Sustainable Business Practice

Corporations seeking sustainable results must increasingly undertake meaningful engagement with the people they impact. Yet many corporations struggle to interact effectively with communities, civil society and governments. Search for Common Ground’s Sustainable Business Practice assists corporations and their stakeholders to find common ground and build long-term partnerships.

The Sustainable Business Practice offers global reach and local presence on four continents. In Sub-Saharan Africa it draws on more than 170 Search for Common Ground in-country staff.

A Common Ground Approach to Stakeholder Engagement
Search for Common Ground (SFCG), a world leader in creating positive social change in regions of conflict, believes that sustainable businesses require resilient stakeholder relationships. High-impact industries such as oil, gas and mining face a particularly critical challenge engaging communities, civil society and government. Our Sustainable Business Practice creates breakthroughs in stakeholder relationships by:

• Building a company-wide commitment to meaningful stakeholder engagement. By training and developing the skills of people at all levels of an organization, SFCG opens the door to breakthroughs previously considered not possible for engaging communities, civil society and governments.

• Informing and empowering local communities to be more participative and take charge of their own development and avoid the trap of entitlement. Click here to read about our work jumpstarting development and changing attitudes in Angolan coastal communities impacted by Chevron’s oil facilities. [pdf]

• Creating effective mechanisms for dialogue and communication, collaboration and dispute resolution among all stakeholders to reach consensus on issues that affect their lives.Click here to read how Search for Common Ground is assisting Liberian communities and local officials to reach consensus on how to spend $3 million of annual development funds from steel giant ArcelorMittal. [pdf]

• Strengthening local government, to build the capacity among government officials to be more transparent, communicative and efficient and play a stronger role in community development. Click here to read how Search for Common Ground is building the capacity of municipal officials in Angola to play a stronger role in community development. [pdf]

The Sustainable Business Practice tailors its interventions to the needs of each project. Our services include:

• Assessments that identify key issues and perceptions among stakeholders, provide a building block for engagement and offer recommendations for creating partnerships;

• Capacity building for communities, civil society organizations, government officials and corporations that strengthens the ability of individuals and groups to exercise leadership, collaborate and move beyond conflict;

• Stakeholder convening and alignment processes that bring stakeholders and corporations together to construct a shared vision and sustainable agreements;

• Strategic consulting that assists corporations to build internal commitment around meaningful stakeholder engagement;

• Media production programs that promote stakeholder engagement and societal change around issues that are important to the community and the corporation.