In principle, many citizens support the development of cleaner, renewable energy and or rational use of energy technologies.

ractice, however, many projects face social acceptance problems. The ESTEEM tool facilitates the societal acceptance and consequently the implementation of sustainable technologies. It supports project management practices and assists projects managers in taking better care of socio-political contexts, users and consumers expectations, and citizen positions. The ESTEEM tool has been developed to be used by a consultant who functions as an intermediary between the project manager and all other stakeholders’ concerned by the project.

The ESTEEM tool consists of six steps and each steps consists of several instruments. The first step consists of a check to ascertain if ESTEEM is the right tool for a specific project. In the second step data is collected by the consultant to learn about the history and current situation of the project. This knowledge serves as a basis for the analysis in the next steps. In the third step the different visions and expectations of the project manager and the other relevant stakeholders are collected. In the fourth step these different visions and expectations are compared and possible social acceptance problems are identified. In the fifth step one or more interactive sessions with all stakeholders are undertaken to assess possible solutions and acceptable forms in which the project can continue with social acceptance. In the last step action plans are formulated.