Creating Shared Value as a response to social rejection

The renewable energy sector is in full expansion in our country. Investor interest is growing, competition is enormous and corporations are joining the race to operate in a promising market en masse. The urgency to settle in a privileged, competitive position in this growing sector is fostering a project development model that seeks to obtain short-term results, which has caused, together with other factors, a certain social rejection of larger projects.

As we explained in June in this blog article, the new criteria in entrance exams take on greater importance in the new Royal Decree-Law 12/2021. To the temporary and technical criteria regulated in Royal Decree 1183/2020, there are now other socio-economic and environmental criteria that can be incorporated into tenders.

Creating Shared Value

To try to respond to the introduction of these new criteria, the philosophy of Creating Shared Value (CSV) in many of the new projects. At the heart of this idea is to respond to social or environmental problems that occur in the town or localities where a renewable energy project is planned to be installed, while generating social value for the developer company.

To identify these needs or problems, an analysis of the social, economic, institutional and environmental environment of the project environment in question is carried out. In the first stage, information is collected and analyzed on the demographic characteristics of the community, the labor market, the educational environment, cultural heritage or municipal budgets, among other aspects. This first socio-economic, political and institutional study is completed with the most relevant aspects of the corresponding Environmental Impact Study, with the objective of having a holistic view of the environment that allows us to approach the creation of shared value proposals with greater success.

The next stage of the analysis is the identification of the interest groups in the project environment, whose purpose is to know which agents (associations, entities, institutions, municipalities, unions...) are active in the territory, what their concerns are and what their position is with regard to the project, through a series of meetings that promote dialogue between the promoter, the interest group and the consultancy that carries out the study.

After these meetings, the plan for creating shared value is more adequately defined, which is composed of several concrete proposals to be developed in collaboration with stakeholders, and the implementation commitments of the parties are specified.

At the end of the implementation of the CSV plan, a series of mechanisms are established to measure the impacts of the plan, such as a monitoring system to evaluate the actions implemented with the objective of translating them into real improvements for the local community.

Future Perspectives

At Ideas MedioAmbiental we understand that it is important for local society to implement new renewable energy projects with the objective of increasing their own well-being, while combating the effects of climate change. With a view to the future, and also to the present, we are currently carrying out various analyses of these characteristics and developing the corresponding CSV plans linked to wind and photovoltaic projects in Galicia, Aragón or Castilla-La Mancha.