3R will work with you to conduct a materiality assessment focused on identifying topics that are financially, environmentally and socially important to your organization. The team we tailor for your unique project will equip you with the education and understanding of the process from industry analysis, stakeholder engagement through prioritization of impacts. With an emphasize on partnership, the 3R team provides an expert level of support that can equip your team with an understanding of the process from industry analysis and stakeholder engagement through prioritization of impacts.
Materiality is a principle commonly understood in financial reporting as all items that are reasonably likely to impact investors’ decision making. Similar in concept, materiality in sustainability reporting includes topics deemed relevant to stakeholders and the business. The GRI Standards (Global Reporting Initiative) has dubbed this financial and impact materiality as double materiality and sustainability reports should use double materiality to disclose impacts.
Once identified, an organization’s material topics aid in setting a foundation for its sustainability strategy and assists in the prioritization of initiatives. The process to identify and determine material topics requires multi-stakeholder considerations and engagements. Informed by GRI’s guidance, material topics as identified in the process outlined below, should be reassessed with each reporting cycle based on changes in an organization’s structure, services, business relationships etc.
- Discovery Analysis- this step involves an analysis and understanding of the organization’s industry and context.
- Identify Topics- this step involves identifying actual and potential impacts on identified stakeholders.
- Assess Topics- this step involves the organization assessing the significance of its identified impacts.
- Prioritize Topics for Reporting- this step involves determining the material topics for reporting by prioritizing organizational impacts based on their significance. Each impact is assessed, compared to one another, and then provided a significance level, where the organization should rank its impacts from most to least significant and define a threshold to choose which of the impacts it will focus on reporting.