Browsing by Subject "Stakeholder analysis"

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Open Access
Connecting Residents to Resources for Energy Efficiency, Water Conservation, and Household Level Sustainability in Flint, Michigan
(2015-04-24) Sanker, Leyla
The UM-Flint Urban Alternatives House (UAH) is a LEED Platinum certified residential property redevelopment project established in 2010 through a partnership between the Genesee County Land Bank Authority and the University of Michigan-Flint. UM-Flint with community partners seek to use the UAH as demonstration project that connects residents in Flint and Genesee County to programs and resources that support adoption of sustainability measures to increase community resilience. Population decline and economic challenges are evident in the metropolitan Flint area, and energy costs place a larger financial burden on low income households. The desire to connect residents to resources that reduce residential energy and water costs while advancing adoption of sustainable practices informed development of this study.

The objectives of the study were to identify organizations and programs in Flint and Genesee County that provided resources or support to advance household level energy efficiency, water conservation, and sustainable development practices, to understand how these organizations are networked together, and to understand the opportunities and barriers they perceive relative to advancing efforts in the region. To meet this objective, the study focused on gathering organization level information and perspectives. Participants were identified using a snowball sampling technique.

Stakeholder analysis and social network analysis were the methods used to inform the study. The stakeholder analysis was completed using an integrated approach, informed by semi-structured interviews with nineteen stakeholders (n=19). NVivo 10 quantitative analysis software was employed to analyze stakeholder interview responses using a strategic perspectives approach. An actor linkage survey was completed by seventeen of the participants (n=17), and the information collected from the surveys provided data for the social network analysis completed using NetMiner10 software.

Forty-eight organizations were identified as stakeholders with direct or indirect alignment with the study area. Thirty-four of these organization were active in the study region. Analytical categorizations resulted in organizations being classified in three levels: type (i.e. Government, community organization, etc.), organizational alignment identified as 1) Community Economic Development, 2) Community Education and Engagement, 3) Health, and 4) Coordination/Collaboration, and study alignment identified as 1) Energy Efficiency, 2) Water Conservation, 3) Construction (Regular and “Green”), 4) Agriculture and Food Access, and 5) Recycling and Waste Management.

The first portion of the results section explores the themes found through analysis of the stakeholder interview data. The organizational alignments provided a broad context through which the themes emerged. Community economic development examines the role of stakeholders involved in housing programs, often supported by state and federal funding aimed at low to moderate income households. Community education and engagement highlights the important role of the utility provider as well as water quality and resources management organizations, and educational institutions. Health aligned stakeholders included those that addressed household hazards and organizations engaged in local food system work. Coordination and collaboration identifies that many partnerships exist, but only one local collaboration focused primarily on household health and sustainability. Opportunities and barriers are also examined.

The second portion of the results section features the results of the social network analysis. The social network analysis focuses on measures of centrality, exploring the properties of an actor (stakeholders represented as nodes in the network) and the prominence of said actor in the network based on the ties to other actors. Measures of centrality highlighted in the analysis include in- and out-degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality which are often positively correlated. The dominant actors and the deviations from the positive correlations found between the centrality measures are identified.

The discussion and recommendations section of the study notes that a variety of programs and initiatives exist that support energy efficiency, water conservation, sustainable construction, and overall household level sustainability in in the study region, but few stakeholders have a primary focus in these areas. Recommendations for ongoing stakeholder engagement with existing efforts and approaches to advance education and outreach objectives are made. The impacts of fluctuations in funding, particularly at the federal level, areas in which services are being centralized, and market gaps revealed by the study are discussed.

The study identifies several areas to advance residents’ connections to energy efficiency, water conservation, and household level sustainability, and concludes with the following:

Education is both an opportunity and a barrier to connecting residents to resources for energy efficiency, water conservation, and household level sustainability. The inventory of programs may serve as a starting point to connecting residents to these resources, and development of a social marketing campaign could advance both promotion and adoption of these resources.

Stakeholders in the Flint area are actively partnering on a number of initiatives and to advance community sustainability in a larger context. Building a shared understanding of household sustainability, understanding the strengths and limitations of partner organizations, and finding ways to creatively leverage resources through new and existing collaborations could support efforts moving forward.

