SERVICES

Service At-A-Glance

• Strategic, multi-stakeholder process coordination
• Resolving environmental conflicts through stakeholder facilitation, negotiation, strategic partnerships, task force management, and community-based engagement
• Collaborative consultation and coordination with indigenous communities
• Science communication, publications, white papers, technical documents, mobile and web-based applications, and public outreach
• Project development, planning, and oversight

SERVICE OVERVIEW

FACILIATING ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS THROUGH INSPIRED, EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION

This service is a consulting engagement where our professional advisors help you to effectively navigate the complex social and technical dynamics of issue resolution within the environmental space. Environmental conflicts related to past promises, damages and high-profile projects frequently generate tensions that threaten forward progress. However, trusted relationships are essential for effective process and change management.

Through an iterative discovery, management and evaluation process, our advisors facilitate internal and external stakeholder engagement and collaboration for environmental justice, damages, community relations and related concerns. We also inform and develop targeted science communication and public outreach content. Additionally, we provide strategic oversight and guide mitigation and restoration project planning and implementation.

The results for many of our clients have been multifaceted improvements in numerous areas such as:

• Improved coordination across multiple internal operating divisions.
• Community relationships that are more resilient and satisfactory.
• Enhanced alignment of environmental performance outcomes for compliance and voluntary commitments.
• Projects that deliver on their environmental and social objectives.

This work may stem from a prior engagement of our team, or it may be our starting point, depending on your needs. After working with large and mid-sized private and public clients seeking to enhance their long-term social license to operate, we noticed four common issues that created significant challenges to their success:

1. Limited perspective on the influence of organizational culture on addressing environmental conflicts, both with internal and external stakeholders.
2. Unfamiliarity with stakeholder-specific considerations, including indigenous communities, adjacent landowners, and advocacy groups.
3. Lack of consideration for the communications activities associated with process and project management, including reporting, community outreach, and accessible forms of media.
4. Uncertainty about how environmental restoration projects interface with other ongoing land and project commitments, including timing and resource considerations.

Social relationships and environmental well-being are integral to one another. Successful organizations are ever mindful of their social license to operate. Every environmental project and each stakeholder engagement process holds potential reputational risks and rewards. It can be risky to navigate your enterprise through these processes without the requisite knowledge and experience. We partner with you in every step in your process of to generate environmental and reputational benefits through quality process and project management.

Achieving these outcomes from and for your environmental assets is not for the faint of heart. It requires your organization to move into new territory: injecting new learning, taking new targeted risks and shifting embedded cultural mindsets. It takes time to identify the right strategy, develop the know-how across your team and bring these concepts into reality for your operation. Taking these actions today sets you on the path to differentiate your enterprise from those that continue to operate in the status quo and enhances your long-term social license to operate.

Who Needs This Service?

Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies that are in resource dependent industries and public agencies that are entrusted to steward environmental resources and generate public returns. These are common elements that our clients share:

• Makes public claims and commitments relating to environmental stewardship and sustainability.
• Directly owns and/or manages significant and diverse environmental assets.
• Invests in environmental restoration (for compliance and/or reputational benefit purposes).
• Faces highly complex environmental and business conflict issues around land use, stakeholder and community relations, and regulatory compliance.
• Desires strategic advisement about sustainability and stewardship issues beyond their in-house expertise.

OUR APPROACH

BUILDING TRUST AND EMPOWERMENT ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION AND BEYOND

We begin by generating a deep understanding of current and potential conflicts and process coordination issues to frame a path forward. This is a formative stage for progress, regardless of the complexity, scale or duration of the issue or process management need at hand. This stage of our work may include interviews with internal leads, decision-makers and stakeholders, as well as research on influencing internal and external factors. Building on this baseline assessment, here are some of the activities that may be included based on the customized engagement and agreed-upon deliverables:

• Facilitate internal and external stakeholder process for environmental related concerns.
• Identification, outreach, and relationship development with potential stakeholders and project partners.
• Development of communication plans, including identification of target audiences and messaging, scientific publications, white papers, technical documents, and public outreach.
• Oversight of internal team coordination for technical project development, from concept through implementation.

Our work products will include agreed-upon deliverables and contain our advisements and recommended path forward. Oftentimes, initial engagements lead to a series of phased engagements where our team moves beyond initial strategic advisement to help your team implement the recommendations at an appropriate scale and pace. These phased engagements are highly attractive to ideal clients seeking to deliver consistent progress for their organization.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

FORWARD MOVEMENT FOR YOUR GREEN INITIATIVES THROUGH ENHANCED RELATIONSHIPS

This offering usually culminates in the development of customized advisory and implementation services driving new initiatives spanning across multiple divisions. The benefits to your organization include:

• Resilient relationships with external stakeholders and improved internal coordination on environmental conflict and project management issues.
• Tailored strategies aligning your environmental initiatives and your public commitments.
• Business decision support for delivering measurable, meaningful environmental outcomes.
• Social benefit outcomes incorporated within environmental projects, such as recreation, public access, or community engagement.

How To Get Started

We work collaboratively with our client liaison, their team members and organization decision-makers to ideate, design, and deliver customized solutions. We typically progress through these phases:  discovery, visioning, setting expectations, project management and advancement. This approach offers the perfect blend of formal structure and flexible application.

Our approach for engaging with each client begins with a no-obligation initial consultation and a needs assessment. Based on each client’s situation and the unique nature of this work, we may progress through several framing sessions before formalizing an engagement. This ensures clarity of scoping and a shared understanding of risks, assumptions, variables and the timing of the work.

To get started on this process, please fill out the form below.