Community relations

Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) in Australia are facing a stakeholder engagement logjam thanks to the electricity pricing reform enacted by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER),  as suggested by the Energy Australia Network (EAN).   As the first movers, the Victorian DNSPs were required to submit Tariff Structure Statements (TSSs) to the AER for approval, to apply for from three to five years. The TSS requirement implies the broad engagement of all a DNSP’s stakeholders, […]

The Responsible Business Summit Europe (RBSEU), which recently took place in London, sparked debate about how we can transform the world while building great and sustainable businesses. I was inspired by sessions describing how companies are putting into practice processes to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and committing to the Paris agreement, and hope to pay that  inspiration forward just a bit, by writing about it here.   Understanding the SDGs and what […]

A few months ago, I decided to send my resume to Boréalis because I felt that my work could be useful. Just by looking on the website and seeing what the software could do for community relations teams, I sensed that I could have a greater footprint on the planet and its population. So, I was thrilled to conduct my first customer interview; I was able to finally see the impact that we have in […]

Social Licence to Operate : Back in the Day! In 1970, the economist Milton Friedman famously stated that: “The business of business is business.” Explicit within this well-known quotation is the notion that an ethical business needs only to make profits and to obey the laws of the land. No other effort was required of a business in order to fulfil its real and perceived obligations. But then it changed Over the past decades, stakeholders […]

Growing up as a millennial, I remember my entourage and relatives who couldn’t stress enough how much they believed in us, the new generation. That we were able to achieve just what we wanted to and that we could change the world we live in. As ludicrous as this still sounds to me today, they were not wrong. And it’s not only us millennials who have this power. It’s a gift (I’d even say a […]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), community relations, accountability, corporate citizenship, transparency, stakeholder engagement, (I could go on for a while here) are too often seen as nice-to-haves or nice-to-pursue by executives. Bottom line is, all of these are directly affecting your organization’s finances. How so? They’re all closely linked to your intangible assets. And even if they’re still not quite obvious to everyone yet, intangible assets are as impactful as tangible assets (sometimes even more) to […]