ESG materiality assessment

Growing interest in sustainability environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters has increased pressure on organisations to monitor social and environmental performance, and to report on that publicly.  

But What is materiality assessment? An ESG materiality assessment is the first step in a robust sustainability report. It allows organisations to identify what is relevant to the business and its stakeholders. This includes positive and negative impacts of business activities on the environment and people. It also covers sustainability related risks and opportunities affecting businesses and their value chains.

International working groups have developed guidelines for sustainability report preparation. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the most widely used of these and it is based on impact materiality. This evaluates the negative and positive impact a company has on society. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in Europe has introduced the concept of double materiality. This involves considering both financial and impact materiality analysis for a comprehensive view of an organisation’s sustainability performance. 

TÜV SÜD assesses your organisation’s materiality analysis to ensure the relevance and truthfulness of information disclosed in the sustainability report.

An ESG materiality assessment helps organisations identify, prioritise, and address the ESG issues that are most significant to their business and stakeholders.

To gain useful inputs to improve your ability to anticipate trends, the materiality assessment ensures that: 

• Relevant impacts, risks and opportunities of your organisation are identified properly. 
• The process of materiality is in line with international best practices guidelines and legal requirements. 
• The material topics analysed cover the different aspects of business and stakeholder and sustainability interests. 
• The methodology can be replicated reliably.

TÜV SÜD is an independent third party using a methodology based on the most up to date international guidelines. Our team conducts interviews within your organisation to understand it better, comparing it against materiality trends in the industry. We pre-check the identified material topics, followed by an onsite assessment to evaluate the material priorities. This guarantees the reliability of the process that you have in place to identify a material topic.