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Fishers and marine users
Our highly experienced Commercial Fisheries team supports interaction between developers, peak bodies, and recreational and commercial fishers.
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Social advisory
With governments at all levels investing big in infrastructure, the requirement for regulated social value is increasing. RPS specialises in integrating benefits and value into business cases through practical governance models and delivering and evaluating their efficacy. Our social advisory service draws on our strong public policy expertise, which is backed by our experience in engagement, economics, social research, complex governance models, frameworks, project lifecycle planning, and data analytics and insights.
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Creative solutions for developers
RPS excels in design and visualisation for offshore wind and other major infrastructure projects, with our highly experienced creative and digital development team winning multiple industry awards for print and digital collateral. Our extensive, thorough approach and collaborative and inclusive nature allows us to understand the level of engagement our clients desire and the market you are targeting. Our strategic thinking ensures that RPS solutions deliver the right messages to drive design and visual communication and provide the community with the best user experience.
Community engagement for offshore wind developments
Offshore wind: Communications and engagement
Our communications and engagement experts work closely with offshore wind developers to deliver strategic communications and engagement programs, garnering community and stakeholder support for offshore wind projects.
RPS delivers for offshore wind developers
Since the Australian Government declared its first offshore wind energy area in 2022, RPS has worked with offshore wind farm developers to design and deliver stakeholder and community engagement programs.
These programs include:
• Designing and delivering communication and engagement strategies to support feasibility licence and management plan submissions
• Developing and delivering consultation approaches to support Environmental Impact Assessments, Environment Impact Statements, and Environmental Effects Statements
• In-depth stakeholder and community research and mapping
• Social advisory expertise to develop unique evidence baselines, create social licence plans, and evaluate these plans
• Development of strategic positioning and communications, including impactful narratives to explain the need and benefits of the projects
• Facilitating meetings with key government bodies, industry stakeholders, and community
• Developing clear and compelling communications collateral including information boards, fact sheets, brochures, videos, visualisations and diagrams.
Supporting feasibility licences
We have supported several developers with feasibility license applications across Australia, helping developers fulfil a key requirement: engaging with a range of stakeholders in a meaningful and lasting way.
RPS works with offshore wind developers to build connections with local stakeholders through our communications and engagement expertise. Our consultants help you navigate the complex regulatory processes and ensure local communities are involved as developments progress. We develop detailed stakeholder plans that include a deep understanding of potential risks and issues, help develop the materials for regulatory applications, and drive initial communications to foster early engagement.
With more priority areas across Australia being proposed as suitable for offshore wind development, RPS is ready to help you with new and ongoing opportunities for communications and engagement.
Strategy development
At RPS, we specialise in developing communication and engagement strategies that build and maintain a social license for projects. Our approach begins with a thorough understanding of the background and stakeholder landscape.
We identify key stakeholders early, including local communities, government bodies, Traditional Owners, marine users and interest groups, ensuring all voices are heard and considered.
Taking a collaborative approach with clients, we create tailored communication and engagement plans that align with the specific needs and goals of your project. By facilitating workshops and consultations, we work closely with individual teams to define clear objectives, milestones, and key messages.
We undertake stakeholder identification and analysis to pinpoint potential risks and develop mitigation strategies. Our comprehensive planning ensures engagement efforts are not only effective but also integrated seamlessly with other project functions.
RPS nurtures continuous engagement, ensuring ongoing dialogue and feedback mechanisms are in place to adapt and respond to stakeholder concerns.
Coupled with our extensive experience in managing complex consultation programs, we build strong relationships with stakeholders, ultimately driving project success and establishing community trust.
Key stakeholder engagement
We engage with key stakeholders including Traditional Owners, other licence holders, local government and politicians, and government departments to establish positive and productive working relationships. Our specialists develop a roadmap to establish relationships between developers, stakeholders, and the community, with built-in accountability measures and success metrics.
Community engagement
Our community engagement experts develop easy-to-understand materials and accessible methods to engage directly with local communities to illustrate the value of offshore wind developments. Using deliberate communications and engagement processes, we create positive two-way exchanges between developers and local communities to identify pitfalls, benefits, and opportunities for offshore wind developments. We ensure engagement is done sensitively and local communities are treated as true partners in the process.
