A materiality analysis is considered best practice in preparing a sustainability report or strategy. Materiality simply means “what matters most”, from the perspective of your stakeholders. A materiality analysis is a way of identifying and prioritising issues for disclosure in your sustainability report or for action through organisational policies, strategies and programs.

International standards and frameworks such as the AA1000 series and the Global Reporting Initiative both focus on materiality as an essential principle in sustainability.

The GRI-G3 guidelines state: The information in a report should cover topics and Indicators that reflect the organisation’s significant economic, environmental, and social impacts, or that would substantively influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders.

AA1000 Accountability Principles Standard 2008 states: Materiality is determining the relevance and significance of an issue to an organisation and its stakeholders. A material issue is an issue that will influence the decisions, actions and performance of an organisation or its stakeholders.

ACCSR’s stakeholder research framework, the Stakeholder 360®, identifies material issues and connections between issues and is highly suited for assessing materiality for strategy and reporting purposes.

If you need a materiality analysis only for reporting purposes, we may recommend an alternate approach based on both qualitative and quantitative evaluation with key internal and external stakeholders. This approach creates a materiality register and matrix that plots your material issues according to high, medium and low-level materiality and produces materiality maps suitable for publication in sustainability reports.

To discuss a materiality analysis for your organisation, contact Dr Leeora Black.