Conducting a Materiality Assessment

Conducting a Materiality Assessment Overview

Conducting a materiality assessment is the fundamental first step in implementing an ESG strategy. It provides the foundation for all company ESG efforts by determining what ESG issues present risks and opportunities to the business and its key stakeholders. This practice lab covers the fundamentals of conducting a materiality assessment as well as tactics you can deploy to strengthen your assessment and associated insights. We’ll start by discussing the key steps in conducting a materiality assessment before diving into tactics you can deploy in each step. We will examine several approaches to creating a core list of issues before analyzing each of their potential impacts using the materiality funnel framework.

We’ll introduce an example company to demonstrate each of these steps and discuss how to assess issues based on the company’s unique context and characteristics. After filling out a practice materiality assessment grid, we will walk through the process of determining the material relevance and associated risks and opportunities for our example company.

Then students will have the opportunity to practice determining what additional risks and opportunities the company’s material issues could present.

Conducting a Materiality Assessment Objectives

• Explain key concepts & required steps in conducting a materiality assessment
• Leverage 3rd party resources and stakeholder insights to strengthen your assessment
• Analyze how material issues present both risks & opportunities to a business
• Identify the similarities, differences, and nuances of materiality between industries
• Contextualize material issues for a specific company and its unique characteristics

Who Should Take This Practice Lab?

This lab is designed for management teams and operators, directors, business analysts, management consultants, and financial analysts of all stripes at both private and public companies.