3 - Introduction to engagement

Introduction to the conduct of step 3: definitions, governance, requirements and deliverables.

Source: Freepik

The vision of Bilan Carbone® is not solely centred on carbon accounting and the definition of a transition plan. It is an approach in which the phases of Stakeholder engagement are fundamental and ambitious. In order to facilitate the move to action, the Bilan Carbone® approach requires a Stakeholder engagement around the Bilan Carbone® project and the transition plan that will be deployed.

Stakeholder engagement continues continuously throughout the Bilan Carbone® approach. The timing of each of the Stakeholder engagement phases is given here as indicative: the important thing is that the right messages are delivered to the right targets.

To achieve Stakeholder engagement, the Bilan Carbone® approach involves several phases : Outreach the stakes to raise awareness, Empowerment the Stakeholders, co-construct the actions, then reported and communicate the results. These different Stakeholder engagement phases are to be adapted to the different maturity levels, stages, stakeholders and organisation profiles:

• Stage 3.1.1 : At the launch and framing of the Bilan Carbone®

• Stage 3.1.2 : At the launch of data collection

• Stage 3.1.3 : For the construction of the GHG profile

• Stage 3.1.4 : For the construction of the transition plan

• Stage 3.1.5 : In the synthesis of the approach

Figure 3: Timeline of Stakeholder engagement actions

🌐 English version of this image.

Glossary relating to the Stakeholder engagement stages

All terms relating to the Stakeholder engagement stages are explained in the glossary. They are reminded below:

• Stakeholder engagement action : it is the association of a Stakeholder engagement phase (awareness raising, empowerment, co-construction, or results presentation), during a stage, with one or more targets, with a more or less specific adaptation of messages depending on the organisation profile.

Presentation of the different Stakeholder engagement phases:

• Awareness and popularization 🧠 : The main issue of awareness raising and outreach is to understand in order to act : strengthen the understanding of essential information around energy and climate issues, and unite people around the approach to ensure better integration of the Transition Plan.

  Objective : Create the necessary groundwork for a proper understanding of the issues, acceptance of change and future actions to be undertaken, and enable the organisation to identify the risks and opportunities associated with the ecological transition.

  Indicator : Level of knowledge and understanding of the issues.

• Empowerment 🙋: The main challenge of empowerment is to give everyone a role in the approach. To enable stakeholders to become aware that every degree matters, every action counts and therefore every employee matters in the implementation of these actions. For the organisation to become aware that this concerns sustainability. New responsibilities will emerge from the approach and will highlight existing roles by taking into account an essential component linked to the sustainability of the activity.

  Objective : Involve and enable each stakeholder to get moving and take action.

  Indicator : Level of participation in the approach and level of taking action.

• Coconstruction 💭: The main aim of co-construction is to highlight initiatives, sharing and consultation. Co-construction is central, and therefore closely linked to other types of Stakeholder engagement: consulted stakeholders must have a sufficient level of information about the approach, which requires upstream an 🧠effective awareness raising and outreach, as well as a 📢 transparent results presentation and communication. Co-construction gives people a voice, encourages participation, which makes it possible to 🙋empower. It makes it possible to identify the carbon reduction dimensions that the organisation and its stakeholders can consider, based on their knowledge (of the process, the product, the organisation).

  Objective : Confront the choice of actions with real possibilities and potential alternatives, to arrive at a transition plan perceived as a common project for the Organisation and its Stakeholders.

  Indicator : Level of participation in the coconstruction of the transition plan.

• Results presentation and communication 📢 : The main challenge of results presentation and communication is to enable appropriation of the results and actions by the various concerned stakeholders. To link global issues, local issues, the organisation's impacts, the role of stakeholders in these impacts, the resulting actions, and the role of stakeholders in the success of these actions.

  Objective : Make this approach an initiative that goes beyond the project team to reach the other concerned stakeholders (primarily internal employees) through the implementation of actions, in a logic of cross-functionality, togetherness, reputation and exemplariness.

