Materiality Assessment

The first step for sustainability strategy and reporting

The recent interest in sustainability and ESG matters has increased the pressure on organisations to monitor their social and environmental performance and to report on that publicly. To do so, organisations need to find which are the most relevant -material- topics through a specific assessment.
The materiality assessment is the key element for the sustainability strategy definition and sustainability reporting. It helps to identify and analyze risks, limit impacts and take full advantage of opportunities of your company.

International working groups have developed guidelines for the preparation of sustainability reports, which provide standardisation of processes and content. The most widely used guideline is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) based on the perspective of impact materiality which evaluates the negative and positive impact generated by a company on society and the surrounding environment in the short, medium or long term.
New European legislation (as Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive CSRD) has introduced an updated concept: double materiality, namely the union of impact – inside out and financial – outside in-materiality assessment. Financially material sustainability topics are factors that are reasonably likely to impact - both positive and negative - the financial condition or operating performance of a company.

Materiality assessment is still the first step to conducting a robust sustainability report. In TÜV SÜD we assess your organisation’s materiality analysis to ensure the relevance and truthfulness of information disclosed in the sustainability report.

WHY IS IT BENEFICIAL TO ASSESS YOUR MATERIALITY PROCESS?

An organisation implementing a materiality analysis can rely on the best practice guidelines in use as a benchmark for sound and reliable materiality.
To ensure the credibility of the process and gain useful inputs to improve your ability to anticipate trends, the materiality assessment provides multiple benefits:

• Are the relevant impacts, risks and opportunities of your organisation identified properly?
• Is the process of materiality in line with international best practices guidelines and legal requirements?
• Are the material topics analysed covering the different aspects of Business, Stakeholder interests and Sustainability?
• Is the methodology possible to be replicated and ensure reliability?

TÜV SÜD SUPPORTS ORGANISATIONS WITH THE JOURNEY OF SUSTAINABILITY

TÜV SÜD supports companies as an independent third party using a methodology based on the most updated international guidelines. Our auditors have the most appropriate skills for the evaluation of your materiality analysis process. We pre-check the identified material topics, followed by an onsite assessment to evaluate the material priorities.

OUR MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT

TÜV SÜD team conducts interviews with the organisation to understand the structure of the company, and the organisation as well as compare the trends in the industry regarding material topics.

The focus on Materiality Assessment is conducted to guarantee the reliability of the process in place to identify a material topic.

For more information about Materiality Assessment, or to find out how to access this service:

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