Social license to operate: Legitimacy by another name?

Gehman, Joel; Lefsrud, Lianne; Fast, Stewart

doi:10.1111/capa.12218

Cited by 149 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(93 reference statements)

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“…Sustainability in mine closure revolves around the concept of a self-sustaining and resilient acceptable end land use that provides socio-economic benefits to the local region (ICMM 2019). These principles align with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (United Nations 2015) and help guide a company's social licence to operate (Parsons & Moffat 2014;Gehman et al 2017;ICMM 2019). We had anticipated that interviewees might discuss the topic of sustainable development directly and explicitly, but this was not the case.…”

Section: Other Aspects/authors' Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Does the integration of enviromental impact assessment and mine closure planning deliver effective mine closure plans in Western Australia?

Getty¹,

Morrison‐Saunders²

2019

Proceedings of the International Conference on Mine Closure

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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) and mine closure planning became formally integrated in Western Australia in 2011 when amendments to the Mining Act 1978 resulted in the requirement of a mine closure plan (MCP) to be submitted by proponents along with their EIA documents. This procedural innovation aimed to force early consideration of mine closure in line with international best practice and raise the level of closure planning compliance. Internationally, it is generally held that early closure planning will reduce costs and improve closure outcomes thereby reducing financial, environmental and social liabilities. This paper presents the results of the first study to explore the integration of EIA and mine closure planning in Western Australia and consider the extent to which such integration facilitates effective MCPs at the project approval stage. The opinions of twelve experienced EIA and/or mine closure professionals, representing regulators and proponents alike, were obtained from semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis used both top down and bottom up approaches to identify recurring themes and novel concepts. Overall both regulators and proponents were found to be strongly supportive of the integration of EIA and the potential of early planning to improve mine closure outcomes, particularly with regard to the identification and reduction of risk. However, opinions were divided about the influence of integration on the effectiveness of early MCP or if the current Western Australian 'Guidelines for Preparing Mine Closure Plans' are capable of delivering effective early MCP. The responses suggest that although the current regulatory framework exists to drive integration that could enable effective MCP at the project assessment and approval stage, the most important factor is the motivation of key facilitators to pursue good outcomes. Opportunities to enhance the current framework lie in increasing transparency, expanding aspects of the guidance and ensuring enforcement of the commitments made in mine closure plans.

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Section: Other Aspects/authors' Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Does the integration of enviromental impact assessment and mine closure planning deliver effective mine closure plans in Western Australia?

Getty¹,

Morrison‐Saunders²

2019

Proceedings of the International Conference on Mine Closure

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“…Gaining a strong social license to operate (in other words, positive approval) requires the project to gain credibility and ultimately the trust of local people. Although there are criticisms of the concept [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63], we believe that it is a useful rhetorical device that has taken hold in industry settings. Some international organizations, like the IFC [64], expect that projects have "broad community support".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Conceptualizing Company Response to Community Protest: Principles to Achieve a Social License to Operate

Vanclay

Hanna

2019

Land

104

122

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To gain a social license to operate and grow, companies should have effective community engagement activities, social impact assessment processes, environmental and social impact management procedures, and human rights-compatible grievance redress mechanisms in place. In this way, environmental impacts and social impacts would likely be identified and addressed before issues escalate and social risk amplifies. Companies also need to treat communities with respect and be mindful of local culture. Where these things are not done, there will be no social license to operate. Protests are mechanisms by which affected communities express their concerns and signal there is no social license. As argued in our previous work on conceptualizing social protests, protests are warning signs, as well as opportunities for companies to improve. Rather than let protest actions escalate, leading to violent confrontation and considerable cost and harm, companies should engage in meaningful dialogue with protesters. Unfortunately, company response is often inadequate or inappropriate. In this paper, we identify around 175 actions companies might take in relation to community protest, and we discuss how these actions variously have the potential to escalate or de-escalate conflict, depending on whether the company engages in appropriate and genuine interaction with protesters or if repressive measures are used. While effective engagement will likely de-escalate conflict, ignoring or repressing protests tends to provoke stronger reactions from groups seeking to have their concerns heard. When companies address community concerns early, their social license to operate is enhanced. We also outline the primary international standards companies are expected to comply with, and we identify the key environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG principles) that should be respected.proactively undertake actions to address the issues of concern and reduce the likelihood of protest. In this paper, we examine the wide range of reactive and proactive actions companies might take in relation to community protest, and we reflect on how these actions might affect the level of conflict with their host communities and the company's and project's social license to operate.Companies need to consider their actions and reactions carefully. If company reaction leads to escalation, this increases the amount of community protest and/or changes the type of protest action, which could lead to harmful outcomes to the company and community. Furthermore, communities and individuals have rights, and should companies use repressive actions, companies run the risk of violating the rights of local people, which could lead to reputational harm and legal action against the company well into the future [5][6][7]. The many legal actions the oil company, Shell, has had to face because of its actions (and inaction) in Nigeria in the 1990s is proof of this [8]. The negative publicity surrounding conflict can be harmful to the company's reputation and social license to op...

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“…High-ranking companies in the CHRB and RMI are demonstrably involved in the EJAtlas in multiple socio-environmental community conflicts, perhaps even protagonists of Global Witness' narratives of deaths of environmental defenders. Similarly, there is much information in the EJAtlas on "social licence to operate" (SLO), a term much used in the extractive industries (Prno, Slocombe, 2012;Gehman et. al., 2017) meaning communities' approval or acceptance of ongoing projects.…”

Section: The Relevance Of the Ejatlas For Business Management: "Corpomentioning

confidence: 99%

A global environmental justice movement: mapping ecological distribution conflicts

Alier

2020

disjuntiva

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The industrial economy is not circular, it is entropic, therefore requiring new supplies of energy and materials extracted from the “commodity frontiers”, and producing polluting waste. Therefore, ecological distribution conflicts arise. The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice is an online inventory of such ecological distribution conflicts based on scholarly and activist knowledge. It reached 3200 entries by July 2020 (ejtlas.org) allowing research on such conflicts in the field of comparative, statistical political ecology. The EJAtlas is used for research but also for university teaching in the environmental social sciences and in business economics and management. It is a unique instrument co-produced with and supporting environmental movements. One can do comparative analyses on the social actors involved in the conflicts and their forms of mobilization, and also on the behaviour of private or public companies. Research may focus on countries or regions but also on cross-cultural topics such as gold and copper mining, sand mining, dams, eucalyptus or oil palm plantations, incinerators and other methods of waste disposal, coal fired power plants, gas fracking, nuclear reactors, CAFOs. Analyses are done also on the cross- cultural expressions (slogans, banners, documentaries, murals) of the conflicts gathered in the EJAtlas. The wealth of research coming from the EJAtlas gives an affirmative answer to the question: Is there a global environmental justice movement? Making old or emergent conflicts more visible contributes to placing political ecology at the centre of politics.

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Social license to operate: Legitimacy by another name?

Cited by 149 publications

References 79 publications

Does the integration of enviromental impact assessment and mine closure planning deliver effective mine closure plans in Western Australia?

Does the integration of enviromental impact assessment and mine closure planning deliver effective mine closure plans in Western Australia?

Conceptualizing Company Response to Community Protest: Principles to Achieve a Social License to Operate

A global environmental justice movement: mapping ecological distribution conflicts

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