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1.1 This guide provides a series of steps to develop and execute an effective stakeholder engagement process for a broad spectrum of environmental projects including, but not limited to, site remediation and brownfields development, as well as local and regional climate resiliency and climate vulnerability initiatives. This guide does not apply to broad programmatic initiatives.

1.2 Effective stakeholder engagement in site remediation, brownfields redevelopment, habitat restoration, climate resiliency, climate vulnerability, and flood prevention and control projects requires a process that is based on mutual education, effective communication about the project and its impacts, identification of the interests that will be affected, and open discussion about how to address those interests to the extent that is possible. The General Accountability Office suggests that core principles and strategic approaches enhance stakeholder participation (GAO 2006)(1)2. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that stakeholders developed more robust mitigation measures that addressed multiple hazards when they integrated climate variability into vulnerability and risk assessments associated with flooding and other natural disasters in the East Bay area of California’s San Francisco Bay. (NOAA, 2021)(2).

1.3 An effective stakeholder engagement process (see Fig. 1) can create benefits for large projects, including:3

FIG. 1 Stakeholder Engagement Process

Source: Eurofleets https://www.eurofleets.eu/stakeholders/

1.4 In order to identify prospective stakeholders, ISO 26000 clause 5.3.2 suggests that an organization should ask the following questions:

1.5 Stakeholder prioritization criteria

1.6 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.

5.1 Stakeholder engagement, in the climate vulnerability context, most often refers to the meaningful involvement of affected parties in planning or decision-making efforts in order to integrate their knowledge and values with a particular project’s more specialized knowledge and purpose. In turn, stakeholders are often broadly defined as those people who are affected by or can affect a decision and range from the “average” citizen to groups of highly interested or invested decision-makers.

5.2 It is important that stakeholders understand the role they are invited to play in a public engagement program. This will help provide clarity to the process and help avoid misunderstandings. Stakeholder roles may naturally evolve over the period that they are engaged in a public process, and as transition occurs, it is wise to redefine these roles. When an advisory committee or partnership between public agencies is established, it is helpful to develop a charter or other memo of understanding that describes the roles and responsibilities of all involved.

5.3 EPA’s Public Involvement Spectrum (2015)(6) can provide useful tools. Fig. 2 illustrates a spectrum of public involvement options that may be appropriate.

FIG. 2 EPA Public Involvement Spectrum.

Source: U.S. EPA’s Public Involvement Spectrum