Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 involves transformational change in the
business of business, and social enterprises can lead the way in such change. We studied Cultivate,
one such social enterprise in Christchurch, New Zealand, a city still recovering from the 2010/11
Canterbury earthquakes. Cultivate works with vulnerable youth to transform donated compost into
garden vegetables for local restaurants and businesses. Cultivate’s objectives align with SDG
concerns with poverty and hunger (1 & 2), social protection (3 & 4), and sustainable human
settlements (6 & 11). Like many grant-supported organisations, Cultivate is required to track and
measure its progress. Given the organisation’s holistic objectives, however, adequately accounting
for its impact reporting is not straightforward. Our action research project engaged Cultivate staff and
youth-workers to generate meaningful ways of measuring impact. Elaborating the Community
Economy Return on Investment tool (CEROI), we explore how participatory audit processes can
capture impacts on individuals, organisations, and the wider community in ways that extend capacities
to act collectively. We conclude that Cultivate and social enterprises like it offer insights regarding
how to align values and practices, commercial activity and wellbeing in ways that accrue to
individuals, organisations and the broader civic-community.
