STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION, ASSESSMENT, AND MOBILIZATION

George Weber, Inc. Environmental can help a client in developing and carrying out a program or project by:

• Identifying the stakeholders that are indispensable to effective and efficient action;
• Assessing the potential for these stakeholders to come together to address the issue collaboratively;
• Developing a strategic plan for mobilizing these stakeholders to action; and
• Supporting the process of stakeholders coming together and acting to address the problems they have identified by planning, conducting, and facilitating meetings, trainings, and conferences.

	The Problem
	Stakeholder Network Mobilization Approach: Research Leading To Action

Today's issues are complex. Resolving them often requires the specialized expertise, resources, and collaborative effort of many organizations and individuals. Individuals and organizations wanting to resolve a problem need to obtain the commitment and cooperation of other stakeholders - the organizations, programs, and individuals who can affect and/or may be affected by the issue in some way.

This is true for government officials needing to carry out a particular program or project, or businesses, special interest organizations, or concerned citizens wanting to take on an issue in their community. In the case of government initiatives, today's political and legal context often requires that they involve the public in making decisions and carrying them out.

Weber has developed a 'stakeholder network mobilization model' based on research and theory about why and how stakeholders come together in networks to work collaboratively on shared problems. The approach also relies on principles and techniques of community development practice, particularly in supporting stakeholders to make decisions and formulate action plans after the action research phase.

Prior clients think the stakeholder study process helps bring together the right mix of stakeholders for taking action with more focus, more quickly and efficiently than, trying to do this without systematic knowledge about other stakeholders. The study process identifies and characterizes a number of factors including stakeholders' concerns, needs, perceptions, capabilities, commitments, and relationships with one another. With this information in hand, meetings can begin with an immediate focus on pre-existing or developing areas of consensus, and structured to resolve or manage existing and potential conflicts, and support stakeholders in developing further consensus on the specific issues they want to address and the actions the want to take. Action plans can be formulated more quickly than if stakeholders' concerns, needs, and characteristics are revealed in a series of meetings over time.

Weber began developing and applying the approach to a variety of environmental projects and programs in the mid-1980s and has continued to refine it with each application.

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George Weber, Inc. Environmental applied its 'stakeholder mobilization' approach to develop an assessment of stakeholders in the VB-I70 Superfund Site Lead and Arsenic Clean-up for the Region VIII EPA CERCLA Program. A summary and summary products, including a Power Point presentation of this study are located on the What's New page.

The purpose of the assessment was to: (1) identify influential community leaders and organizations in the varied communities within the Program Site that EPA had not identified already; and (2) develop a strategic action plan for obtaining the support and involvement of this community leadership in Program implementation in order to obtain full participation of Site residents, while avoiding existing and potential conflicts among the different communities and groups within the Site.

A secondary purpose of the EPA Site Program Manager was for the assessment to provide an example of an analytical approach to involving stakeholders that could be used synergistically with the standard, largely descriptive, EPA Community Relations approach. He hoped to benefit other programs in this, and other communities, where EPA and others undertake efforts intended to improve environmental quality.

The VB-I70 Site is located in northeast Denver, and has been characterized as an Environmental Justice site because the community is predominantly low income, minority (Hispanic and Black), and disproportionately affected by environmental impacts from many sources including industry, other Superfund sites, and major transportation corridors.

EPA's VB-I70 Program is comprised of three components: (1) Sampling the soil of residential properties for lead and arsenic to find out if the levels are high enough to affect residents' health, and particularly that of children; (2) Removing and replacing soil and landscaping at all properties that have levels of arsenic and lead higher than the Program standard; and (3) Educating neighborhood residents about the lead and arsenic health issues, evaluating lead hazards in the home, and testing young children to see if they have been exposed to lead and arsenic (i.e., Community Health Program). EPA is working cooperatively with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, City of Denver, Northeast Denver Housing, and several neighborhood organizations in the planning on how to carry out the program.

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George Weber, Inc. Environmental completed the "Cache la Poudre Water Quality: Identification of Stakeholders, Assessment of Stakeholders' Potential to Mobilize to Protect Water Quality, and Strategic Mobilization Plan" Project in October, 2003.

The purpose of the study is to:

• Identify the stakeholders that other stakeholders perceive as indispensable to potential future action to protect Cache la Poudre water quality;
• Assess stakeholders' potential to mobilize to enhance and protect Cache la Poudre water quality; and
• Develop and recommend a strategic plan for mobilizing the stakeholders to enhance and protect Cache la Poudre water quality.

