Effective sustainability work requires that we know how we affect our surroundings – and how our surroundings affect us. Already in 2022, three years before the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into effect, we carried out our first double materiality analysis.
Stakeholders
As an active part of the community, we need to not only understand our responsibility to one another, but also be genuinely responsive to questions, opportunities and challenges that our stakeholders face. As a committed partner, we create common ground and shared values with our most important stakeholders – an opportunity to build stronger communities and long-term relationships.
Materiality assessment
Since our first double materiality assessment , we have carried out two more. The purpose of these assessments is to become more effective in our sustainability work, it is imperative to understand both how we affect our surroundings and how they affect – or potentially affect – us in several areas. To ensure that the results are still relevant, we have continuously monitored and communicated internally around the areas which we consider to be essential. We have also expanded our understanding of biodiversity.
The work with our latest materiality assessment began with document analysis, which included risk assessments and policies. We then carefully reviewed topics reported by comparable companies and relevant non-governmental organisations, before conducting interviews with stakeholders, including business partners, employees, customers, investors, NGOs, and authorities. These interviews revealed other relevant topics which we analysed to identify central themes.
We then followed the European Sustainability Reporting Standards’ (ESRS) definition of “significance” to decide what our most important positive and negative areas of influence are. ESRS have specific standards for each of these areas.
As with the rest of our sustainability report, our materiality assessment began with standards established by the following EU requirements: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
