One of the key distinctions between sustainability and more traditional approaches to environmental issues is the explicit recognition of the importance of the views and concerns of a broad range of stakeholders outside the organization. GeoTrans provides a number of services to help our customers initiate and maintain effective and productive dialogs with important stakeholders and their representatives, such as facilitation, market research (e.g., use of focus groups), targeted outreach, and technical assistance. Our customers enrich their understanding of and remove impediments to their pursuit of sustainability by accruing the following:

• Improved understanding of stakeholder identities, concerns, priorities, and capabilities
• Expanded and more sophisticated view of points of intersection between the organization and the external environment and society
• Ability to anticipate and proactively respond to possible areas of conflict with stakeholder(s)
• Possibilities for forming new alliances and other relationships to pursue mutual business, environmental, or societal interests