Identifying and prioritising material topics is the foundation for an effective sustainability strategy and reporting program. We draw on peer reviews, gap analysis and stakeholder engagement techniques to highlight the key impacts on your business and their effects on stakeholders.
What is it?
Material topics are those topics that represent an organisation’s most significant and material economic, environmental and social issues. Evaluating these topics is an important first step for your organisation’s sustainability program.
Futureproof recommends a double materiality approach that considers not only the impact of these topics on an organisation’s financial performance, but the impact of an organisation’s activities on the environment, climate and society. It recognises that a more comprehensive overview of a company’s potential financial risks is achieved through an understanding of the impacts from both sides.
We take into account an organisation’s context, the identification of actual and potential impacts, and the significance and prioritisation of the most important impacts for your reporting.
What are the benefits?
A materiality assessment ensures a strategic and considered approach to the reporting process, informed by the stakeholders that matter the most to your business. It enables a more targeted, efficient disclosure process, helping to narrow the focus for data collection.
A materiality assessment is a key requirement of most international reporting frameworks. Given changing business and stakeholder priorities, and the introduction of the new Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS), we recommend a regular materiality assessment or review to ensure that material topics are fit for purpose.
