New Tool for Managing Social Risk on Shale Gas Projects

Environmental firm SLR Consulting (UK) has launched a new process and management tool to help project and programme managers secure and retain social acceptance, or a Social Licence to Operate (SLTO), for shale gas projects.  

The tool, named MI-SLTO (pronounced Mistletoe, trademark pending), uses a data driven, evidence-based and progressive approach to stakeholder and community engagement – helping project managers and operators prepare a successful SLTO programme. 

An SLTO exists when a project has on-going approval from stakeholders and from within the local community, leading to enduring broad social acceptance.

MI-SLTO provides structure to previously unstructured assessment and introduces community engagement, communication and information transparency to a wide array of shale gas specific community concerns.

Developed with support from Professor Sarah O’Hara at Nottingham University, MI-SLTO builds on legal and regulatory best practice and seeks an ongoing improvement programme on a wide range of specific and critical issues. Projects are measured across five key SLTO ‘themes’: Social and Political,   Economic, Community impact, Security and Safety, and Environment and Health.

Every theme has 10-20 key issues, each reflecting a specific and critical area of community concern, ranging from the routing of trucks to the abstraction of water and from seismicity to waste disposal. The end result is a consolidated SLTO ‘footprint’ indicating overall project SLTO performance and highlighting areas for improvement.

SLR Project Director for SLTO, Nicki Bourne, said: “Securing community acceptance for the exploration, development and production of a local shale resource, should go hand-in-hand with the work streams relating to planning, permitting and overall project management. MI-SLTO now offers operators a structured, consolidated and collaborative approach to addressing issues that communities are concerned about. 

“By adopting this approach, projects will be better placed to gain and retain a SLTO. MI-SLTO also ensures that the difficult questions get resolved, SLTO is integrated into project objectives and accountability for SLTO is established throughout the project lifecycle.”