Ongoing engagement with stakeholders aligned with fair housing, natural resource management/water quality, and local food systems is recommended. The important role of government in connecting to resources and advancing a collective vision is recognized. Building alignments with business and economic development efforts is also suggested.
Open Access
Documenting Stakeholder Perceptions of an Urban Coastline to Inform Conservation Action Planning
(2011-04-29) Barrett, Jennifer
Waikīkī has long been the anchor of Hawaii's visitor industry. Approximately $3.6 billion or 46% of tourism's total contribution to Hawaii's Gross State Product originates directly and indirectly from this famed one-square-mile of Oahu's south shore (DBEDT, 2003). While extensive resources have been directed towards understanding the economic contribution of Waikīkī, far fewer have been directed to understanding and safeguarding the unique natural resources that lure both residents and visitors to the area. Yet maintaining--and improving--the health and vitality of these natural resources is integral to the continued economic contributions of Hawaii's flagship visitor destination as well as opportunities for ocean-based activities that contribute to the overall quality of life for Oahu's residents. In order to address this oversight, a coalition of community partners are currently planning to undertake a community planning process with the intention of integrating and improving disparate efforts to manage and steward the coastal and marine resources of Waikīkī through the development of an outcome-oriented, community-backed plan. To ensure success, the planning process must be framed by a thorough understanding of community concerns and perspectives, and once initiated, should maximize opportunities for meaningful stakeholder input and involvement. To this end, this study was conducted to: 1) document and analyze the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of Waikīkī residents with respect to the past, present, and desired condition of coastal and nearshore resources; and, 2) identify resident priorities related to and potential stakeholder conflict that may arise from future management and restoration efforts. Data collection consisted of a stakeholder analysis targeting area residents and utilizing a mail survey as the primary research tool. Resident responses reveal both a perception that the condition of Waikīkī's coastal and nearshore resources has deteriorated over time, as well as a strong desire to maintain recreational opportunities and improve reef health. Where the results can best inform future management and restoration efforts lies in: 1) resident priorities and anticipated "deal-breakers" with regard to possible management strategies; 2) resident concerns, questions, and knowledge gaps associated with anticipated restoration efforts; and, 3) demographic characteristics of the respondents to this survey which hint that there will likely be a significant divergence in profiles and priorities with other stakeholder groups such as area businesses and recreational users residing outside of Waikīkī.
Open Access
Identifying New and Innovative Partnerships for North Carolina Sea Grant
(2016-04-29) Cedzo, Emily; Ferguson, Marianne; Koboski, Theodore
The National Sea Grant College program was established in 1966 under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in order to unite universities with public and private sector partners. The program’s goal is to support coastal research intended to yield economic and social benefits. North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG) was founded in 1970 and designated as the nation’s 12th Sea Grant College in 1976. NCSG works to provide unbiased, science-based information to enhance the sustainable use and conservation of ocean and coastal resources to benefit communities, the economy and the environment in North Carolina. Given its unique position as a producer of objective research and education, NCSG partners with a wide array of different stakeholders in the North Carolina community. In order to expand their current resource base and extend their impact across the state, NCSG seeks new opportunities to engage with external entities with whom they are not already affiliated. The objective of this research is to identify potential industry, non-governmental, academic, and/or state and local program partnerships in which collaboration would be beneficial to furthering NCSG’s mission, increasing the impact and efficiency of their work. The methods of analysis for this project were twofold: (1) to first understand the structure and function of Sea Grant, specifically NCSG and its current partnership framework and (2) to identify and evaluate innovative potential partnerships for the future of NCSG. We performed program evaluation in order to assess NCSG’s current operations, impacts, and reporting. In order to map the current landscape of stakeholders and the capacities at which these partnerships operate, we utilized NCSG’s website and three sets of documents: The National Sea Grant College Program’s list of partners, NCSG’s Program Focus Area Reports from 2010-2013, and the mailing list for NCSG’s magazine, Coastwatch. For details on NCSG’s current thought process on partnerships, we reviewed the minutes of the NCSG Board’s Partnership Advisory Group. Next, we developed and conducted a survey of the NCSG team to assess their most significant existing partnerships and areas where team members wished to see partnerships formed in the future. Through these results we developed new partnership language to help NCSG categorize the capacities of each of the partnerships they maintain and to provide consistency and clarity when discussing these both internally and externally. Next, we performed a gap analysis to identify areas within NCSG’s existing partner network where new, potential partnerships could be formed. By using the new partnership capacity language alongside NCSG’s current focus areas, we assessed past and current partners to find any existing gaps. Through our analysis, several findings were discovered. First, NCSG has engaged with at least 106 unique partners, including both past and present. These existing partners were sorted into partnership category types to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how NCSG’s partnership efforts are distributed. Next, as a result of our gap analysis, we were able to identify three unique partnership category types that are lacking in NCSG’s current partner framework – community groups, non-governmental organizations, and entities in the private sector. Using our newly created partnership capacity language, we were then able to identify gaps in the depth of NCSG’s partnerships. Of these partnership capacity types, NCSG could nurture more financial and outreach partnerships in order to address areas for improvement in their engagement efforts. Conclusions drawn from the methodology and findings can be used to inform next steps that NCSG can take in its collaborative work with partners. The following are the recommendations presented to NCSG with a goal to enhance their past, current and future engagement with partners: 1. Incorporate new language to classify and define types of partnership capacities to use during internal and/or external dialogue and reporting in regards to engagement practices. 2. Utilize gap analysis results to identify areas for improvement where new partners should be identified and sought out. 3. Seven new potential partners for future collaboration and their respective identifying information. 4. Principles for effective partnerships that represent best practices that can be used to guide NCSG and their partners as they engage. In conclusion, this project utilized program evaluation, stakeholder mapping, survey development and administration, and gap analysis to identify areas for improvement for NCSG to gain more depth and breadth in their future partnerships. As an organization that provides unbiased, science-based information, NCSG will continue to have numerous opportunities to create long-lasting, beneficial partnerships that will deepen the impact of their work in North Carolina. We suggest that NCSG utilize our above recommendations in order to move forward in the engagement processes. Once the NCSG team and Advisory Board review the findings in this report, next steps will be to further examine the seven potential partners we recommended. Team members or Advisory Board representatives should initiate contact with these organizations to explore whether opportunities to pursue partnerships exist. The partnership capacity language can be used to aid the Advisory Board in determining these partners and others for future projects and programs. The principles for effective partnerships can guide the initiation stages of any new partnership while also providing a general framework for engagement with these new entities. In addition, the 106 unique partners identified can be used to update NCSG’s internal list of partners. NCSG should maintain this list and keep it updated as they move forward, in order to better reflect on past and current work carried out with their respective partners. Altogether, NCSG possesses great potential to further extend their reach and increase their impact across North Carolina, expanding on their already tremendous accomplishments.