Six high level insights of the seminar ‘Stakeholder engagement approach’

A new Environment & safety seminar took place at the Philips Fruittuin in Eindhoven with around 30 people attending. The main objectives of this seminar were to share experiences and best practices between sustainability practitioners from various companies.

The topic of the seminar was “Stakeholder engagement approach adding business value and advancing sustainability performance”. Three speakers from Vodafone, DSM and Philips shared their view, provided internal recipes and tips & tricks which stimulated a lively discussion afterwards in small groups.

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Six high level insights from the speakers and discussions of the seminar ‘Stakeholder engagement approach’:

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2. Check first where you are on the path of integrating stakeholder engagement (from reactive to proactive approach). You might already do more than you think and you can frame it in context of sustainability;
3. Structure helps making the first steps for a company for which stakeholder is not the core business;
4. For a more integrated approach of stakeholder engagement, involvement and commitment at the right level are keys;
5. Developing a business case to demonstrate the added value (that is not necessarily only financial but can be reputation, employee loyalty etc. as well) will convince influencers;
6. It is possible for business, non-profit structures and communities to find common grounds, build partnerships and work together to make a larger impact.

During the group discussions, many different views on stakeholder engagement levels were shared (on scaling up strategic partnerships, successful stakeholder dialogue, collaboration and stakeholder engagement approach). More details are available in the full report.

This seminar received positive feedback from the participants. This encourages us to continue organizing similar seminars. Our next seminar will take place in September. Should you want to share ideas or you want more information about upcoming events, feel free to contact our environment, health & safety consultants.