Materiality matrix

For the second time, essenscia is publishing a materiality matrix in its sectoral sustainability report. According to GRI “materiality is the principle that determines which relevant topics are sufficiently important that it is essential to report on them. Not all material topics are of equal importance, and the emphasis within a report is expected to reflect their relative priority”. A materiality matrix is expressing this in two dimensions:

• an internal dimension (opinions of the essenscia experts)
• an external dimension (opinions of the consulted stakeholders)

The source used to create this year’s materiality matrix is the online stakeholder survey of both external stakeholders (the same stakeholders as mentioned above) and internal essenscia experts. They were asked both for each SDG, and for each of the 26 general problem categories of SASB to indicate how material they are considered to be for the Belgian chemicals, plastics and life sciences industry. The resulting materiality matrix for the SDGs is published below. Challenges that have a medium score on at least one of the dimensions are considered material to the industry. We publish only the SDG materiality matrix, but have also compiled the results of the materiality survey according to the SASB general problem categories in the conclusion below.