U.S. Community Benefits Frameworks

WRI is supporting developers, communities and other stakeholders in creating robust project agreements to help ensure the transition to a clean energy economy delivers local benefits and builds enduring public support.

Recent federal programs, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, have created a historic opportunity to bring clean energy investment to long-disadvantaged neighborhoods in the United States. But while these projects can yield substantial benefits for local people, this will require careful planning; many communities have experienced social and environmental harms linked to large-scale development in the past. 

Project agreements are one tool increasingly being used to help ensure new development avoids harm and brings tangible benefits to nearby communities. Such agreements can help deliver new jobs,  and more stringent environmental standards — especially if they are legally enforceable and communities are included in equitable negotiating processes.

WRI aims to support the development of more robust project agreements by filling knowledge and resource gaps raised by local communities, environmental groups, labor groups and other stakeholders.

Legally binding project agreements come in many forms, including community benefits agreements (CBAs), community workforce agreements (CWAs), host community agreements (HCAs) and other variations. Developers are now required to submit community benefits plans (CBPs) outlining how they will engage communities in any proposed projects receiving federal funding from the Department of Energy and some other federal agencies.

While project agreements are not a silver bullet to address inequities in project development, properly negotiated agreements with strong monitoring and enforcement mechanisms can increase community participation, lower transaction costs and deliver benefits that the community desires. World Resources Institute, in collaboration with Data for Progress (DFP), is working to address capacity gaps, implementation barriers and other concerns of communities and developers impacted by and interested in project agreements.

WRI and DFP’s work in this area includes:

• A searchable database of characteristics, benefits and other key details of project agreements across sectors and regions.
• Case studies of key project agreements outlining the negotiation processes, unique agreement characteristics  and other project learnings.    
• Interviews, surveys and focus groups to understand public, stakeholder, developer and expert opinion on projects and project agreements.
• Research on specific frameworks to deliver benefits to communities.
• Toolkits for community stakeholders, developers and other specific audiences to answer questions and provide guidance on different processes and best practices for project agreements.
• Public convenings to bring together key voices and collectively highlight challenges and opportunities.

Project Partners:

Data for Progress Community Benefits Resource Guide