Building Trust and Value Through Dialogue and Collaboration
Community engagement at Enbridge
Originally published in Enbridge's 2022 Sustainability Report
Building trust and value through dialogue and collaboration
Enbridge is committed to clear, honest, respectful and timely engagement with Indigenous nations and regional stakeholders— including landowners, governments and communities—near our projects and operations.
We use a four-step community engagement process to help us identify, understand and engage with community members about opportunities or concerns.
By adhering consistently to this process as well as maintaining a company-wide public awareness program that meets or exceeds regulatory requirements, we aim to build trust and maintain positive, productive relationships with landowners and communities wherever we work.
In addition to engaging with communities on new projects and activities, we meet with landowner groups to keep communication channels active and open, and to support mutual awareness of any emerging concerns.
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Management approach:
Community engagement Public Awareness Program
2022 highlights
Hundreds visit Great Lakes learning and engagement hub
In late 2021, Enbridge opened the doors to a new Informational Center in St. Ignace, Michigan, where residents and visitors can learn about the past, present and future of Line 5 and its passage under the Great Lakes. Line 5 has delivered a reliable supply of energy for decades, and Enbridge plans to build a new tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac with state-of-the-art safety and water protection features to relocate the pipeline.
The opening of the Informational Center was intended to provide local residents and other stakeholders with a place to seek information about the project and to speak directly with on-site Enbridge representatives. Visitorship in 2022 attests to strong local interest in the project and to the power of in-person engagement. More than 400 visitors have taken advantage of our regular office hours, during which members of the public can drop in, ask questions and take in interactive displays. An additional 200 people have attended special events at the Center.
The facility uses a range of educational resources to help visitors understand the tunnel’s technology, engineering, safety features and overall function. These include life-sized diagrams and murals; geological information about the area; core samples from the project’s geotechnical program; and information about how officials manage interactions between nearby infrastructure and ship traffic in the Straits.
The Information Center will continue to complement our numerous other methods of community engagement around the Great Lakes Tunnel Project, including in-person and virtual meetings and open houses, presentations and tours of Enbridge facilities.
Saint-Nazaire: Stakeholder consultation at the heart of the project
EDF Renewables and EIH S.à.r.l, a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc. and CPP Investments, have achieved a significant milestone as France’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, the 480-megawatt Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Project. Located between 12 and 20 km from the southwest coast of France, the wind farm will help support the French state’s energy transition goals, which include targets to generate 32% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. After nearly three years of construction, the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Project first produced electricity at the beginning of June 2022 and proceeded to incrementally connect its 80 wind turbines to the national electricity transmission network. Throughout the development and construction phases, the project team worked closely with local stakeholders. Environmental protection associations, such as France Nature Environnement, Bretagne Vivante, the League for the Protection of Birds, and associated experts from the National Museum of Natural History, National Institute of Research for the Exploitation of the Sea and independent design specialists provided the knowledge needed to design the wind farm while respecting its environmental considerations and biodiversity. Fauna and flora were rigorously monitored during the various phases of the work and environmental monitoring will continue.
A fuel-switching opportunity in Tennessee
Like many areas across the U.S., Tennessee is exploring opportunities to replace coal-fired power generation with cleanerburning, lower-carbon natural gas. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an electric utility, is studying the possibility of replacing the energy some Tennesseans currently receive from the Kingston Fossil Plant with natural gas.
Natural gas could be provided to customers in the region through an expansion of Enbridge’s existing East Tennessee Natural Gas (ETNG) system. Enbridge is proposing to design, construct and operate the Ridgeline Expansion Project, which would include the construction of about 117 miles of 30-inch pipeline looping, an approximately 8-mile 24-inch lateral and one new electric motor drive compressor station.
Wherever possible, the route for the expansion would be located adjacent to the existing ETNG right-of-way, to minimize impacts on landowners and the environment. In a further effort to minimize the project’s environmental effects, Enbridge’s proposed plans call for about half the power for the compressor station to come from solar self-power equipment.
Engaging the community
Enbridge is committed to providing ample opportunity for local residents and the wider public to review proposed plans for the project and offer input. Enbridge and TVA—should both agree that they wish to move forward with investment in the project—are also committed to engaging with landowners to identify the optimal route for the expansion. We have already been working with and listening to local stakeholders for nearly a year before planning to embark on the multi-year regulatory review process, to achieve alignment with the community before engaging regulators.
Extensive in-person engagement is ongoing, including small meetings, presentations to local and state public officials, and open houses for the public, to allow for dialogue issues resolution even before the regulatory authorization process commences. A range of complementary resources—including a suite of fact sheets and a virtual open house—are available online to help the public understand the nature of this project, including how the infrastructure operates and the benefits fuel-switching would stand to deliver to the region.
