The Social License to Operate as a Tool
to Promote Sustainability and Social
Responsibility in Mining Industry: Case
Study of Parauapebas and Canaã dos
Carajás (Pará, Brazil)
Thiago Leite Cruz
1 Introduction
Environmental impacts and fulfilment of legal requirements are no longer the solely
concerns of great industrial companies (Black 2013). Currently, businesses must
cope with matters of social responsibility, properly managing economic and social
impacts, improving infrastructure and corresponding to people’s expectations in their
operations are located (Franks et al. 2014). This is due to the crescent empowerment
of civil society, as different social actors gather together to press companies and
governments to have social demands addressed (Conde 2017).
The concept of Social License to Operate (SLO) becomes ubiquitous in this
context, especially in mining industry due to its multidimensional impacts. It is informally granted by local communities and other influential stakeholders, reflecting their
social perceptions of an industrial project, its impacts and the relationship with the
companies. It is unrelated to existing formal licenses, it is tacit and changes overtime, but some studies attempted to quantitatively measure it to support businesses’
activities (Boutilier and Thomson 2018; Zhang et al. 2015).
Companies need to balance benefits and costs in local communities. The population may praise industries for generating income, jobs and local development; and
yet, hold grievances due to environmental hazards, uneven distribution of benefits and
non-participation in decision-making processes (Lujala et al. 2016). Hoelscher and
Rustad (2019) highlight the SLO can be used both for social resignation and social
empowerment. Boutilier and Thomson (2018) indicate that an absent or weak SLO
T. L. Cruz (B)
Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Federal Do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa, 01—Guamá, Belém,
Pará, Brazil
e-mail: thiago.james@live.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_27
407
to Promote Sustainability and Social
Responsibility in Mining Industry: Case
Study of Parauapebas and Canaã dos
Carajás (Pará, Brazil)
Thiago Leite Cruz
1 Introduction
Environmental impacts and fulfilment of legal requirements are no longer the solely
concerns of great industrial companies (Black 2013). Currently, businesses must
cope with matters of social responsibility, properly managing economic and social
impacts, improving infrastructure and corresponding to people’s expectations in their
operations are located (Franks et al. 2014). This is due to the crescent empowerment
of civil society, as different social actors gather together to press companies and
governments to have social demands addressed (Conde 2017).
The concept of Social License to Operate (SLO) becomes ubiquitous in this
context, especially in mining industry due to its multidimensional impacts. It is informally granted by local communities and other influential stakeholders, reflecting their
social perceptions of an industrial project, its impacts and the relationship with the
companies. It is unrelated to existing formal licenses, it is tacit and changes overtime, but some studies attempted to quantitatively measure it to support businesses’
activities (Boutilier and Thomson 2018; Zhang et al. 2015).
Companies need to balance benefits and costs in local communities. The population may praise industries for generating income, jobs and local development; and
yet, hold grievances due to environmental hazards, uneven distribution of benefits and
non-participation in decision-making processes (Lujala et al. 2016). Hoelscher and
Rustad (2019) highlight the SLO can be used both for social resignation and social
empowerment. Boutilier and Thomson (2018) indicate that an absent or weak SLO
T. L. Cruz (B)
Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Federal Do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa, 01—Guamá, Belém,
Pará, Brazil
e-mail: thiago.james@live.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_27
407