GLYNN DAVIS (Manager, Community Engagement and Social Responsibility, Trident): “So that’s what we took a look at, getting gas but at the same time understanding people’s issues. The corporate culture evolved right from the beginning to support that, so it was possible for Cross-Sector Partnerships for Sustainable Development a lot of the employees to accept that this was the way we do things.” Trident Exploration and Fort Not Your Average Christmas Basket

rident Exploration Corporation, Asset Based founded in 2000, has its head- Community Tquarters in , . Development Students from Morrin school The company’s main focus is natural put baskets together for Trident’s (ABCD) Christmas Basket Program. gas exploration and development, PHOTO: COURTESY OF TRIDENT EXPLORATION CORPORATION largely from coalbed methane. Trident The ABCD model focuses on identifying and supporting the is mainly interested in the Western skills that exist within a given community to Canadian Sedimentary Basin, which realize a shared vision of development.1 In has a significant concentration of high this way it emphasizes strengths, rather than gas content coal. Many rural communities weaknesses, and focuses on the active partic- within the region are identified as key ipation of community members to create solu- tions that build upon those resources locally stakeholders, and are engaged through available. Trident’s ABCD model is a three- the company’s Community Engagement step process: map assets, create a shared and Social Responsibility division. vision and mobilize local assets in support of the vision. As part of the process, community BACKGROUND members work closely with Trident employees to ensure the projects remain grounded in Trident has deliberately crafted a corporate the local reality and are sustainable beyond culture that supports commitment to sustain- Trident’s projected stay in the community. able community development. Its commitment is driven by the worldview of two of the ABCD in Action: The senior founders of Trident who worked Christmas Basket Program overseas in the oil and gas industry. While there, these two individuals developed an Trident’s Christmas Basket Program provides appreciation of the potential negative impacts an example of this community development that resource development can have on philosophy in action. During the holiday sea- host communities, as well as ways these son companies regularly send their business impacts could be managed or mitigated. partners and contacts baskets that typically Upon returning to , they applied include premium wines, chocolates and even this insight when creating Trident’s particular ski passes or tickets to upcoming concerts. approach to community development. Led by Dr. Glynn Davis, Trident’s Community

1 ABCD is the approach developed and championed by John McKnight and John Kretzmann of Northwestern University. More information on their work and on ABCD is available through the ABCD Institute at Northwestern (www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html). LOIS ROBINSON (Artisan): “It’s a great opportunity for me to advertise my wares....

Sustainable Energy Solutions They pay me for my product and I also get to advertise, so you really can’t get a better deal.”

Trident then approached the principal at the Fort Assiniboine high school to propose the program and identify potential champi- ons within the school. With buy-in secured, Trident used the community farmer’s markets, an asset identified during the community mapping activity, to recruit local artisans to provide items for the gift baskets. Trident also identified the existing entrepreneurship program at Fort Assiniboine public school, and in subsequent years at Morrin School, as a platform upon which to provide Trident’s Christmas Engagement and Social Responsibility a hands-on experience for local youth Basket Program Manager, the company decided that in project development. is an example of the Asset Based a creative approach to its Christmas Following the contact with Fort Assini- Community baskets could help to serve both needs boine, a high school entrepreneurship Development of community development and holiday program curriculum was developed by philosophy corporate giving. in action. University of Calgary education students PHOTO: COURTESY OF interning with Trident. The education pro- TRIDENT EXPLORATION Program Origins and How It Works CORPORATION gram was then delivered in conjunction When Trident began to develop its inter- with local teachers as part of the existing ests in the central Alberta region, Davis’ entrepreneurship class at the high school. team began a community consultation The high school students learned project process to engage stakeholders in the management, planning and budgeting creation of an ABCD project. As a result within the context of the Christmas Basket of these consultations in the Fort Assini- Program. They established costs and boine area, Trident knew that there was pricing, and designed the baskets. Finally, a shared desire within the community students were provided with the materials to create educational and employment needed to assemble a total of 100 baskets, opportunities for youth while supporting putting to use all the entrepreneurship local economic development. Davis skills they had been learning in class. and his team wondered, what if Trident engaged Fort Assiniboine high school BENEFITS students to put together its Christmas baskets, and The program has benefited both internal and external stakeholders. Because GLYNN DAVIS (Manager, Community these baskets Engagement and Social Responsibility, Trident): were made up of the very positive feedback it has “Within oil and gas there is this notion that engi- exclusively of received from the gift basket recipients, neering and earth sciences have got that rigour, locally sourced Trident has been able to promote itself but when you come to the social sciences its artisan goods? as a company that practices effective more of a pray and spray approach.... A lot of The idea for sustainable community development, and companies do take an initiative, and if it’s a one that consistently considers how it can good one and it works they aren’t entirely clear the Christmas Basket project create opportunities for its communities. why it worked.... If it doesn’t work, they can’t Local artisans are able to promote their really pull it apart to understand the dynamics.” was born.

