Building Consensus among Communities & Stakeholders

On Wednesday, 23rd April 2025, the RAW4RES partnership successfully participated in the virtual workshop titled “Business models and tools for enhancing consensus-building, stakeholder engagement, and social innovation.” The event was organized by the RAW4RES project team of the Municipality of Kozani and brought together 21 participants from partner regions across Greece, Spain, Denmark, Romania, France, and Slovenia, as well as local stakeholders.

The workshop, coordinated by Ms. Eleni Trikoilidou, Project Manager of RAW4RES at the Municipality of Kozani, addressed the challenges of mining and urban mining projects. While such projects offer economic benefits including job creation, investment, and infrastructure development, they often face public concerns about long-term sustainability and potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.

The main objective was to explore business models that enhance public acceptance and build consensus among communities and stakeholders. This collaborative approach allowed participants to identify strengths and weaknesses of current strategies, adopt effective solutions, and foster shared learning.

Mr. Spyros Vasiliadis opened the session by presenting business models aimed at improving public acceptance in the raw materials sector. He also discussed policies and measures that support these models and promoted collaborative capacity building among attendees.

Two real conflict scenarios were introduced by the Municipality of Kozani’s RAW4RES team to ground the discussion:

• The antimony extraction dispute on Chios island, presented by Ms. Athina Papadopoulou
• The ferrous chromate mineral processing industry in Kozani, presented by Ms. Eleni Trikoilidou

Participants divided into two groups, each analyzing one scenario using three key indicators—environmental and social impacts, transparency of communication, and improvement of the EU’s economic indicators, SPI. Through questionnaires, they quantified impact levels and proposed business models or mitigation tools to reduce conflicts.

The workshop concluded with the Municipality of Kozani’s team presenting and discussing the results, highlighting promising approaches to enhance consensus-building and social innovation in raw materials projects. A summary of the workshop conclusions will be shared soon.

This event marked an important step towards responsible mining policies and resilient raw materials management across European regions.