Understanding the Social Licence of Carbon Farming in the Australian Rangelands

Carbon farming has expanded in Australia’s rangelands over recent years, incentivised under the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. While this has largely been driven by economic benefits for landholders, the long-term viability of the carbon farming industry depends on its ability to obtain and maintain a social licence to operate in affected communities. Using a combination of survey, interview and focus group methods, involving key stakeholders in far-western New South Wales (NSW), this study reveals that the greatest threat to the social licence of carbon farming is the lack of confidence in governance related to policy complexity and uncertainty. Procedural fairness is a relative strength because of the involvement of trusted community members, and the trust-building strategies employed by the aggregators who recruit landholders to carbon farming. Perceptions of distributional fairness are strengthened by the benefits beginning to flow through rangeland communities, but are weakened by concerns around the equity of eligibility and the land management rules. A focus on participatory policy development, aligning rules with local values and local-scale trust building, is required in order to enhance the social licence for carbon farming in the NSW rangelands.

Understanding rider:horse bodyweight ratio trends, weight management practices and rider weight perceptions within leisure and amateur riders in the UK

Horse riders in the UK have a legal responsibility for the welfare of the horses in their care, outlined by the Animal Welfare Act (2006). Understanding weight management factors that influence rider: horse bodyweight (RHBW) ratio is key to safeguarding horse welfare as human obesity rates increase. Recent high-profile incidents have seen riders being asked to dismount for being too heavy, demonstrating an awareness of the possible impact of excessive rider weight, threatening the equestrian industry’s social licence to operate. This study investigated RHBW trends within the UK leisure and amateur rider population to understand rider perception of ‘ideal’ RHBW and factors influencing rider and horse weight management. An online survey (SurveyMonkey®) was distributed via UK equine-related Facebook™ groups and collected information on horse and rider demographics, rider weight management strategies and respondents’ views on the importance of rider weight on horse welfare. Kruskal-Wallis analyses with Mann Whitney U post-hoc tests identified whether differences in respondent views differed between RHBW groups. A total of 971 riders completed the survey; respondents were aged between 18-65+ years old and 88% (n=953) were experienced riders. RHBWs were calculated for 764 (79%) of respondents as 21.2% (n=206) did not know either their own and/or their horses’ weight. Weight tapes (44.5%; n=432) and weigh bridges (29.5%; n=286) were common horse weight estimation methods. RHBWs ranged from 4.9% to 21.88%, mean: 12.5%±2.7%. Riders with lower RHBW thought about their own weight less and measured their horses’ weight less often than those with higher ratios (P<0.005, P<0.0004, respectively). The majority of riders who participated were weight conscious and recognised potential detrimental impacts associated with increased rider weight. Development of RHBW guidelines supported by equestrian governing bodies would highlight the need for riders to consider the impact of weight and support them in choosing suitable horses.

PREDICT: Principles of Good Mining Checklist

CONTEXT: Social Licence to Operate (SLO) encompasses the broad socio-political understanding on the part of multiple stakeholders that a mining operation’s social and environmental impacts and measures are legitimate and acceptable. The multiple and variously interacting stakeholder groups— local communities, environmental actors, Indigenous communities, regulators, local governments, industry peak bodies, financiers, affiliated businesses—have the proven capacity to confer and/or disrupt a mining operation’s SLO. The presence or absence of a SLO can have significant consequences not only for stakeholder groups, including the mining operation, but also for the shared development of a good mining future. Conceptualisation of what is ‘good mining’ is central to future planning and decisions around development, adoption and reception of new technologies and sustainable mining futures. CHECKLIST PURPOSE This first of its kind tool seeks to facilitate genuine multistakeholder interactions and development of a dynamic shared SLO to advance good mining.

Transnational universities, host communities and local residents: social impacts, university social responsibility and campus sustainability

Purpose This paper aims to discuss how transnational universities create negative and positive social impacts on their host communities and what this means for campus sustainability and the expectation that universities contribute to sustainable development and to their local communities. Design/methodology/approach Using mixed methods, a multiple case study approach and qualitative meta-analysis, this study considers six transnational university campuses in China in terms of their relationship with local communities. Findings Because of the good reputation of universities generally, local residents tended to accord a social licence to operate (i.e. approval) to new university campuses. However, universities generally do not manage their social impacts, as well as many other industries and generally fail to consider the corporate social responsibility issues and the environmental, social and governance aspects of their activities. To improve their social licence to operate and grow and to meet expectations around “university social responsibility”, campus developments should observe key international principles and human rights standards: full disclosure of information; effective community engagement; appropriate resettlement and livelihood restoration; effective harm reduction procedures; provision of local benefits (benefit sharing); monitoring and adaptive management and implement a grievance redress mechanism. Originality/value This paper encourages broader thinking about sustainability in a higher education context and about what university social responsibility entails. Specifically, this study argues that the relationship between universities and their host communities also needs to be considered, especially during campus construction.

Educational Concept for Citizens’ Awareness Towards Technological Advancements for a Sustainable Society—Introducing a Concept for Interactive Societal Learning on Hydrogen and Carbon

Hydrogen is a key element of our everyday life. It is an irreplaceable feedstock for the production of fertilisers, fuels, and chemicals. From a scientific point of view, hydrogen can additionally play a major role in future energy systems and help to decarbonise the sectors industry, heat and power generation as well as transport and mobility. Thus, it can contribute to the energy transition and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at a large scale and consequently help to mitigate climate change. It is, therefore, a key building block to reach the remarkably challenging goals recently stated in the European Green Deal. Therefore, the overarching question is whether hydrogen can measure up to the great expectations raised and how creating public awareness and education can contribute in achieving a social license to operate for emerging new technological developments in this context. Education is not solely an instrument for academic excellence but also a powerful tool to raise public awareness with regard to the development of new technologies. While the main goal of the pyrolysis project is to research sustainable means of hydrogen production, the project also considers its role within the community as a positive side effect. To safeguard and promote the scientific social licence to operate, an educational programme will be additionally developed to raise civic awareness and grant access to the developments made in the project in a learning lab, which will have open access for schools and the general public.