A social licence to operate (SLO) is the ongoing acceptance or approval that organisations receive from communities and the wider groups affected by their activities. It differs from formal regulatory permission because it reflects trust and credibility built through responsible practices, ethical behaviour, and meaningful engagement.
The concept grew out of wider discussions on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social acceptability. It highlights that organisations need societal approval to function effectively, particularly in democratic contexts where public opinion can shape or constrain policy decisions.
Importantly, social licence is not a formal agreement or document. It is a dynamic and evolving state that depends on an organisation’s relationships with its stakeholders. Factors such as transparency, fairness, sustainability, and trust all influence whether a community continues to support or challenge an organisation’s presence and operations. In practice, this means that organisations must continually invest in dialogue and relationship-building, recognising that trust is earned over time and can be quickly eroded.
Quick answers to common questions
What is meant by social licence?
A social licence refers to the informal approval and acceptance that communities and stakeholders grant to an organisation or project. Unlike regulatory permits, it depends on trust, transparency, and fair engagement, and can shift over time as relationships and expectations change.
How do you build a social licence to operate?
Building a social licence involves long-term relationship-building with stakeholders. Key elements include open dialogue, transparency, responsiveness to concerns, and a visible commitment to fairness and sustainability. Trust is earned gradually and must be maintained through consistent behaviour and engagement.
Key resources on social license to operate
The following papers and reports explore how social licence develops across different sectors, outlining its implications for organisations, policymakers, and communities, and how it can be fostered and maintained through engagement and trust.
Social license to operate as an institutional process
This 2025 paper by Johannes Glückler and Denise Gutiérrez provides a critical, institutional perspective on SLO, moving beyond traditional managerial approaches. It introduces a three-stage heuristic: (A) institutional context analysis, (B) assessment of governance process and stakeholder alignment, and (C) evaluation of social licence outcomes, with practical application illustrated via a mining project case study.
Better practice social license guideline
A sector-specific guide focused on Australia’s energy transition, featuring co-designed principles, practical opportunities to minimize impact on landholders, and processes for developing clear commitments and independent accountability for SLO. Useful beyond the energy sector as an example of transparent and participatory guideline development.
Building social licence to operate: A framework
This 2024 publication by Dean Stronge and colleagues introduces a practical framework for SLO, grounded in interviews, literature review, and researcher workshops. It emphasizes building trustworthiness through sustained, meaningful relationships and outlines step-by-step guidance on how organizations can develop and maintain SLO effectively with stakeholders.
Building engagement and social licence: Unpacking SLO and partnerships
This 2019 report by Will Allen and colleagues describes and develops rubrics as a tool for planning and assessing initiatives in SLO and engagement associated with systems change. The report focusses specifically on partnerships as a particular form of engagement involving two-way communication and shared responsibility. Indicative rubrics are provided as a start to help agencies and other practice change proponents to develop clarity around the different components that underpin SLO and partnerships, and as a tool to guide and evaluate progress in these areas.
Social license to operate: Legitimacy by another name?
This 2017 paper by Joel Gehman and colleagues outlines key concepts and frameworks that have shaped discussions of social license to operate. They highlight similarities and differences among the three main varieties of SLO. They then investigate the linkages between SLO and “legitimacy”. and review methods that have been usedto measure social license. Finally they point to implications for stakeholder engagement, emerging policy and future research.
Meaningful dialogue outcomes contribute to laying a foundation for social licence to operate
This 2017 paper by Lucy Mercer-Mapstone and colleagues shows empirically that dialogue – when meaningful – contributes to sixteen outcomes, some of which were trust, relationships, perceptions of fairness, social acceptance, shared decision-making, and legitimacy. They note that many of these outcomes have previously been proposed to be integral to the development of SLO in both the academic and popular literature.
The social licence to operate: a critical review
This 2016 paper by Kieren Moffat and colleagues presents a critical review of the emergence of the concept in industry practice over the last two decades. Recent applied research to measure and model the social licence is also examined to demonstrate how the roles of trust, fairness and governance may underpin the development of more sustainable, trust-based relationships between industry and society.
Community engagement and social licence to operate.
This 2014 paper by Melanie (Lain) Dare, Jacki Schirmer & Frank Vanclay considers what social licence is and how community engagement plays a role in achieving social licence. They argue that social licence is better conceptualised as a continuum of multiple licences achieved across various levels of society.
Socila licence and corporate social responsibility
Social licence to operate is closely linked with broader notions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). While social licence focuses on community acceptance, CSR reflects the organisational principles and behaviours that help to earn that acceptance.
Corporate social responsibility
This short article introduces the background to contemporary corporate social responsibility as philanthropic. It points to how it is now focuses on broader issues of sustainability and influenced by shareholders, partners and global reporting practice.
Why CSR? The benefits of CSR will move you to act
This 2013 Forbes article by Devin Thorpe describes the findings of his interviews with dozens of corporate executives of large and small companies in an effort to understand the benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporation.
Social license is, of course, an outcome from the ways that our companies and institutions communicate and engage with their stakeholders. This thinking needs to be linked with associated methodologies around Stakeholder mapping and analysis. There are a number of other pages on this site that also link to material relevant to this area. Risk communication and engagement is directly related, also Managing participation and engagement. A number of other related areas can be found through the social learning section.
(* Photo: Flickr – Erie Rising)