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Planning and organising an environmental dialogue

8 How to evaluate the environmental dialogue

When evaluating the environmental dialogue you should follow the sequence below for each stakeholder:

	Check that the means have been used as planned
	Check that the dialogue objectives have been achieved
	Judge whether the dialogue has contributed to environmental and business results.

You must have dialogue objectives in order to be able to evaluate the dialogue. When you have evaluated it, you must decide on two things: Should the objectives be adjusted to bring them more in line with the actual conditions? Is it necessary to adjust the means the company is using or to use other means?

If the evaluation is to be used by others than you yourself, you should present it as concisely as possible – for example, in a schedule as shown in the example below. Here, it is the environmental dialogue with customers that is being evaluated. You must use the schedule to compare the dialogue objectives with the results and for your evaluation of the relationship. Hint 8.1 explains how to check whether the means have been used as planned; hint 8.2 focuses on whether the objectives have been achieved, and hint 8.3 is about evaluating whether the environmental dialogue has helped to produce the desired results.

8.1 Check that the means are used as planned

Begin your evaluation by checking how the means have been used. If you do not have a clear picture of the activities that have actually taken place, you cannot judge whether the dialogue has been satisfactory or not, nor can you check whether the results – or the lack of same – are due to the company's efforts or other factors.

You can check the use of means by answering the following questions:

	Have all the means been used as planned?
	Have they been used the planned number of times?
	Have they been used at the planned times?
	Have they been addressed to the stakeholders that they are intended for?
	Have they been used in the communication with others?
	Has the plan been changed during the process?
	What was the reason for any departures from the plan?

Besides the people who are responsible for the different means you can use other sources to determine whether the means have been used as planned:

	booked costs for communication means, e.g. for printed matter, participation in fairs and holding large meetings
	letters sent concerning environmental matters
	press cuttings and recordings of TV and radio programmes
	calendars and reports showing the number of meetings and calls by sales representatives while environmental matters have been on the agenda.

8.2 Check that the dialogue objectives have been achieved

When you know which means have been used you can go on to checking their effect on the stakeholders – in other words, checking that the dialogue objectives have been achieved. The only way of checking that the messages have been received and accepted in accordance with the dialogue objectives is by asking the stakeholders, either in connection with the daily cooperation with them or by means of interviews, round-table discussions or similar.

You can check that the dialogue objectives have been achieved by obtaining answers to the following questions:

	What messages do the stakeholders think they have received from the company?
	To what extent do they correspond to the dialogue objectives?
	How do the stakeholders interpret the company's messages?
	Are there other interpretations than those you expected?
	Have the stakeholders found the company's environmental messages sufficiently interesting?
	Has the design of the means caught the attention and interest of the stakeholders?
	What forms of action has the company's messages inspired the stakeholders to take?
	What are the stakeholders' attitudes to the company's messages?

8.3 Assess the dialogue's contribution to the results

The last part of your evaluation should be an assessment of how the environmental dialogue has contributed to the environmental and business results produced by the cooperation with the stakeholders.

You must decide how the dialogue should be organised in future, i.e. how the stakeholders should be prioritised, whether the objectives need adjusting and what means the company should use.

You cannot assess the environmental dialogue's contribution until you know what has actually emerged from the cooperation. You will find out by answering the following questions:

	What results have been achieved with the stakeholder in question?
	Has the stakeholder taken the action the company wanted it to take?
	Are the results better or poorer than expected?
	If there are deviations, what is the reason for them?
	Have other factors than the dialogue played a role – for example, greater or lesser public interest in the environmental issues dealt with in the dialogue?

If the results are as expected and the dialogue objectives have been achieved you should check whether the dialogue has affected the results as much as you originally expected or whether there have been other factors that have had a positive effect on the results. Such factors could be that the public debate has favoured your views or that customers and suppliers have become more open to your arguments. If these or other factors have helped to create good results, it is important to take account of them when you are planning the future environmental dialogue.

Even though the dialogue objectives have been achieved, you may find that the results are poorer than expected. That may be because you expected too much of the dialogue's possibility of contributing to the results in question. However, there can also be other factors – for example, unexpected initiatives by competitors or other players have made the work more difficult for your company.

If the expected results have not appeared you can choose either to reduce your ambitions or to strengthen your communication activities. If you choose the latter course, you may find it useful to run through the planning steps described in the preceding chapters.

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