2 CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT KYLA FISHER (Liaison Lead, Community Engagement and Social Responsibility, Trident): “The effort is up front, but once you get to know who’s doing what, and once the program is designed to the Sustainable Energy Solutions extent that now the school is taking the program on, and the students are identifying the people, there’s less human resource time.... [The Christmas Basket Program is] equivalent to walking to the store and ordering wine like everyone else.”

products to new markets without having A third unique characteristic of Trident is to travel or spend money on marketing that, unlike most other companies, it uses and transportation, and are given a community development approach incentive to continue their artisan trades. grounded in development theory and The schools that have been involved in continuous improvement. ABCD provides the program have been able to provide a process for Trident to evaluate the suc- their students with an experiential oppor- cess of its community engagement, recog- tunity that develops entrepreneurship nize the drivers and enablers of success- and project management skills. As well, ful projects, and replicate these successes by offering these extra cou rse credits, throughout their development programs. the schools have been able to increase their provincial funding. CHALLENGES Trident’s approach to community develop- REASONS FOR SUCCESS ment, and to the Christmas Basket Program A number of unique characteristics have itself, is not without risks and challenges. enabled Trident to successfully develop Complex engagement of any kind means the Christmas Basket Program with its that partners are more vulnerable to each Fort Assiniboine partners. First, senior other, reputation and resources are more leadership provides Trident’s community tightly meshed and responsibility is shared. outreach department with almost four This means that as the program develops, times the level of funding found in and responsibility for the production of companies of similar size. The develop- the baskets is given to the community, ment of a long-term, complex and context- further elaboration of goals and outcomes sensitive program like this requires signifi- is required. Such elaboration is now cant time commitment, which in turn contained in a Memorandum of Under- requires a significant financial investment. standing, which clarifies the roles and The Trident staff that engages with the responsibilities of each partner. local community are a second important Because the ABCD approach places a characteristic that makes this program significant emphasis on the importance successful. Community members are of context and local knowledge, the willing to work with the company programs developed through this process through this more complex relationship cannot be easily reproduced. The idea because they trust the individuals who of creating a model that can simply are consulting and implementing the be replicated across all communities Christmas Basket Program. This trust is is impossible; such models require built through the consistent presence of consistent investments of human and these individuals in the community, and financial resources. This means there the corporate willingness to engage in will always be an apparently dispropor- dialogue and to go above and beyond tionate input of these resources to regulations in other areas, such as those develop and implement this kind of dealing with the noise level of its pumps. approach to community development.

CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 3 DR. DON SCHIELKE (past Principal, Morrin School): “It was the quality of the people Trident sent, such good quality people. Sustainable Energy Solutions They honestly wanted to help and I thought it was just great, really great. Certainly we weren’t getting help from other sources.”

The Multiplier process. In either case, by creating new norms against which other resource Effect companies are measured, Trident hopes Davis thinks that Trident’s to influence the way energy sector com- approach to community panies engage the communities on and stakeholder engage- which they depend to operate. ment has had a signifi- In 2007, the program will be run out cant effect on other of the local youth centre and will be companies in the sector. associated with Junior Achievement, He points to the change a non-profit entrepreneurial education in terminology, such the program. This format will allow greater vocabulary surrounding flexibility than previously, giving students community accountabili- from different schools the opportunity ty and consultation, as to participate while continuing to earn a direct consequence credit hours and experience, as well of Trident’s approach. as monies for their schools. He has also noticed a Trident reps dramatic increase in the commitment to The relationship between Trident and Sue Wills and public education in the coalbed methane the community is strong. Even those who Kyla Fisher were not directly involved in the program celebrate field since Trident began its programs. “wrapping up” Davis believes that Trident was the first have offered to help in subsequent years the first Christmas coalbed methane company to make and to produce products or provide Basket Project. public education a non-negotiable part other means of supporting the program. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TRIDENT EXPLORATION of project development, and that it is Now in its fourth year the program has CORPORATION now a common practice among the evolved to include more local artisans, majority of coalbed methane companies. a well-developed curriculum and a Within the oil and gas sector, Trident thoroughly documented process. This expects that other companies may allows new Trident employees to be adopt a modified version of the ABCD quickly brought up to speed on project approach. While it is unlikely that other procedures. While the initial investment organizations will be able to adopt the of human resources was significant, the entire model, program now requires much less effort on Trident’s part because the community GLYNN DAVIS (Manager, Community elements may be successfully is able to manage it and produce the Engagement and Social Responsibility, Trident): baskets nearly independently. The result “Companies won’t want to jump whole hog into adopted with- out complete is a sustainable source of community- our approach, but what will slowly happen is produced gift baskets that cost Trident they’ll end up designating someone to do this, buy-in to the philosophy the same price as traditional gifts but or it will be the external construct against which are of a much higher value. things are projected.... What has been the behind the biggest affirmation is that it has become fairly widely adopted, it’s become much more the norm.”

4 CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT