Last month, Canada's Ethical Funds published a brief called Winning the Social License to Operate.

The focus is on how companies can reduce the risk of local opposition to their extractives operations by making use of the "latest evolving standards" around what is called free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous communities.

As the report points out, local opposition to resource extraction has been running high in many areas of the world. Canadian mining and energy companies in particular have run into recent controversies, including in Guatemala, India, and Canada itself.

But while the brief is aimed at the Canadian extractive sector, it is also relevant to investors and companies in other countries.

In providing a succinct overview of FPIC, the nine-page document outlines some of the guidelines and standards that are developing around the issue, and suggests specific engagement strategies for stakeholders ranging from indigenous to "permanent non-indigenous" communities to NGOs.

As one of its ten "action items", Ethical Funds calls on companies to "consider lobbying government to put an ecosystem based land-use planning process in place – one that respects lands, rights, and ways of life of Indigenous Peoples" (the brief points to Canada's Boreal Leadership Council as a specific example of this kind of lobbying).

Social investor encouragement of corporate lobbying for the public good is an important development, and it's taking place in areas such as the environment, labor rights and (as in this example), community impact.

It speaks to the growing debate about the role of corporations in development and, more broadly, the question of whether and how companies can have a positive impact on society as opposed simply to doing no harm. And as the brief underscores, the failure of extractive companies to "deliver on the promise of development" is one of the main factors behind persistent local opposition to their operations.