Formatted Title

Practical Tools and Recommendations for Effective Stakeholder Engagement of Risk and Opportunity for Contaminated Sites

Background/Objectives

Background/Objectives. Regulators, community members and other stakeholders are influenced by multiple factors and sources of information beyond scientific data, which strongly influences their perception of risk and opportunity. Consequently, there are times when conflict with the community occurs rather than consensus or negotiated outcomes in managing and remediating contaminated sites. This presentation will discuss which factors shape stakeholder values and perceptions regarding contamination and remediation, and how to respond when heterogenous values emerge and community conflict arises.

Approach/Activities

Approach/Acitivties. In essence, there are three likely outcomes when engaging with community and other stakeholders in relation to contamination and remediation: consensus, compromise, or conflict.  While achieving consensus or compromise is usually the preferred objective, there are times when conflict arises, sometimes unexpectedly.  This is because stakeholder perception of, and response to, risk and opportunity is multi-dimensional.

Literature on stakeholder perception of risk and opportunity, along with author experience, shows that there are 10 key factors which are likely to affect stakeholder response to engagement related to contamination and remediation. Understanding these factors is key to development of a structured, yet equitable, approach to stakeholder engagement that:

• Allows key stakeholder values to be identified and explored, along with the inter-relationship between values.
• Helps to reveal stakeholder biases – from the project team to the community - and potentially break them down.
• Facilitates development of a holistic understanding across stakeholders and identification of shared values.
• Provides a sound starting point to consider and negotiate outcomes.

Once stakeholder engagement is implemented, understanding if it is working is the next step. This presentation will outline three tests for effective stakeholder communication that can be applied to any stakeholder engagement, including engagement regarding site contamination and remediation.  These tests consider whether an engagement program contains the information needed for effective decision-making, whether information can be readily accessed by stakeholders, and whether these parties can use the information accessed to make sound decisions.

The presentation will address the key factors for stakeholder engagement and communication in the context of diverse case studies from the authors’ experience, including sites in North America, Australia and/or Africa.

Results/Lessons Learned

Results/Lessons Learned. How scientific data and other information are presented strongly affects the way in which risk is perceived and understood by stakeholders. The approach and examples covered within the presentation will introduce tools and best practice recommendations to engage effectively with a broad range of stakeholders in relation to site assessments and remediaton, and ways to assess the effectiveness of that engagement.