Rethinking the Social License to Operate

The paper examines the conceptual links between Social License to Operate (SLO), originally from the extractive industry, and Social Acceptance (SA) within renewable energy literature. It argues that both frameworks address local opposition to infrastructure and offer similar recommendations for increasing acceptance by applying Energy Justice (EJ) principles.

• The concept of Social License to Operate (SLO) has evolved from its beginnings in the extractive industry to be applied within renewable energy literature as Social Acceptance (SA).
• Despite using different terminology, the literature on SLO in mining and SA for renewables both analyze the reasons for local opposition or acceptance of infrastructure projects and share similar definitions.
• Both SLO and SA frameworks provide similar recommendations for improving project acceptance through the advancement of Energy Justice (EJ) principles.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2024). Rethinking the Social License to Operate. https://www.sei.org/publications/rethinking-the-social-license-to-operate/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Rethinking the Social License to Operate. 2024. https://www.sei.org/publications/rethinking-the-social-license-to-operate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Rethinking the Social License to Operate |date=24 April 2024 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/rethinking-the-social-license-to-operate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2024rethinking, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Rethinking the Social License to Operate}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/rethinking-the-social-license-to-operate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }