The Canadian oil sands industry is using collaboration to drive innovation and address challenges in oil sands development. An early innovator and leader of successful collaboration is the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative (OSLI). OSLI is a collaborative network of oil sands companies including ConocoPhillips Canada, Shell Canada, Statoil, Suncor Energy Inc., Nexen Inc., and Total E&P Canada, all operating in Canada’s oil sands located in northern Alberta. OSLI’s objective is to achieve step-change performance improvements in environmental, social, and economic sustainability. To support its efforts, OSLI created four working groups focussing on water management, land stewardship, technology breakthrough, and sustainable communities. This paper reports on the activities of the Sustainable Communities Working Group and its sustainable communities initiative.
The objective of the sustainable communities initiative is to foster strong, collaborative partnerships among industry, communities and other stakeholders in the oil sands region, based on a shared vision of safe, healthy and sustainable communities. To achieve this objective, an innovative approach has been developed that promotes “authentic collaboration.” It features relationships built on trust, joint decision-making, shared responsibility and accountability to each other. This paper discusses this approach and outlines some of the essential lessons learned in its development and implementation.