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Continuous Social Licence Intelligence

Know where your project's social licence stands — before it decides the outcome.

Earshot is continuous, project-level social licence intelligence for Australian renewables. We track the conversation around your wind, solar, transmission and storage projects and score it against the social licence framework developed by CSIRO researchers — so you can see risk building while there's still time to act on it.

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Delivered in conjunction with Positive Good — a specialist cleantech communications and community engagement consultancy working with renewable developers across Australia.

The problem

You're measuring social licence at the wrong altitude.

Australia tracks social licence for the energy transition at the national level. The CSIRO and the federal government run a national sentiment survey, and it's a genuinely useful read on how the country feels about renewables overall.

But projects don't get approved or delayed nationally. They get approved or delayed in a shire, a valley, a stretch of coastline — by the few thousand people who live closest to them. The national mood tells you almost nothing about whether the community around your transmission corridor is shifting from cautious to organised.

Everyone measures the nation. Nobody tracks your project.

And by the time the research lands, the moment's passed.

The standard tool is commissioned research: a survey or sentiment report, run periodically, delivered as a snapshot. It's valuable, but it's always describing a moment that's already gone. Opposition compounds in the gaps between reports. A local Facebook group, a council deputation, a landholder dispute — these build over weeks, not quarters, and the first time many developers see them clearly is when they've already hardened.

Lost social licence is expensive to win back. It shows up as delays, higher costs, drawn-out approvals and declining trust — and it's far easier to manage early than to repair late.

What Earshot does

Earshot watches the social licence conversation around your specific project, continuously, and turns it into a position you can actually track.

We bring together the sources that shape community sentiment at the project level — local and regional media, community and advocacy channels, planning and consultation records, and the public record of how comparable projects have been received — and we score what we find against an established, peer-reviewed framework.

The result isn't a clipping service or a mood summary. It's a clear read on where your project sits, which way it's moving, and what's driving the shift.

The product

A live read on where your project actually stands.

Not a report you receive next quarter. A working view your team can return to — scored, contextualised, and updated as the conversation moves.

How it works

Four steps. One running record.

  1. 01

    We define your project's footprint.

    Not "renewables in Australia" — your project, its host community, the relevant decision-makers, and the projects nearby that share its fate.

  2. 02

    We monitor continuously.

    Earshot ingests the sources that drive local social licence and builds a project-specific record over time, rather than starting from scratch with each new report.

  3. 03

    We score against the social licence framework.

    We apply the social licence graph developed by CSIRO researchers, which plots community interest against social acceptability and lets that position be measured quantitatively as it changes. Your project gets a position on that map — and, more importantly, a trajectory.

  4. 04

    You see it early.

    You get an ongoing read on where your social licence stands and what's moving it, surfaced while there's room to respond — not a post-mortem after the opposition is organised.

What you get

A clear read — and a moving picture.

  • A live social licence position

    Scored against the CSIRO framework rather than gut feel.

  • Trajectory, not just a snapshot

    How your position is moving over time, so a slow slide is visible before it becomes a crisis.

  • The drivers behind the movement

    What's actually shaping sentiment in your community, from cumulative-impact concerns to the quality of engagement.

  • Early signals on emerging opposition

    While there's still time to respond.

  • Project-level context from comparable developments

    What's helped and what's hurt similar projects elsewhere in Australia.

  • Regular, plain-language briefings

    Your team and stakeholders can actually use them.

Why Earshot is different

Measured intelligence, not a mood summary.

It's continuous, not a snapshot.

Commissioned research tells you where you stood last quarter. Earshot tells you where you stand now, and where you're heading.

It's about your project, not the country.

National sentiment tracking measures the mood of Australia. Earshot measures the social licence of the project you're actually trying to deliver.

It's scored, not just summarised.

Media monitoring tells you what was published. Earshot tells you what it means for your social licence — measured against a recognised framework, so the read is consistent over time and across projects.

The intelligence compounds.

Because Earshot builds a continuous record rather than re-surveying from zero, every month adds to the picture. The longer it runs, the earlier it sees things coming.

Who it's for

Built for the developers carrying Australia's energy transition.

If your project's timeline depends on the community around it, Earshot is built for you.

  • Wind

    Onshore & offshore

  • Solar

    Utility-scale generation

  • Transmission

    Lines and corridors

  • Storage

    Grid-scale BESS

The framework behind it

Applied research, not gut feel.

Earshot scores against the social licence graph — a peer-reviewed framework published by CSIRO researchers (Condie, 2025) that uses attitudinal data to map community interest and social acceptability, and to assess how that position changes over time.

It matters because social licence has long been easy to talk about and hard to measure. The framework gives the concept a rigorous, quantitative footing — and Earshot applies it continuously, at the level of your individual project.

Earshot applies published, peer-reviewed CSIRO research. It is an independent product, not affiliated with or endorsed by CSIRO.

Delivered with Positive Good

Intelligence delivered alongside the team that can act on it.

Earshot is built and delivered in conjunction with Positive Good, who work directly with renewable developers on communications and community engagement across Australia. The product has been shaped alongside their sector experience, so it reflects how social licence actually plays out on real projects — not a generic monitoring tool pointed at renewables.

That partnership also means the intelligence Earshot produces doesn't sit in isolation. It's delivered alongside the people who can act on it — a team that already understands your project, your community and what good engagement looks like. Earshot tells you where your social licence stands and which way it's moving; Positive Good helps you do something about it.

Get in touch

See where your project's social licence really stands.

If you've got a project where community sentiment could move your timeline — and most do — the Positive Good team will walk you through what Earshot would track and what you'd see.

Your details are sent to Positive Good, who deliver Earshot. Someone will be in touch shortly. No obligation.