Ep. 133: What is Social License? How Do You Earn It?

Guest: Radha Curpen, lawyer

Social license impacts everything.

In particular, it can impact the development of projects that affect the environment, our neighbourhoods and our relationships with each other.

What is "Social Licence"? Who grants it? How do you get it? Does it affect or influence regulators? Does it have legal weight?

According to lawyer Radha Curpen, "The gap between the legal licence and society's expectations is where social licence resides. There is a distrust of the regulatory process. And as a result, people are talking about social licence as something else in addition to the regulatory process of getting a licence."

Complicating the process of acquiring "Social Licence" is the nature of who will grant it. Curpen says it's challenging. "This social licence discussion is the result [of] the outcome of people not being satisfied, of people's expectations being higher, or of having to voice certain issues."

As a result, the overall regulatory process can become unstable and oddly creates a situation where there is reduction of public confidence in the formal regulatory process.

To obtain "Social Licence," Curpen says, "You need to identify the stakeholders, engage them early, collaborate, get their input, and continue to do so after your approval is obtained, and continue to do so during the life of the project. That's what I call corporate social responsibility; the outcome of that is what we call the social licence to operate."