We aim to go above the minimum regulatory requirements regarding engagement with affected communities, as we believe these engagements are essential for securing and sustaining the social license necessary for advancing renewable energy development. To ensure that our decisions reflect the perspectives of affected communities, we engage proactively with community stakeholders and local organisations and seek ongoing dialogue with them, ensuring their voices are heard and considered in our decision-making processes. This approach is being integrated across our business functions, markets, and asset projects. Engagement occurs at various frequencies and at various stages of a project. Our aim is to initiate early dialogue during the planning phase to gather the insights and concerns of the affected communities. This takes place through e.g. our community liaison officers and project staff employing different types of interaction, such as public meetings and consultations to facilitate open communication. When we employ community liaison officers in our projects, they often come from the communities we engage with, helping us gain a profound understanding of the local contexts. We continue this dialogue through the development, construction, and operation phases of our renewable energy assets.

As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability, we assess whether affected communities are aware of and trust the grievance mechanisms available to them through ongoing community engagements. However, our assessments in this area are still a work in progress. While we can evaluate communities’ awareness during engagements, we do not yet have sufficient comprehensive assessments to fully measure their trust in these channels. We are actively working to strengthen our approach to ensure greater transparency regarding affected communities’ grievances. Further to this, it is our aim to ensure that our whistleblower hotline is widely available to affected communities, although we cannot be certain that all affected communities are aware of this channel and know how to access it. However, we ensure individuals who use these grievance mechanisms are protected from retaliation, and that whistleblower reports are handled confidentially, in line with our 'Good business conduct policy' and 'Whistleblower policy'.