Creating an engagement strategy for your clean energy project

While most people agree that clean energy is the future, the issue of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) is common and can derail a project.
 
Therefore, having an effective community engagement program is necessary to build trust between locals and your project. Here’s how.
 
1️⃣ Commitment
Community relations is about action over words and requires a real commitment to the community. Before you start your outreach, your project leads should meet with key community leaders (e.g. local government and community groups) to discuss ideas and hear their views.
 
Having these conversations allows all stakeholders to better understand potential issues and identify opportunities early in the process.
 
Your project team should bring tangible examples, like a solar panel or scale model of a wind turbine, to help community members better understand the project and technology. Also, images showing the before and after of the parks are a useful visual reference.
 
It’s also important to prepare for tough questions by properly equipping your team with supporting facts and data, like information on economic, environmental and social impacts.
 
In addition, prepare your team to respond to any clean energy misconceptions and how the project will mitigate against potential risks – real or perceived.
 
2️⃣ Regular Dialogues
Building on the above, it's important to engage all those interested in the project through regular dialogues, such as community townhalls.
 
To help your project prepare for this, all team members who will be engaging with the community should undergo media training. This should cover project facts, how to answer questions clearly and concisely and how to manage difficult questions.
 
Before any external meetings, it’s important to ensure there is clarity between all project partners around PR e.g. consistent messaging, protocols etc.
 
In addition, to help build trust, identify one or two project team members who will be the face of the project and who will consistently engage the community.
 
There should be a process in place for the team to feedback on what they are hearing and any potential emerging issues.
 
And there should be a way for locals to also raise questions/concerns in between project team visits e.g. a dedicated email address or phone number.
 
3️⃣ Engagement
Engagement should continue even after the project has launched. This helps to ensure you keep an open and positive dialogue, which will help future projects.
 
This can be done through updates in local papers, radio, or your website to reinforce your commitment and share updates.
 
I also recommend continued monitoring of the dedicated project email/phone line in case of new questions or concerns.


If you need communication advice on your #RenewableEnergy project, get in touch. With 18 years of experience in the energy sector, I hope I can help.
 
📷Maria Maltseva Pixabay
 
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