Environmental and Social Assessments and Management Plans for Renewable Energy Developments, Worldwide

Some of the world’s largest renewable energy developers and investors have turned to Acorn International to help obtain approvals from regulatory agencies, lenders and communities/land-holders for developments facing community and environmental challenges worldwide. Investors have relied on Acorn International for environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) assessments as well as action plans to fill gaps against lender standards for solar, wind, geothermal and biofuel developments in various countries. Developers have engaged our experts to perform the initial ESDD, community engagement and perception surveys, resettlement action plans, and overall management plans needed to gain regulatory approval and satisfy lender requirements for developments ranging from solar power developments in Nigeria, Malawi and the US, and for wind power projects in Mexico and the Philippines.

Success for the project in Nigeria, for example, required upgrading the national environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) process to ensure it met international lender standards as a pre-requisite to release of project financing. As part of our work, we:

Based on lender approval of the plans, we then helped the developer recruit, evaluate/select and train local project team members to lead the preparation of community engagement and environmental management plans that would be needed for successful project development and execution.