  Indicator : Level of knowledge and understanding of the results (impacts and actions)

Presentation of the different adaptations:

• Stages of the approach 🗓️ : Stakeholder engagement continues continuously throughout the Bilan Carbone® approach and adapts to the different stages:

  • At the launch and framing (step 1) : Awareness and popularization

  • For the identification of emission sources and data to be collected (stage 2) : Empowerment of information & data holders

  • For the accounting of emissions (stage 4) : results presentation intermediate

  • For reflections around the transition plan (stage 5) : co-construction of the actions

  • For the finalisation of the approach (stage 6) : Empowerment, Reporting and communication

• Targets and stakeholders 👥: Stakeholders around the Organisation can be distributed as follows. They will be solicited in distinct phases of Stakeholder engagement.

  • Project team, internal leads

  • Management

  • Other internal collaborators (employees, staff, volunteers)

  • Upstream external Stakeholders (suppliers)

  • Downstream external Stakeholders (clients)

  • Other external stakeholders (financial and technical partners, local actors, professional federations, or other partners on topics strategic for the organisation such as education, innovation, development).

• Organisation profile 📊 : Different organisation profiles should be taken into account to adapt the messages delivered. They can be distributed by sector & activities, or at least between:

  • Profile or sector “lower emitter or decarbonising”

  • Profile or sector “high emitter”

  • Profile or sector “at risk”

  This classification remains subjective, but it can be based on the framework proposed in the annex. Being part of a lower-emitting sector does not mean that the organisation is actually low-emitting. This classification must be analysed in relation to the organisation's actual activity. For the maturity levels Beginner and Intermediate, the messages are rather universal. The adaptation of the message becomes increasingly specific and ambitious as the organisation's maturity increases. A specific zoom is necessary from the Advanced level, as presented in the following sections and in annex.

Governance relating to the Stakeholder engagement stages

The governance of the Stakeholder engagement stage is part of the overall governance of the Bilan Carbone® approach presented previously. It is the coordinator who leads the different Stakeholder engagement phases.

The facilitators or facilitators can be external or internal depending on the skills sought. To scale up the Stakeholder engagement phases, it is recommended to train a team of internal facilitators. The involvement of certain teams or departments will be indispensable to the proper conduct of the Stakeholder engagement stages, in particular management and communication.

Requirements relating to the Stakeholder engagement stages

For reference, here is the summary of requirements and recommendations, for each of the maturity levels. The Stakeholder engagement contents must take into account the organisation's maturity level. They are the subject of detailed explanations in the following sub-sections.

Beginner level

Stakeholder engagement:

• H: Targets of the Stakeholder engagement

  • H1: Stakeholder engagement targets at least the organisation's internal stakeholders, i.e. the project team, employees and management.

• I: Messages of the Stakeholder engagement

  • I1: The following Stakeholder engagement phases: awareness raising and outreach, empowerment, results presentation and communication, occur at least once in the approach.

• J: Stakeholder engagement stages

  • J1: At least one Stakeholder engagement action takes place during the launch and framing stages of the approach, intermediate results presentation and overall synthesis of the approach.

Intermediate level

Advanced level

Deliverables relating to the Stakeholder engagement stages

The information and deliverables obtained at the end of stage 3, and associated with the above requirements, are to be reported at the end of the approach:

• A synthesis of the different Stakeholder engagement phases that have been implemented: their targets, the messages conveyed, their form, the associated stage of the approach.

For example: one line per Stakeholder engagement action. Additional information is useful (format, date, participation, etc.):

Stakeholder engagement action	Targets	Stages	Stakeholder engagement phase
Action No. 1. Date - Format - Participation	Project teamManagementOther internal employeesUpstream external stakeholders	In the synthesis of the approach	Results presentation and communication
Action No. 2 Date - Format - Participation	Management	For the construction of the transition plan	Awareness and popularization
[…]	Other internal employees	At the launch of data collection	Empowerment

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