meet key objectives in stakeholder management:

• Provide a central record-keeping system for all stakeholder information that is accessible to all team members
• Easily set up market research surveys to understand building owners needs, and registration forms for events such as building owners forums, and e-newsletters (see examples below)
• Easily send out group emails to stakeholder groups pre-established in Darzin such as the building owners group, financiers, tenants etc
• Improve coordination of stakeholder relationships across SMF
• Provide qualitative analysis to help understanding of stakeholder issues to inform strategic funding decisions and manage risks
• Meaningful reporting on:
  • Who at SMF is in contact with whom at a stakeholder organisation
  • About what issues, activities and projects
  • Key influences needed
  • Significant outcomes of engagement (decisions, projects, activities).

SMF Environmental Upgrade Finance Application Pack register created in Darzin and embedded into SMF website. The team could track stakeholder details and all interactions with them in Darzin.

SMF E-newsletter Sign Up form created in Darzin and embedded onto the SMF website. All stakeholder details went straight into Darzin automatically to create an e-newsletter distribution list.