The study addresses 'water quality' comprehensively, and the entire Cache la Poudre watershed and areas contributing water to it located outside the natural watershed boundaries (i.e., transbasin diversions).

Currently no comprehensive network or association of water quality stakeholders is active in the Cache la Poudre watershed. Several of the Project Sponsors hope this study will provide a foundation and strategy for facilitating the development of this type of organization.

Cache la Poudre Watershed: Colorado and Wyoming

Forty-one (41) of the seventy-five (75) sample stakeholders Project Sponsors chose to provide their concerns and views participated fully in the study process. They identified more than:

• Forty (40) Cache la Poudre water quality problems and 10 opportunities;
• One hundred forty (140) actions that they would like stakeholders to consider taking addressing these issues; and
• Three hundred nineteen (319) stakeholder types, organizations, programs, and individuals as 'indispensable' to potential future actions addressing the Cache la Poudre water quality issues they identified.

The study explored the perceptions of study participants concerning a number of other factors potentially important to future mobilization, including their 'interdependence', 'benefits vs. costs' of cooperation, commitment, threats posed by potential mobilization, mission, and past and current conflicts and collaborations.

At the conclusion of the final presentation, the participating representatives agreed that collaborative action by stakeholders is needed to protect Cache la Poudre water quality. Consistent with the Project's first 'critical strategic action recommendation' - 'Take the Lead' -- the representatives decided to present the Project's summary products to their respective management and request an explicit decision regarding:

• Should their organization continue to act to achieve this goal? And if 'Yes' --
• What should be the priority and commitment of the organization to achieving it?

The following organizations sponsored the Project:

• City of Fort Collins
• City of Greeley
• Friends of the Poudre
• Larimer County
• Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
• North Front Range Water Quality Planning Association
• South Fort Collins Sanitation District
• Tri-Districts Water District
• Weld County

Links to the summary products provided to management of the organizations sponsoring the Project follow:

Download Adobe® Reader®.

	Executive summary
	Final presentation
	Final presentation
	Appendices B and C (The Cache la Poudre water quality 'issues' and 'desired actions' stakeholders participating in the study identified)

To request an electronic copy of the final report in PDF file format please click here.

Another study potentially of interest is the National Pilot Source Water Assessment of the Upper Cache la Poudre Mainstem.

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Weber applied the stakeholder mobilization model to the issue of protecting the quality of the Cache la Poudre source of drinking water for the Fort Collins and Greeley, Colorado utilities. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the two utilities funded the study.

The study identified 59 organizations and 49 individuals that participating stakeholders perceive as indispensable to protecting source water quality. Generally, stakeholders participating in the study process share concern that the potential for water quality problems to occur is strong because of the increasing intensity of human activity in the watershed, although no known data shows that water quality degradation is occurring yet. Responding stakeholders identified one problem as certain -- temporary contamination of Cache la Poudre water resources caused by accidental spills, particularly from State Highway 14 paralleling the river. Many respondents questioned if current management capacities and practices are sufficient for preserving the currently high quality of Cache la Poudre source water in the face of the intensifying potential threats.

Weber Discussing the Study During Field Tour for
Cache la Poudre Source Water Quality Stakeholders

In general terms, responding stakeholders want to take three overarching strategic actions: (1) execute public agency missions and activities rigorously and effectively to protect source water quality; (2) conduct a forum for stakeholders to become informed about what other agencies are doing, and discuss how to protect source water quality effectively; and (3) conduct outreach and education regarding the range of practices and behaviors necessary for protecting source water quality for 'permanent' and 'temporary' residents, owners, and users of the source water area and its resources.

The study concluded that, overall, there appears to be sufficient factors present to motivate stakeholders to at least reach out to additional stakeholders and to begin discussing the source water quality issues that those participating in this study have identified. Weber developed specific alternatives for achieving four general strategic actions. The alternatives range in intensity and the resources required to carry them out. One alternative would enable the project sponsors to begin immediately with only minimal investment of staff time.

Example of How Study Process Itself Can Begin Solving Problems

The certain problem of temporary contamination of Cache la Poudre water resources caused by accidental spills provides an example of how the stakeholder study process alone can begin to fix some problems as they are identified. During an interview in the second expanded phase of this study, one respondent noted a weakness in the current emergency notification and response process of his organization for spills on the highway. He made the required changes in emergency procedures at the organization's Board meeting that week.

