Double Materiality Assessment for Risk Management & Strategy Development

Assessing risk for a company with the lens of sustainability requires a disciplined, systems approach to financial, operational, governance, reputation and community risks, as well as the traditional environmental considerations. With this framework in mind, WSB delivered a Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) to better understand sustainability risks, stakeholder priorities, and business opportunities.

The project spanned 9 months and included upstream, downstream and operational value chain mapping, a literature review, stakeholder surveys and interviews, review of global standards peer benchmarking, coordination with a Steering Committee, and both interim and final recommendations to a leadership team. Based on these inputs, issues were ranked in their level of material risk both on their impact on society, and their impact on the business. WSB developed executive-level recommendations and presentation materials to support leadership decision making and future stakeholder engagement. The strategic project recommendations help the client understand the needs of investors, employees, policy makers, customers, community members, finances, supply chain, and other key stakeholders. The outcomes help communicate better with stakeholders, prioritize capital allocation needs, and oversee evolving risks for the company. The completed deliverables met global standards for Double Materiality Assessments.

Following leadership feedback, the project scope expanded to incorporate customer survey data. Based on strategic refinement resulting from stakeholder interviews, additional project considerations included prioritization of top of mind issues that present outside implications for the company, at the client’s request. Customer and stakeholder reviews were compared to examine differences in perceptions by the respective audiences.[LS1.1] Gaps were examined + final recommendations were refined to address the identified gaps.

The effort, guided by the Chief Sustainability Officer along with a multi-disciplinary, cross-enterprise Steering Committee, culminated in a series of 6 recommendations designed to feed into the company-wide strategic planning process as well as the annual Sustainability Report.