ACCSR is at the forefront of global practice in working with companies and industries to measure and manage the social license to operate. Together with our Senior International Associate, Dr Robert Boutilier, we have provided powerful strategic advice to companies across Australia based on our unique and validated measures of the social license.
Definition of the social license to operate
The social license is the level of acceptance or approval continually granted to an organisation’s operations or project by the local community and other stakeholders. It varies between stakeholders and across time through four levels from lowest to highest: withdrawal, acceptance, approval and psychological identification.
The social license to operate is inversely correlated with social risk – the higher the social license, the lower the social risk.
We routinely incorporate measures of social license to operate into social impact assessments, stakeholder mapping and stakeholder perception surveys based on our much-praised Stakeholder 360® framework.
Our advice includes steps you can take to retain, strengthen or repair your organisation’s social license to operate.
- Read about how we measured the social license to operate of the coal mining industry in the report of the Upper Hunter Mining Dialogue.
- Read ACCSR’s presentation to the Social License to Operate Workshop at the University of Queensland.
For more information, contact Dr Leeora Black