Introduction

Protecting the environment is of great interest in today’s world, and there's particular interest in business and industry commitment to environmental compliance. Because of this, it's now common for environmental programs to address the concerns of a variety of stakeholders — employees, customers, shareholders, community members, and more. This Fact File provides suggested methods to identify who the key stakeholders are for an operation and how to best use that information in building a strong environmental management system (EMS).

Background

The concept of actively incorporating interest from the community or affected parties isn't new to the environmental compliance world; it's standard for issuing permits and the rulemaking process. Historically, these efforts have been more focused on individual actions regarding one environmental program at a time. For example, a facility would have conversations with interested community members about a pending permitting action, but typically, the discussions centered around only that one action.

More recently, the approach has changed, and environmental programs have been urged to take a holistic approach to identify stakeholder interests and proactively address their concerns. A factor that strongly influenced this shift was the 2015 update to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for Environmental management systems — Requirements with guidance for use, better known as the ISO 14001 standard. This revision to the ISO 14001 standard significantly increased the requirements for identifying, engaging with, and reacting to input from “interested parties." The growth of sustainability programs has also been consequential in companies’ efforts to seek and respond to community input. Two main elements of sustainability reporting are stakeholder engagement and transparency of information provided to interested parties.

No matter what the cause, EMS managers are increasingly tasked with an active and intentional approach to engaging with stakeholders. The more comprehensive the engagement, the bigger the benefit to an EMS.

3 steps to identifying stakeholders

1. Think about interested parties in the context of two groups: those internal to your organization and those external. Making this distinction will help you identify a wider range of interested parties. This is especially effective in identifying internal groups that have traditionally been more commonly overlooked as EMS stakeholders.
2. Borrow the “SIPOC” approach often used in lean manufacturing process mapping. SIPOC is an acronym for suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers. Evaluate an EMS by looking specifically at each piece of the SIPOC process. For example, EMS “customers" could include stakeholders such as regulators or company shareholders.
3. Review records of recent EMS-related correspondence. These records will show who has recently been interested in the EMS. The review may not just identify “community members” and interested parties but also narrow them to specific groups within the community.

Examples of interested parties include:

• Regulators,
• Tribal nations,
• Employees and retirees,
• Stockholders or investors,
• Emergency responders,
• Local community leaders and elected officials,
• Customers,
• Insurers,
• Nongovernmental organizations, and
• The general public.

Why we identify interested parties

After interested parties have been identified, the next step is understanding what's driving those groups' interests. Having a clear picture of what each stakeholder needs or expects from the EMS should drive program priorities. Many of these expectations are naturally built into environmental programs. For example, regulators need accurate records. Other expectations are less intuitive, and the identification of stakeholders helps provide clarity.

Understanding each stakeholder's perspective should:

• Serve as the foundation for establishing EMS goals and objectives,
• Dictate what environmental impacts are priority for reduction, and
• Provide justification for resources being dedicated to EMS operations.

Applicable laws & regulations

None

Related definitions

None

Keys to remember

1. Stakeholders interested in a facility’s EMS often cover a wide range of individuals and groups. These will be internal to the organization, such as employees, and external, including regulators and local governments.
2. Thoroughly identifying all parties that are interested in a facility’s EMS is an important step toward being able to address the concerns and interests they have. The interests of different individuals and groups will help guide the goals and priorities of the site’s EMS.

Real-world example

A facility was going through the initial ISO 14001 certification audit when the third-party auditor had a question about the interested parties. The business had identified several external interested groups but only two internal interested groups (employees and the in-house emergency response team; the auditor felt something had been missed. When the auditor learned that the company was privately held by three investors, the auditor believed the owning partners should be listed as internal stakeholders and, therefore, be considered when looking at environmental impacts, program resources, and program improvement goals. This was a minor nonconformance in the audit report, and the facility was able to quickly make the update to their interested parties list and close the finding.