PLAN: Identify, Understand, and Confirm

Stakeholder identification is an exercise that pipeline operators are familiar with due to their existing public awareness program and the stakeholder engagement element of their pipeline safety management system.

However, while RP 1162 uses stakeholder identification to make sure pipeline safety information is getting to those who live and work near pipelines, RP 1185 uses it to make sure operators have identified and understand stakeholders’ interests or concerns, and confirm the accuracy of their information, as it relates to a specific pipeline or pipeline system, geographic area, or circumstance.  This effort should begin as soon as planning for a potential pipeline begins.

Stakeholders are also defined more broadly in RP 1185 as individuals, including communities and populations and their representatives, potentially affected by a pipeline who have an interest in that pipeline.

Identifying Stakeholders

Stakeholder identification for an effective engagement program includes and goes beyond the creating, maintaining, and periodically refreshing a list containing key contacts for stakeholders and stakeholder organizations. Operators should also have a process to document stakeholders who have expressed an interest in engaging, recognizing that their interests may change over time and from one life cycle to another, and give them an opportunity to confirm both their information and interest.

Pipeline life cycle stages can include:

  • New, proposed pipeline projects
  • Pipeline routing and construction activities
  • Pipeline expansions, conversions, idling, and abandonments
  • Operations, maintenance, integrity management, and emergency planning associated with an existing pipeline
  • Pipeline incidents or operations that are or may appear irregular or not normal.

Nobody appreciates a data leak of personal information. It’s essential that operators treat all personally identifying information (PII) provided by stakeholders carefully and in accordance with their existing procedures for data protection and privacy.

It’s important to note that engagement programs must also account for stakeholders who are members of vulnerable communities or populations or who live in communities impacted by historical or current environmental and social injustices. Effective and meaningful engagement with these stakeholders will require specific consideration at all stages of the pipeline life cycle.

Understanding Stakeholders

In the context of RP 1185, understanding stakeholders means recognizing and appreciating a range of interests, including their values, needs, concerns, languages spoken and understood, cultural concerns, and location, as well as organizational affiliations within communities and populations affected by a new or existing pipeline.

Although external parties (vendors, consultants, etc.) can help an operator identify and learn about their audience groups, the intent of the RP is to encourage relationships that allow the operator to uncover and understand this information for themselves. This means seeking opportunities to interact directly with stakeholders, which, in turn, means confirming the availability of an internal training program to equip field employees so they can identify these opportunities and build meaningful stakeholder relationships along your pipeline system.

An effective engagement program will help employees be successful as they execute their responsibilities in the program. Internal training programs should provide information on the different stakeholder groups, their potential interests, and their rights. Programs should also help employees identify, understand, and engage with people who are in vulnerable populations or communities, indigenous communities, or environmental justice communities.

Confirming Stakeholders

Operators continually confirm the accuracy of stakeholders’ information, their interests, and their preferences for how or when they are approached or engaged, are likely to have a successful, effective engagement program.

Different people (or organizations) will have distinct preferences on how they want to be contacted. Effective engagement requires meeting them where they are rather than where an operator may want them to be. Similarly, by confirming their understanding of stakeholders’ interests, needs, and concerns, operators may also be able to identify when common engagement methods can be used with multiple stakeholders with common interests.