Integrating Sustainability Into Major Projects

CHAPTER 6Stakeholder Engagement

Too many major projects fail to meet their scheduled milestones due to community opposition. The success of a major project is directly related to the level of support from local communities at any given time during the life of the project. Therefore, the integration of stakeholder engagement strategies into a major project is critical to achieving success.

The primary goal of stakeholder engagement is to achieve mutual understanding and trust between the organization and the stakeholders in order to achieve a comfortable, if not strong, relationship of coexistence and mutual success. Thus, it is critical to have a stakeholder engagement strategy that outlines who, how, when, and for what purpose your project team must engage with key stakeholders. Dialogue that results in a project design and delivery approach that is mutually acceptable to all stakeholders (with the understanding that, as with any relationship, there will be compromises) is more likely to be successful, with less exposure to uncertainty and risk.

Stakeholder engagement may be the primary strategy in reducing the project's exposure to social risk. But also note that engaging stakeholders can also enhance the project beyond expectation. Strong community support enhances the project and the organization's reputation. Even for a major project that is considered to be contentious, maintaining a sincere stakeholder engagement strategy will help to assure local communities that the ...