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- ISSN: 2333-2581
- Modern Environmental Science and Engineering
The Challenges in Communicating About Environmental and Economic Attributes of Electric Power Projects
Abstract: As is well known, electricity generation, transmission and electric power distribution are not neutral with regard to their social and environmental impacts. Extensive bibliography has usually been published in these fields of knowledge. Benefits, negative results, licensing, compensation strategies and mitigation have been some of the aspects analyzed in the literature. This article presents in its initial section a quick bibliographic review of the main themes involving this context. However, a fundamental point is the lack of wide disclosure of the counterpoint between benefits and negative results that these projects may bring to society, including the different sector agents and opinion makers. It is not enough for the results to be public and available for consultation, if in many cases the complexity of their results is associated with the technicality of their language that does not allow their dissemination to all agents who could benefit from their results, democratizing the general access of society on these projects. Faced with this challenge, the present paper introduces the experience developed in the scope of the R&D project called “Energy Matrix and Improvement of Environmental Insertion Systematics in the Expansion Planning of the Electric System (SINAPSE Project)”, where since its conception and formation of the research team, activities and products were contemplated to communicate in a broad and unrestricted way the results of the project to the different agents of the society. The theoretical basis of this work includes the concepts of Integrated Marketing Communication, Communication Plan and Advocacy. While Integrated Marketing Communication demonstrates the importance of organizations passing on the same message in the most different means of communication used, the Communication Plan brings together the set of actions and products that will disseminate this information to the different recipients. Finalizing the theoretical basis, the concept of Advocacy contemplates the use of specialists to disseminate technical concepts, facts and actions to society in general. From the understanding of these concepts, the chosen case study (the R&D project itself) highlights the importance of having an Integrated Marketing Communication and its Communication Plan structured within an energy project and how this plan helps in the democratization and dissemination of results for society as a whole and for sector agents who also benefit from access to research results. The concept of Advocacy is also exemplified as experts will be involved in explaining technical concepts to non-specialist audiences. The paper also presents practical examples of products developed in the Communication Plan of the SINAPSE Project, which include: thematic notebooks developed throughout the different stages of the project, videos aired in social media, its homepage that consolidates and helps in the dissemination of concepts and results of partial products of the project, the realization of workshops on knowledge transfer during the life of the project and concluding the technical book for experts developed during the execution of the project. These five products illustrate the products developed for the differentiated service of the different segments of society that are considered target audiences of this R&D.
Key words: communication, R&D projects, marketing, disclosure, sustainability