Links to the summary products provided to management of the organizations sponsoring the Project follow:

Download Adobe® Reader®.

Executive summary

To request an electronic copy of the final report in PDF file format please click here.

Cache la Poudre Source Water Quality Stakeholders
Break for Lunch During 6/8/99 Field Tour

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Weber adapted the stakeholder mobilization model to assess potentially sensitive political, management, and technical issues related to a major water quality data initiative the Water Quality Program, Colorado Geologic Survey (CGS) was considering. The study process identified potential barriers and political conflict that could occur if the initiative were launched as originally conceived. The CGS modified the initiative, and other agencies, whose lack of opposition and positive support were critical, supported and cooperated with the revised initiative to produce a Directory of Colorado Water Quality Data.

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Weber developed a strategic plan for mobilizing Public Water Systems (PWSs) for the Wyoming Direct Implementation and Enforcement Program, Region VIII EPA. At the time the plan was developed, Wyoming was one of two states that had declined 'primacy', i.e., responsibility for administering federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements of PWSs in the state. Thus the task of administering the program in Wyoming remained with EPA.

EPA had the plan developed, recognizing that pragmatically, its regulatory authority and the resources available to enforce it were limited. They recognized that SDWA requirements would be implemented more effectively and efficiently if PWSs were willing and committed to complying with the act.

The report reviews concepts, theory, and research described in the literature addressing intergovernmental management, and particularly social network theory. The concepts and theory are organized into an open systems theory framework to form a model of stakeholder mobilization.

The mobilization model suggests five sets of strategic actions for the EPA Program Managers to take to mobilized Wyoming PWSs: 1) train in the "network" perspective; 2) conduct network analysis; 3) facilitate and coordinate mobilization actively; 4) develop and exercise authoritative and structural power; and 5) conduct action research.

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Weber assessed characteristics and perspectives of a limited number of government stakeholder programs regarding EPA's proposed 'Agricultural Chemicals In Ground Water Program' for the Ground Water Protection Program, Region VIII EPA. The program was an early one that did not provide EPA with regulatory authority over the potentially affected agriculturalists. The client assumed that successful implementation would require cooperation of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, related state and local programs, as well as potentially affected agricultural interests. He acknowledged that his program was not familiar with the identity of specific indispensable stakeholders let alone how to obtain their involvement and cooperation in this potentially sensitive initiative. He also assumed that the Ground Water Program had the lead role among EPA programs in implementing the program, but wanted the perspectives of these programs concerning how implementation should proceed and their potential roles.

Interviews with representatives of the EPA Region VIII Pesticides and Nonpoint Source Programs immediately suggested the potential for conflict in implementation as each program indicated that it perceived itself as the lead. At this point, the project turned to team-building among relevant state, Tribal, and federal programs and EPA asked Weber to facilitate a meeting of these agencies to develop the intergovernmental and public-private cooperation necessary for carrying out the 'AgChem Strategy'. In addition, EPA asked Weber to produce a model for involving governmental and private sector stakeholders in carrying out the policy. The client brought these findings and proposed model to the attention of the EPA Headquarters Program, who supported the notion of a national pilot project to test the model in Colorado.

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Weber has applied the stakeholder approach to implementing environmental programs, and in particular, those that are not regulatory or where EPA's legal authority did not flow down the 'picket-fence' pattern of its typical regulatory programs. Successful implementation of these programs required the cooperation and participation of the affected parties. Training workshops, public meetings, and major conference planning, conduct, and facilitation are critical tools within this approach.

	Planning and Facilitating Vasquez Boulevard - Interstate 70 Superfund Site Clean-up Working Group Meetings
	Facilitating and Providing Technical Assistance to Native American Governments: PERTEC
	Training Wyoming Drinking Water Stakeholders in SDWA Lead and Copper Rule
	Training to Implement Ban On Lead Materials in Drinking Water
	Planning and Conducting Large Conferences: Region VIII Legislators Energy Project

George Weber, Inc. Environmental is planning, conducting, and facilitating meetings of the Vasquez Boulevard - Interstate 70 (VB-I70) Superfund Site Lead and Arsenic Clean-up Working Group for the Region VIII EPA CERCLA Program.

The purpose of the Working Group is to provide a discussion forum for community representatives, State and local governmental agencies, and other interested parties and organizations to provide input to EPA and other agencies, as appropriate, about environmental clean up requirements at the Vasquez Boulevard/Interstate 70 site. As the lead regulatory agency for the Superfund process at the site, EPA is seeking input on all aspects of the investigation of metals contamination, the assessment of risk associated with exposure to the contamination, and the identification and evaluation of site management options.

