EP20 Engagement That Matters: Beyond the Consultation Checkbox with Paul Lawrence

Is it really "meaningful engagement" if you don’t even know who your stakeholders actually are? In this episode of The No Nonsense Sustainability Podcast, Ildiko Almasi Simsic sits down with international expert Paul Lawrence to strip away the corporate jargon surrounding stakeholder relations.Paul brings decades of experience working in remote villages and project-affected communities - far removed from the comfort of boardrooms and report writing. Together, they discuss why stakeholder engagement is one of the most misunderstood concepts in sustainability today and why "consultation" is so often reduced to a meaningless checkbox.In this episode, we cover:The Identification Crisis: Why you can't have a strategy if you haven’t properly identified who is actually impacted.E&S vs. ESG: Why E&S disclosure is often more robust and well-defined than its ESG counterpart.The Reality Gap: The difference between writing a report for the board and talking to people whose lives are being fundamentally changed by a project.Paul’s 3 Pillars: A practical framework for any company looking to build a legitimate stakeholder engagement strategy.If you’re tired of "fluff" and want to understand the grit and reality of international stakeholder engagement, this episode is for you.