Engaging landowners and the affected public

Companies responsible for assets extending across large territories (such as power lines and pipelines) often need to consult and engage people affected by their work. For decades, Environics has facilitated successful consultations with landowners and neighbours as well as more specialized stakeholders such as elected officials, emergency responders, and excavators.

Whether the engagement is a regulatory requirement or undertaken voluntarily, we work to support positive, productive exchanges that strengthen relationships. Our goal is for community engagement to deliver value for all participants – helping landowners and others share their perspectives and ensuring that companies’ operations and communications approaches are effective and well informed.

Benefits of Consultation:

01 BETTER RELATIONSHIPS

Stakeholders usually appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback.

Starting the conversation – not waiting for complaints but offering information proactively and inviting input – can go a long way to mitigating concern among neighbours and laying foundations for positive relationships.

02 SOCIAL LICENSE

Regulators often look positively on landowner engagement efforts – and in some cases they require it for safety and other reasons.

Regardless of whether companies are required to engage, a well-designed process builds credibility and demonstrates responsibility.

03 LEARNING

Clients can learn a lot from the feedback stakeholders provide, and can use the insights to shape branding, communications, and operations. We can shed light on:

How you’re perceived – e.g. what impressions employees or contractors have made.
Contractual issues – e.g. was the land left as it was before work happened?
How effective your communications are. Has the public received key messages? Are they retaining important safety information?

Approaches

We can deploy a range of techniques, tailoring the design of each engagement to the client, audience, and context. To hear from landowners or other members of the public, we may use national or regional surveys, or surveys focused on precise locations. In some cases, in-depth interviews are a better fit. For example, it’s often most productive to reach out individually to stakeholders who can be hard to schedule – such as professionals with specialized knowledge and/or to elected officials. Group meetings or townhalls can also be productive, depending on the nature of the project.

Approaches

We can deploy a range of techniques, tailoring the design of each engagement to the client, audience, and context. To hear from landowners or other members of the public, we may use national or regional surveys, or surveys focused on precise locations. In some cases, in-depth interviews are a better fit. For example, it’s often most productive to reach out individually to stakeholders who can be hard to schedule – such as professionals with specialized knowledge and/or to elected officials. Group meetings or townhalls can also be productive, depending on the nature of the project.

Experience

Over several decades, Environics has undertaken survey, interview, townhall and focus group projects on behalf of government ministries, regulators, utilities, and energy corporations. These engagements have been national, provincial, and/or regional in scope, or in some cases focused on specific geographic locations close to assets. Our work has included one-off soundings that responded to a particular need, as well as multi-year initiatives designed to foster meaningful conversations with stakeholder groups over time, ultimately strengthening our clients’ relationships with communities.

Groups we have consulted on behalf of clients include:

Environics also has experience engaging Indigenous peoples.

Reflections on Indigenous Research and Engagement

By Sarah Roberton | June 24, 2022 | Article, Cultural Diversity, Public Sector

With the uptick of interest in Indigenous research, Sarah Roberton discusses some hard-earned lessons from almost two decades partnering with Indigenous organizations.

Reflections on Indigenous Research and Engagement

By Sarah Roberton | June 24, 2022 | Article, Cultural Diversity, Public Sector

With the uptick of interest in Indigenous research, Sarah Roberton discusses some hard-earned lessons from almost two decades partnering with Indigenous organizations.