Community engagement

Guided by our Social Performance Framework, we regularly engage with local community members throughout the life cycle of our projects, from the earliest planning stages through permitting and construction, and on an ongoing basis once operations begin. We prioritize building relationships with stakeholders to understand and address potential concerns with our projects, such as light, noise, reduced air quality and commuter traffic. We seek to maintain an ongoing dialogue with residents to understand and address potential concerns, and we have formal feedback mechanisms in place. We follow location-specific stakeholder engagement plans at each of our LNG facilities.

Social performance framework

Our Social Performance Framework lays out our commitment to ongoing community investment, engagement and impact mitigation, and our related management processes. The framework outlines our approach to strategically align our community investments with areas of potential social risk, in consultation with community stakeholders. It also includes a commitment to proactively engage with communities across the life cycle of our operations, and to identify, manage and mitigate potential environmental and social risks in the communities where we operate, in accordance with applicable law. It also outlines our commitment to respect the human rights of all stakeholders, including Indigenous communities and groups that may be impacted by our operations, and to develop and maintain effective feedback mechanisms at project locations to understand and address community concerns.

Chart of key components of our social performance framework

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Embedded in our Social Performance Framework is a commitment to recognizing, overseeing and alleviating potential environmental and social risks within the communities where we operate. We continuously evaluate these risks and their impacts through social risk and impact assessments, and actively involve the community in both identifying their needs and shaping the design of projects for a more inclusive and impactful approach. These social impact assessments drive our community investments. Our social risk and impact assessment process includes human rights considerations and is guided by international standards including the Equator Principles and the International Finance Corporation’s Environmental and Social Performance Standards.

We have a formal stakeholder feedback mechanism for each of our LNG facilities. These enable community members to provide feedback on our operations by email, toll-free phone numbers and other avenues.

Once feedback is received, we follow a formal process to collect, record, investigate and respond to issues. This includes the following steps:

  • Formally register the communication in our tracking system.
  • Assign assessment and follow-up to relevant personnel and notify senior management immediately if necessary.
  • Acknowledge receipt with the stakeholder within 72 hours.
  • Conduct an investigation and, if needed, escalate the issue to senior management. The Public Affairs Manager monitors progress and ensures compliance during the investigation process.
  • Communicate a proposed resolution to the stakeholder and seek feedback as needed. We incorporate feedback and ensure implementation of the resolution.
     

Cheniere maintains a stakeholder engagement plan for each of its operating facilities. The objective of the stakeholder engagement plans is to help maintain Cheniere’s social license to operate and promote responsible stewardship, thereby minimizing disruptions to our business through frequent communications, mutual understanding, and collaboration with key external stakeholders. The Manager, Local Government and Community Affairs, has day-to-day accountability for the stakeholder engagement plans for facilities within their region, with oversight by the Vice President, State Government and Community Affairs.

Our identification of stakeholders is tailored to each liquefaction and pipeline location, incorporating site-specific processes that respond to the characteristics of the surrounding area. After assessing the area of potential impact of the site’s operations, we identify individuals and groups directly or indirectly affected by our operations as well as those who have an interest in or the ability to impact our business. Engagement strategies are developed based on the characteristics of the stakeholders and the engagement topic. We place a significant emphasis on fostering meaningful engagement through thoughtfully managed relationships, including with under-resourced groups. 

Acknowledging the significance of community understanding, we employ a spectrum of engagement tools on an ongoing basis to improve information accessibility. Long-term and ongoing partnerships with communities are also fostered by our internal champions — engineers, operators, scientists and other senior subject matter experts — who function as frontline ambassadors and relationship owners, frequently engaging with stakeholders. 

We employ a range of both formal and informal forums to foster continuous, two-way communication with local communities. These include in-person meetings, virtual meetings, hosting and attending community events, public safety workshops, public presentations and site tours tailored for community organizations and stakeholders. Through these platforms, we aim to educate community members about our company and operations while gaining valuable insights into their needs and concerns. 

In 2018, we established a formal community advisory panel (CAP) representing residents from communities near our CCL facility to provide a forum for stakeholders to ask questions and share feedback with site leaders. It also provides a forum on current and upcoming activities with potential community impacts. In 2021, we helped form a regional CAP with community members and representatives from other nearby facilities to collectively understand and work to address opportunities and cumulative impacts of our operations on nearby communities. 

At SPL, we established Community Focus Groups as a forum to facilitate information sharing among leaders in the Cameron Parish and Johnson Bayou communities. In addition to updating the community on Cheniere’s expansion and turnaround plans, the quarterly focus group meetings help connect community groups that may otherwise be isolated. At the meetings, leaders are encouraged to share opportunities, questions and concerns related to Cheniere’s operations or items relevant to the general community. The focus groups provide opportunities for issues to be raised and resolved quickly.