Engaging with community and local stakeholders
Early community engagement is now a make-or-break factor in renewable energy project development — as vital as engineering design and environmental approvals. Successfully navigating the many stakeholder needs and concerns relies on the teams’ ability to build and maintain a high degree of trust with landholders and other stakeholder groups.
Tailored approaches that prioritise early engagement and inclusive practices will build good will, mitigate reputational risk and prevent misinformation.
Here are our top three best practices for engaging with community and local stakeholders.
1. Start your engagement early
Communities today are well informed and expect to have a say in the projects that come into their region, including how they will benefit the whole community, not just directly affected landholders.
Begin community and local stakeholder engagement early — well before any public announcements — to establish trust, mitigate risk and avoid misinformation, as well as inform project decision-making.
While critical to securing environmental approval and a final investment decision, engagement doesn’t end once the project has the green light to proceed. Sustained community outreach and engagement will ensure community trust and understanding evolve alongside your project, strengthening your social licence in the process.
Key action
Start community engagement early — before public announcements — and maintain it throughout the project to build trust, prevent misinformation, and strengthen long-term social licence.
2. Make sure everyone is in the know
An engagement and communication plan should provide varied avenues for community and stakeholders to find information and contribute their thoughts. This may include a website, social media content or brochures to communicate your project and its benefits as well as in-person engagement activities.
Digital tools including virtual exhibition spaces, animations and flythroughs and emerging tools such as Engage AI — Jacobs’ own platform which helps project owners collate and analyse stakeholder input — support more in-depth community understanding of the project and help create efficiencies in your engagement process.
No matter the channel or medium, clarity and accessibility are vital. Use plain English to explain the technical aspects and community benefits to make sure everyone understands the complexities — and the value — of the project. Also consider the community’s demographics, including literary levels, diversity and whether English is spoken as their first language.
Key action
Develop a clear, inclusive, and multi-channel engagement plan that uses plain language and digital tools to ensure all community members can access, understand, and contribute meaningfully to the project.
3. Seek to understand the needs of the community
Getting to know the community you are working in is vital. True engagement begins with asking: “What does the community value most and how can you help them attain it?” Understanding what the local community needs or aspires to, and how you as a developer can support that aspiration, will drive genuine participation in the community, which builds goodwill and lasting social licence.
Budget — or lack thereof — is often framed as a limitation to community investment, but having a positive impact doesn’t always require big dollars. Sometimes it’s the smaller things that make a big difference!
There are many ways a developer can positively impact communities and start building trust and reputation, including:
- Presenting in high schools to raise awareness of the project, share technical knowledge and contribute to upskilling and potentially the future workforce
- Funding a school breakfast program
- Sponsoring a health clinic to purchase new equipment or to run a specific program to meet community needs
- Paying for a playground to have shade added
- Running a training program to upskill community members
- Donating books to the local library
- And a million other ideas ranging from small to large budgets.
- The key is asking the community what they need or want, rather than assuming or implementing a one-size-fits-all approach.
Key action
Build genuine community relationships by understanding local values and aspirations. Small, thoughtful actions can have a big impact and help earn lasting social licence.
Got questions? Let’s talk.
Meet Cassandra Buckley
Principal – Communications & Stakeholder Engagement, ANZ
Cassandra is a communications and engagement specialist with more than 20 years’ experience driving positive community outcomes for renewables, transport, infrastructure, land development, master planning and health projects.
Cassandra helps clients navigate shifting policies and rising community expectations to build social licence. IAP2-certified, she excels at collaborating across disciplines and stakeholders, including First Nations communities, to protect and showcase cultural values.
Connect with Cassandra
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