Getting to the root of social frictionOpportunities in the new green energy economy

Kristopher Stevens

Executive Director

February 27, 2013

2

legitimate

vested

opportunist

Three types of concerned stakeholders

Assumptions

A change in how we see the world

EnergyAdvocate.ca, 2009 –St-Jean de Brebeuf CHS, Vaughan, Ontario 4

A change in scale and distribution

Preben Maegaard, 2010 – Nordik Folkecenter, Denmark 5

Shared adversity and success build community

M’Chigeeng First Nation built small solar projects first and then two 2MW windmills!

The Mother Earth Renewable Energy project will generate $300,000 over 14 years and then $1.2 million for 6 years

Kristopher Stevens, M’Chigeeng First Nation, 2012 – http://go.ontario-sea.org/MChigeengWind 6

There are a lot of causes of social friction

Image by K. Stevens, 2008 - http://tinyurl.com/3omev8o

Local vs. Foreign ownership/control/benefitCentralized vs. Distributed

Consumptive vs. Renewable

What do you value?Do you want to be a Prosumer?

Centralized vs decentralized energy webinar – http://go.ontario-sea.org/centralized-vs-decentralized-energy-webinar

Image by Preben Maegaard, 2010 – Nordik Folkecenter, Denmark 8

Think about how you would like to participate…

Sherry Arnstein, 1969 – Ladder of Citizen Participation 9

Raise the bar for the lowest denominatorBe explicit

• Be principle centered not rules centered• Create certainty to reduce risk/costs• Make it easy for people to participate

10

Take time to understand each other

Communities are:

•Concerned•Frustrated•Annoyed•Fearful•Suspicious•Misinformed

Developers are:

•Disengaged•Divisive•Secretive•Non-transparent•Distrust•Ignoring (legitimate concerns)

Panel at FIT Supply Chain Forum, 2012 – Toronto, Ontario Canada 11

Be principle centered not rules centered

• Talk, talk, talk, try, talk and try some more• Give communities influence and benefit

• Require a land pooling/collaborative land lease• 3rd party developers/municipal negotiation forum• Prescribed stakeholder engagement format• Require that communities get a minimum stake

in projects and provide them tools (ie. Loan guarantee) to enable participation

• Establish a broadly endorsed (and required) community engagement code of conduct

• Expand municipal guide into a consultation and partnership roadmap/toolkit for communities

Community “Has”

Community “Needs”

A focus on improving the quality of life of through energy services (not just electricity generation or infrastructure)

A clear vision, mission and goals for the political, bureaucratic and business strategies and the entities responsible for their delivery

Clearly defined, understood and supported guiding principles A desire to build a successful for-profit or not-for-profit business that can compete and succeed in the energy sector

A streamlined bureaucracy for dealing with political and business decisions based on agreed principles, vision and mission

Conflict resolution mechanisms Effective internal communication tools Effective external communication tools Trust of the Mayor and council Trust of the community Trust of your team Trust of your partners (they have done their due diligence) Completed due diligence on your partners Assessment of the resources of the communities and region A plan to build human capacity A plan to build incremental experience A plan to grow equity A plan to gain access to debt and for repayment Identified “fatal flaws” that could lead to failure A well plotted critical path with clearly defines milestones to check in at to test the risk threshold of current and future decision points (monitor 3 steps ahead at each check point)

Alternate plans identified in case the primary plan or strategies need to be abandoned

13

Set up a way to deal with conflict and remember we need everyone

14

Keep in touch and join us!

http://www.all-energy.ca

http://www.ontario-sea.org

15