Our Communities
Who are Our Communities?
Our communities include the landowners, neighbours, local communities, councils and the traditional owners of the land.
We have communities at our operating assets and our development sites. At our operating assets, our communities are primarily centred around Wellington, Tarago, Bungendore, Smithfield, Narrandera, Boree Creek, Orange, Carcoar, Blayney and Millthorpe in NSW; Millicent, Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, Lonsdale and Bolivar in SA, and Walkaway in WA. Our assets are on the traditional land of the Aboriginal people with whom we have constructive long term relationships.
Our communities also comprise groups and industry bodies that have an interest in our business and operations, which includes community groups, universities, industry bodies, and the media.
Our Approach to Our Communities
Our business depends on the support of the communities that host us and our assets. We seek to ensure our operations make valuable social and economic contributions to our communities and at the same time do not negatively affect the safety of the community, the natural environment or heritage.
We engage in extensive consultation through the life‑cycle of our projects to ensure we communicate with and are responsive to our communities. Our communities expect us to be genuine, cooperative and transparent in our communication. They also seek our support to create fair, flexible and reasonable social and economic contributions reflecting our long-term relationship.
We engage our communities during the development stage by identifying the stakeholder groups relevant to our projects and establishing community committees to seek feedback and address legitimate concerns in relation to our development and operating sites. We maintain this engagement through the life‑cycle of a project, endeavouring to always act honestly and fairly.
Iberdrola is a proud signatory of the Clean Energy Council’s Best Practice Charter for Renewable Energy Projects and commits to honouring the Charter in our renewable energy projects and associated transmission infrastructure.
Benefit Sharing
Our investments in the community occur through a variety of channels.
These include: the use of local products and services such as retail, transport and accommodation; employment at our operating plant; landowner payments; and the sponsorship of community projects. We set annual funding targets in each community where we operate. We are committed to sourcing materials and services from locally based suppliers, and to reduce our impact on the environment from transportation in conjunction with our contractors to seek local suppliers where possible.