Our long-standing client Origin Enterprises plc, a market-leading agronomy group, was nearing the end of their three-year materiality assessment cycle. They were looking for support to conduct their next materiality assessment to underpin their sustainability strategy and better understand the highest priority sustainability issues across their business.
Given best practice and upcoming regulation, we determined double materiality was the best approach to establish the foundations for mandatory reporting under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Sancroft took a three-stage approach to conducting the double materiality assessment. Firstly, Sancroft analysed regulatory and reporting standards, public facing documents of key stakeholders and peer and industry reports to develop a long list of potentially material topics for an agronomy group like Origin.
Second, Sancroft engaged stakeholders through a digital survey, one-to-one interviews, and small-group roundtables to explore the risks and opportunities associated with the material sustainability topics. The findings were key to understanding the different perceptions of Origin’s impact on people and the environment, and the impact of people and the environment on Origin. This enabled us to refine our long list of material topics.
Finally, Sancroft developed a scoring methodology to analyse the research and stakeholder engagement findings. This resulted in a final prioritisation list of material topics which considered both the impact materiality and financial materiality of the identified sustainability topics. We presented our findings in a materiality visualisation accompanied by copy suitable for their sustainability report, detailing our methodology and the key outcomes of the assessment.
〉As a result of establishing Origin’s foundational approach to double materiality, Origin now has confidence in their ability to conduct double materiality assessments ahead of mandatory reporting under the CSRD.
〉The findings have also confirmed the direction of their next sustainability strategy and will guide the business as it advances on its sustainability journey. Origin now has a nuanced understanding of the highest priority sustainability topics across their business and supply chain from both an impact and financial perspective. This will allow them to direct efforts and resources towards priority sustainability topics.