George Weber, Facilitating 7/14/05 VB-I70 Working Group Meeting

The VB-I70 Site is located in northeast Denver, and has been characterized as an Environmental Justice site because the community is predominantly low income, minority, and disproportionately affected by environmental impacts from many sources including industry, other Superfund sites, and major transportation corridors.

Chris Poulet, Regional Representative, Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Michael Kosnett, MD,
TAG Advisor, CEASE; Gene Hook, Environmental Health Scientist,
Department of Environmental Health, City of Denver

EPA's VB-I70 Program is comprised of three components: (1) Sampling the soil of residential properties for lead and arsenic to find out if the levels are high enough to affect residents' health, and particularly that of children; (2) Removing and replacing soil and landscaping at all properties that have levels of arsenic and lead higher than the Program standard; and (3) Educating neighborhood residents about the lead and arsenic health issues, evaluating lead hazards in the home, and testing young children to see if they have been exposed to lead and arsenic (i.e., Community Health Program). EPA is working cooperatively with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, City of Denver, Northeast Denver Housing, and several neighborhood organizations in the planning on how to carry out the program.

Beverly Lumumba, President, Clayton Neighborhood
Association; Raquel Holguin, CEASE

Weber planned and facilitated meetings of Native American Tribes and provided technical assistance enabling them to incorporate a coalition to address shared environmental problems. The Tribal Programs, Region VIII EPA funded the effort. The project provided technical assistance regarding the administrative structure, staffing, budgeting, and incorporation process for the proposed organization. The twenty-six Tribes of the region eventually incorporated an organization they named PERTEC, for "protect earth's resources and tribal environments corporation."

In conjunction with the project above, Weber planned, developed, and conducted a stakeholder involvement and training conference for implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act Lead and Copper Rule for the Wyoming Direct Implementation and Enforcement Program, Region VIII EPA. He facilitated two key sessions structured to begin developing consensus and an action plan. The two-day training was conducted in Casper, and a second time in Rock Springs, and involved approximately twenty presenters drawn nationally, and over one hundred participants. The training provided PWS operators with required continuing education requirements.

Weber applied community development techniques to the extent practicable to win the cooperation and participation of Wyoming stakeholders, and particularly state officials. One notable feature included a panel of drinking water stakeholders representing PWS operators, consulting engineers, state executive and legislative officials, and congressional offices. Panel members were given the opportunity to express their perspectives, primarily to EPA, about the new requirements near the beginning and conclusion of the training. The training was judged a success, with participation well exceeding EPA's expectations.

Weber developed and conducted outreach and training for utility, labor, business, educational, and government stakeholders in carrying out the "Lead Ban" requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) for the Safe Drinking Water Program, Region VIII EPA. EPA's 'Lead Ban' was perhaps the first initiative under SDWA where EPA did not have clear regulatory authority over the stakeholders that would need to comply with the requirement (e.g., plumbers; construction engineers; heating, cooling, air conditioning contractors) or state regulatory agencies overseeing these professions. The client acknowledged that outreach and education probably were the only means available to EPA for encouraging implementation and wanted to conduct a conference for the indispensable stakeholders.

The client gave Weber the latitude to apply community development techniques to involve representatives of EPA, state, and local agencies, and professional and business associations, labor unions, and the University of Colorado in sponsoring and conducting the conference for affected stakeholders. Weber facilitated these key stakeholders to develop consensus regarding agenda, presenters, materials, date, and location. The local plumbers union volunteered their Denver facility as the conference site. The union's training facility enabled the project to do live demonstrations of how to use the then new lead-free materials in home plumbing. One session in particular went far to defuse the initial opposition towards EPA and the new initiative, by enabling a national spokesperson for plumbers to speak frankly at the outset of the conference. The project was cited to the EPA National Administrator as the best stakeholder mobilization project nationally in 1988.

Weber 'cut his teeth' on how to plan and conduct high quality conferences while employed as a Project Manger by the Energy Program, National Conference of State Legislatures. He managed the 'Region VIII Legislators' Energy Project'. The Project provided technical assistance to western legislators on a variety of contemporary energy resource development, and demand and supply planning and management topics. The primary means for providing the assistance were meetings and special events for the Legislators Project Advisory team and U.S. Department of Energy funders, and planning and conducting two major conferences for legislators from the six state region.

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