Social Licence to Operate To request your copy of our free Social Licence to Operate Handbook, call us on +61 3 8636 1111.

A social licence to operate is the community’s tacit consent for a business or project to exist.

A social licence must be earned and maintained alongside regulatory licences. In current and new operations, such a licence becomes your company’s safety net against rising expectations as it enables you to predict and measure community concerns around your projects – leading to more predictable and sensible policy outcomes.

Maintaining a social licence to operate is critical to address the concerns of communities who now have the power of instant global communications. They use this power to maintain message cohesion and lobby for change. Communication power, rising societal expectations and increasing activist sophistication mean companies need to understand and resolve community concerns at each stage of a project.

For new projects and industries, gaining a social licence to operate is a business imperative, as new ventures face the heightened public suspicion of today’s environment. When community expectations are understood and addressed effectively, a company’s reputation develops resilience – and earning a social licence to operate for new projects becomes easier.

Losing your social licence can have significant regulatory and political repercussions as well as economic implications. Futureye has developed and successfully implemented a methodology that provides a detailed assessment of your social licence to operate today and a strategic plan to build and retain your social licence to operate into the future.