TY - JOUR
T1 - Materiality Assessment Is an Art, Not a Science
T2 - Selecting ESG Topics for Sustainability Reports
AU - Garst, Jilde
AU - Maas, Karen
AU - Suijs, Jeroen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Regents of the University of California 2022.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Materiality assessments play an important role in helping firms to select the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics to include in their sustainability report. This article presents the six main steps of materiality assessments, the methods used, and how the complexity, uncertainty, and evaluative nature of sustainability issues complicate them. This article draws two conclusions: the selected materiality perspective influences how the other steps are conducted, and assessment results should not only focus on selecting win-win scenarios, but also on “tensioned topics,” which indicate material societal impact but lack a business case.
AB - Materiality assessments play an important role in helping firms to select the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics to include in their sustainability report. This article presents the six main steps of materiality assessments, the methods used, and how the complexity, uncertainty, and evaluative nature of sustainability issues complicate them. This article draws two conclusions: the selected materiality perspective influences how the other steps are conducted, and assessment results should not only focus on selecting win-win scenarios, but also on “tensioned topics,” which indicate material societal impact but lack a business case.
KW - accountability
KW - accounting standards
KW - corporate social responsibility
KW - sustainability
KW - transparency
U2 - 10.1177/00081256221120692
DO - 10.1177/00081256221120692
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85138995683
SN - 0008-1256
VL - 65
SP - 64
EP - 90
JO - California Management Review
JF - California Management Review
IS - 1
ER -