Sasol North America – Southwest Louisiana Regional Impact Study

The Southwest Louisiana Region (SWLA) was poised to undergo a prolonged period of economic growth with $65 billion in announced capital projects expected to bring over 18,000 permanent jobs to the area. This economic growth had the potential to enhance overall prosperity and quality of life throughout the region. However, unprecedented impacts to the various systems within the community were expected.

As a result, Sasol North America retained CSRS to conduct a Regional Impact Study, which consisted of three major components: baseline assessment of current systems, socioeconomic modeling analysis of changes that will happen, and determination of impacts on each major community system along with recommendations on how to best to address those impacts.

Interviews were conducted across broad cross-sections of the community and feedback collected from elected officials, governmental employees, civic leaders, religious leaders, and many others. Specific outreach to the minority community was conducted to ensure stakeholder input was as inclusive as possible.

CSRS managed a team of 10 multi-disciplinary firms who are leaders in the fields of infrastructure analysis, planning, economic modeling, demographics, transportation, and community outreach. CSRS provided oversight during the analysis of vital community systems, including workforce development, education, public safety and welfare, housing, small business development, transportation, utilities, health and medical, environmental, and planning for growth. The culmination of these analyses resulted in a compilation of recommendations for future planning and resilience of the community systems and to improve quality of life for those who live and work within the Southwest Louisiana Region.

After the completion of the initial study, CSRS was engaged to serve as strategic advisors to the community to assist in the implementation of our recommendations.

The study was produced and presented to local community leaders. As a result of the broad stakeholder input, the community adopted many of the recommendations and tasked a broad task force – the GO Group, to implement the changes necessary to allow the community to prosper. CSRS was then engaged by the GO Group to provide ongoing strategic leadership and support.

Many of the recommendations were of a broad nature and were not unanimously received. Different parts of the region were divided on specific issues. Rather than try to accommodate each group, our team focused on the best solution to the challenges we identified, remaining agnostic to local political issues.