Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Method for Making It Work in Practice

Calabrese, Armando; Costa, Roberta; Ghiron, Nathan Levialdi; Menichini, Tamara

doi:10.14207/ejsd.2017.v6n3p439

Cited by 41 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Nevertheless, a review of the literature revealed that materiality analysis presents critical issues that limit its practical use in companies (Pérez-López et al, 2015;Calabrese et al, 2017). Materiality analysis is in fact a highly subjective process that requires mediating among potential conflicts, and dealing with uncertainty and consistency of judgments across a wide range of issues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, materiality analysis presents criticalities that limit its practical use in companies (Calabrese, Costa, Ghiron, & Menichini, 2017). The process of assessing materiality requires companies to consider the strategic value of the opportunities and risks related to the various aspects of sustainability.…”

Section: Materiality In Sustainability Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on a review of the prior contributions, Calabrese et al (2017) list the necessary characteristics for a new materiality analysis method, providing effective inclusion and representation of stakeholder perceptions. Companies should adopt a constructive and participatory assessment approach, aimed at mediating potential conflicts and differences between stakeholders' opinions (Bellantuono et al, 2016;Elias, Jackson, & Cavana, 2004).…”

Section: Materiality In Sustainability Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Tool for Directing Corporate Sustainability Towards Emerging Economic, Environmental and Social Opportunities

Calabrese

Costa

Ghiron

et al. 2019

Technological and Economic Development of Economy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Materiality analysis is a multi-purpose tool for prioritising sustainability issues from the double perspective of companies and stakeholders, meaning that both parties contribute to identifying the present and emerging social and environmental risks and opportunities. The current study proposes a practical and structured approach for performing materiality analysis, integrating the well-known Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) materiality matrix and a new “adequacy matrix”. The purpose of the GRI materiality matrix is to prioritize sustainability issues in terms of relevance to both companies and stakeholders. The adequacy matrix supports evaluation of the transparency and effectiveness of corporate sustainability (CS) communication. Particularly, the paper aims to give indications to companies that want to prepare a sustainability report according to the GRI guidelines by planning the allocation of resources to reporting activities: the comparison between the positioning of GRI sustainability aspects in the two matrices serves in identifying the most critical issues for improving accountability. The proposed method includes a consistency test, to overcome the subjectivity, uncertainty and vagueness affecting judgements. The results provide managers with useful information for aligning CS strategic decision-making, sustainability reporting, and accountability to stakeholders. An illustrative application to a small and medium-sized (SME) company completes the paper.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Materiality In Sustainability Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Materiality In Sustainability Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Tool for Directing Corporate Sustainability Towards Emerging Economic, Environmental and Social Opportunities

Calabrese

Costa

Ghiron

et al. 2019

Technological and Economic Development of Economy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the context of traditional financial reporting, the concept of materiality is shaped by both quantitative and qualitative aspects, all of them defined and written down in standards set by international organizations, imposed by governments, and used as a basic element of market-based investment decision-making [27,28]. For nonfinancial information, the narrative is very different, as this information cannot be directly and clearly valued in a market setting [29].…”

Section: Materiality and Stakeholder Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Reporting for Inland Port Managing Bodies: A Stakeholder-Based View on Materiality

Geerts

Dooms

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainability reporting has been marked by a rise in importance in recent years as it has proved to be an important management tool in the understanding of where an organization is situated along the sustainability pathway. However, industries have shown different behaviors towards embracing this practice. In this paper, we turn our attention to the port industry, using the metropolitan inland Port of Brussels (Belgium) as a case study. Given the contested nature of port activities within urban regions, metropolitan inland ports are expected to benefit from the development of a sustainability report as it allows a more transparent account of the contribution of port activities to the objectives of different stakeholder groups in the urban environment. The case study is based on a survey yielding 74 valid responses from different stakeholder groups (employees, clients, and broader society). Our results show that the expected content of a sustainability report is viewed differently by these various stakeholder groups in terms of the relative importance of the dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), as well as in terms of the specific indicators representing material issues. Furthermore, the concept of boundary setting with respect to the different dimensions of the TBL and the desired level of inclusion by stakeholders during the development of a sustainability report are differently assessed. The paper is of interest to academics as well as policy makers, as the research results complement the existing insights on sustainability reporting in general and can be used as basis to stimulate the adoption of sustainability reporting by inland ports.

show abstract

“…A sustainability report gives information about economic, environmental, social and governance performance. Other words, sustainability reporting is the practice of measuring, disclosing, and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for the company's ability to achieve sustainable development goals and manage impacts on society (Calabrese et. al.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

CSR Reporting Standards: Implementation in Polish Enterprises

Krawczyk¹

2019

JEERBE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Method for Making It Work in Practice

Cited by 41 publications

References 19 publications

Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Tool for Directing Corporate Sustainability Towards Emerging Economic, Environmental and Social Opportunities

Materiality Analysis in Sustainability Reporting: A Tool for Directing Corporate Sustainability Towards Emerging Economic, Environmental and Social Opportunities

Sustainability Reporting for Inland Port Managing Bodies: A Stakeholder-Based View on Materiality

CSR Reporting Standards: Implementation in Polish Enterprises

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About