Materiality analysis: the key to a sustainable strategy

What are the benefits?

A materiality analysis gives you a clear overview of the most important sustainability themes. These form the basis for:

• Strategic integration: Embedding sustainability in the business strategy is a structural part of the organization
• Setting priorities: Gaining insight into relevant market developments provides the basis for determining the most important sustainability themes
• Stakeholder communication: Transparent communication about impact, progress and ambitions strengthens the trust of stakeholders
• Risk and opportunity management: Taking advantage of opportunities and managing risks contributes to future-proof value creation.

Our approach

Each materiality analysis is unique and tailored to your organisation, so that you have a concrete and practical starting point for your sustainability policy. Although the analysis is often the basis for sustainability policy and sustainability reporting, this analysis can be set up more broadly, giving you a complete environmental scan.

A 'one-sided materiality analysis' is often carried out with a focus on the impact on the organisation (outside-in). Do you want a broader perspective? Then double materiality offers an in-depth approach. This method not only looks at the influence of sustainability on your organization, but also at your impact on people and the environment. It combines two dimensions:

• Outside-in: What sustainability-related risks and opportunities affect your organization? Think of CO₂ taxes, reputational risks or climate-related damage.
• Inside-out: What impact does your organization have on the world? For example, biodiversity, human rights or contributing to food security.

By combining both perspectives, you get a complete picture of your position and responsibility. The impact analysis is not only important to reduce the pressure on the environment, but also provides insights into future financial dependencies, disruptions and impacts that do not currently have a financial impact.