Charlie Wilson-Clark
National Mine Environment, Social and Geochemistry Manager
WSP
Western Australia
Charlie Wilson-Clark is a social performance and community relations specialist with more than 25 years’ professional experience in communications and social management. Her experience includes leading large scale social studies and working with multi-disciplinary teams to plan and deliver on the social aspects of leading practice Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) – from the early stages of exploration, through operations and planning for transition and closure. Under her leadership, the WSP Communities and Social Performance team has built a national reputation for high quality data-driven delivery of social performance services and expert strategic engagement advice and delivery. The team is currently working for a range of industry partners, from small junior explorers through to multi-national mining and energy companies.
Speaker agenda
From Social Licence to Social Performance: why a more holistic approach will secure better outcomes for everyone
The concept of a “social licence to operate” (SLO) has dominated the public discussion around a just energy transition, leaving companies to grapple with the idea of securing approval from their host communities and others outside their organisations. This presentation will discuss the limitations of the social licence to operate approach and advocate for a deliberate move away from social licence to operate, to the more robust and holistic approach known as social performance. Social performance supports more sustainable developments through understanding local context, comprehensively assessing risks and opportunities, supporting meaningful engagement and working with communities to secure mutual benefits. A social performance approach starts from the earliest planning phases of a project and persists all the way through to decommissioning and closure. It is a continuous process with regular opportunities for review and improvement. Proponents who commit to social performance are focused on transparency and better outcomes for their projects and communities. The scale and pace of the energy transition presents a clear opportunity to apply the key principles of social performance. The presentation will provide an overview of how this can be done and include some case studies for discussion.
30 minute webinar followed by 15 minute Q&A.