Explain Like I’m 5 - What is Environmental & Social Impact Assessment?

Imagine you want to build a really cool treehouse in your backyard. But first, you need to think about a few things. Will the treehouse hurt the tree? Will it scare away the birds who live in the tree? Will it make it hard for your friends to play in the backyard? Those are kind of like environmental and social impacts. They're the ways that something we want to do might change the world around us.

Grown-ups have to think about this stuff too, but for much bigger things like roads, buildings, and factories. They need to figure out if it will pollute our air and water or hurt animals and their homes. They also need to think about if it will make people happy or sad. Will it make their lives better, or will it make it hard for them to live where they want to? All of those things are part of something called an environmental and social impact assessment. It's like a big checklist to make sure we're being kind to the earth and to the people around us.