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.
Community engagement
- Our responsibility
- Communities
- Community engagement
Stakeholder feedback mechanisms
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 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.
Community Advisory Panels and Focus Groups:
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 cumulative impacts and opportunities of our operations on nearby communities. In 2023, we updated CAP members on CCL Stage 3 progress, including construction details, local hiring and community investment initiatives, in addition to details of our Midscale Trains 8 & 9 project.
At SPL, we established Community Focus Groups in 2022 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. For example, Southeast Louisiana was impacted by wildfires during the summer of 2023. The community focus group served as an opportunity to discuss wildfire safety and emergency response. Johnson Bayou Fire Department’s collaboration with Cheniere and other community members resulted in a clear process to support fire safety response.
Indigenous peoples and tribal engagement
We respect the rights of Indigenous peoples and recognize the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of Indigenous communities and lands of historic tribal importance in proximity to, and which may be impacted by, our operations. Our operations in Texas and Louisiana are not located on or near designated Native American lands and none of our operations have caused resettlement of Indigenous peoples. We have an interest in Midship Holdings, LLC, which manages the business and affairs of the Midship Pipeline in Oklahoma, located near lands of historical tribal importance. That project followed a rigorous and proactive process for understanding and incorporating tribal community concerns and preferences. During the planning and construction of this pipeline, which began in 2017, we engaged with 18 Native American tribes and their representatives identified as having potential historic and/or cultural interest in portions of the pipeline route. We developed and followed a comprehensive plan for engaging with tribal representatives and assessing, avoiding and mitigating potential impacts in areas with tribal ownership or historical importance. This plan included working with third-party tribal engagement experts as well as direct engagement with tribal representatives. Key elements of this plan included:
- Working with tribal representatives on extensive cultural and historical surveys.
- Developing a procedure for preserving cultural artifacts in the event of an unanticipated discovery during construction or operations.