About the S.A.M. tool

The Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping Tool (S.A.M.) Tool© is an innovative, user-friendly, interactive, digital stakeholder analysis and mapping tool which simplifies the process of creating easily digestible, at-a-glance visualizations of complex stakeholder relationships and localized power dynamics for projects in all sectors, communities, and regions.

This versatile stakeholder management tool has wide appeal to a broad range of decision makers and stakeholders, including developers, policymakers, regulators, financiers, regulators, technical experts, labor and workforce organizations, educational institutions and NGOs, with interdisciplinary applications from energy and policy, to finance and urban planning.

Comprehensive stakeholder identification, analysis, and mapping have become an especially important aspect of effective and inclusive community engagement and stakeholder management for the clean energy transition.

Lack of community buy-in or outright opposition can result in extremely permitting delays or denials that rack up costly overages which can result in project cancelations, derailing the project’s progress towards the critical milestone of reaching F.I.D. (final investment decision).

Getting to F.I.D. is a major milestone in any project’s lifecycle as it signals a greenlight on long-term feasibility, viability, and expected returns from the project’s investors and key decisionmakers.

A nationwide survey of utility-scale solar and wind projects found that one of the main reasons for these delays and denials is the lack of community support and buy-in during the siting and permitting process.

An effective strategy to mitigate this risk is for developers to proactively identify, analyze and engage key stakeholders to inform siting decisions and derisk permitting processes that require community buy-in.

However, to date, the options for effective stakeholder management have been limited.

This was a recurring thread in consultations and conversations with project developers, policymakers, financiers, technical experts, academics, and labor and community leaders engaged in clean energy and infrastructure projects around the country, and the world.

Why was the S.A.M. tool built?

S.A.M. was conceived and developed in the Fall of 2023 to address the gaps and limitations of existing manual and virtual stakeholder management. The tool was designed with the needs of many different types of users in clean energy and infrastructure project landscapes: project developers, frontline and fenceline communities, organized labor and workforce interest groups, interest groups, environmental justice and community-based organizations, policymakers, regulators, investors, and financiers.

What does the S.A.M. tool do?

S.A.M.’s user-friendly, web-based interface enables key decision makers and interested stakeholders involved in any type of clean energy or infrastructure project’s ecosystem to:

1. enter all the unique stakeholders identified by the user(s) via desk research and interviews;
2. analyze the local power dynamics and assign "high,” “lower” or “medium” power to each identified stakeholders (or “groups” or “players”) in each project’s landscape depending on the historical context, and/or current ability of each stakeholder to influence outcomes (e.g., permits or siting approvals);
3. analyze the interrelationships of two stakeholders at a time, and assign 1 of 11 types of relationships (e.g., one-way, two-way, conflict, alliance) to pairings of stakeholders based on the historical (or current) context of their relationship;
4. generate a stakeholder map — a clear and easily digestible visualization that combines the local power dynamics and interrelationships of all the unique stakeholders (or “groups” or “players”) in each project’s landscape to produce a clear, at-a-glance summary of all the relationships and power dynamics;
5. and finally, this visualization of the local, place-based stakeholder ecosystem can be updated any time to reflect the evolution of project landscapes over time.

The tool is free to use, but we do request that you reference the citation below when including S.A.M.’s outputs or interface in any publications, presentations, proposals etc.

Recommended Citation:

RMI's S.A.M. (Stakeholder’s Analysis and Mapping) Tool, 2024 RMI, available at https://sam-tool.rmi.org.

Some notes about S.A.M. Tool inputs:

1. Users of the (beta version) of the S.A.M. Tool must save and download a pdf of the end result (i.e., the end visualization of stakeholders’ analysis and mapping) as the current version does not offer users the ability to save individual stakeholder analysis or maps. [Note: S.A.M. 2.0 would have user-accounts to enable saving and editing mapping-in-progress.]
2. The tool offers 33 pre-set options for types of stakeholders under the drop-down menu for the mandatory field of “Choose Stakeholder.”
   
   We recognize that there are many types of stakeholders, so if you don’t see a category you would like to use in the drop-down list of the 30+ types we’ve listed, please select “Other” to make your own category, and assign it “high,” “medium,” or “lower,” power.
3. The definitions for the (fixed) "type” (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary) linked to each category of stakeholders (e.g., community-based organization, labor unions, regulators) are summarized at the bottom of the tool’s interface, and also detailed in the “S.A.M. Tool User Instructions,” and “FAQs about the S.A.M. Tool.”
   
   The designation of a particular stakeholder as primary, secondary, tertiary, or quaternary was a subjective determination by the author of the tool based on the most common and recurring scenarios in clean energy and infrastructure project landscapes. Definitions explaining each type, and the most common types of stakeholders under each type, are available at the bottom of the interface, as well as in the User Instructions and FAQs pages.
   
   Note: Future updates to the S.A.M. tool may enable users to assign each stakeholder a primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary designation.
4. RMI will continue to update new features and capabilities for S.A.M. as they are developed. Please contact the RMI team (hadia.sheerazi@rmi.org) to alert us to any bugs or suggest improvements to the S.A.M. Tool.

FAQs

Check out the FAQ page for more background, assumptions, and definitions for the S.A.M. tool.

Read the User Instructions for the S.A.M. Tool

For step-by-step guidance on how to use S.A.M. for stakeholder analysis and mapping, visit the instructions page.

View the S.A.M. Tutorial Demo

Watch a brief demo video to learn more about how to use S.A.M.:

About RMI

RMI is an independent nonprofit, founded in 1982 as Rocky Mountain Institute, that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. We work in the world’s most critical geographies and engage businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut climate pollution at least 50 percent by 2030. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Oakland, California; Washington, D.C.; Abuja, Nigeria; and Beijing.

About Climate-Aligned Industries (CAI) Program

Within RMI, the Climate-Aligned Industries program works to promote decarbonization solutions for the hardest-to-abate sectors — including chemicals, shipping, steel, cement, and aviation — working with industry incumbents as well as industry disruptors to bring low-carbon fuels and materials to cost parity. The Industries program works closely with other RMI programs, such as RMl's Center for Climate Aligned Finance to mobilize private finance to transition these sectors, and MI's Climate Intelligence Program to build open-source data sets on emissions and improve accountability via data transparency within and across supply-chains.

About RMI's Climate-Aligned Industries' Community Engagement team

The Community Engagement team leads on equity- and community-engagement-focused projects across the Climate-Aligned Industries’ heavy-industry sectors: ammonia, aluminum, aviation, chemicals and refineries, cement and concrete, CDR (carbon dioxide removal), clean hydrogen, steel, shipping, and waste-methane. Our experts have advised multiple project developers around the United States on developing robust, two-way, inclusive, community engagement strategies and responsive Community Benefit Plans to secure multi-million dollar federal and state grant awards, including the $7 billion US Dept. of Energy’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, and the $6.2 billion Advanced Industrial Demonstrations program under the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED).

Donor Acknowledgement

Thank you to the Bezos Earth Fund (Earth Fund), Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) and Breakthrough Energy (BE) for supporting RMI’s mission. Their partnership was instrumental in the development and publication of the S.A.M. (Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping) Tool as part of our 2024 report, “Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs.”