Author:  Kellie Houlahan – Executive Officer Freight and Logistics Council of WA

The term ‘social licence’ has become more commonplace, as community expectations for business and industry to operate in a socially responsible manner continue to grow.  We have seen the term used recently in the media in reference to the banking and energy sectors and it is likely that we will continue to hear about social licence as a result of a continued push for industry and business to develop and build social licence within the communities in which they operate.

So what is social licence?  An industry, business or project has a social licence when it has ongoing support and approval from local community and other affected stakeholders.  Social licence started gaining attention in the late nineties, when mining companies faced increasing community resistance when starting up new mining projects.  Building community support became essential to achieve project success.

Social licence matters and developing a social licence for freight is becoming increasingly important as the freight task continues to grow and the interface the with the community increases.

 

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