// ESG & Sustainability

Materiality Assessment

Establish which sustainability issues actually matter to your business, on evidence rather than assumption.

A structured assessment of sustainability issues against business impact and stakeholder significance, producing a prioritised set that strategy and reporting can be built on.

Discuss your requirements Speak with an expert

// Context

Why this matters

Materiality is the decision that determines everything downstream. It sets what gets governed, what gets measured, what gets reported and what gets resourced.

Done badly, it is a workshop that confirms what management already believed. Done properly, it tests those beliefs against stakeholder evidence, sector data and the organisation's actual exposure -- and it usually moves at least one issue that was not previously on the list.

It also has a defensive function. When a regulator, investor or assurance provider asks why a topic was excluded from a report, the materiality assessment is the answer.

// The engagement

How CER helps

Issue universe development from sector standards, peers and regulation
Internal stakeholder engagement across functions and leadership
External stakeholder engagement with investors, customers and other relevant parties
Assessment of business impact for each issue
Assessment of stakeholder significance
Where relevant, double materiality -- impact on the organisation and impact of the organisation
Prioritisation and threshold setting
Validation with management and the board
Documentation of method and rationale

// Deliverables

What you receive

Documented issue universe with sources
Stakeholder engagement summary
Materiality matrix or prioritised issue ranking
Rationale for inclusion and exclusion of each issue
Methodology documentation for reporting and assurance purposes
Recommendations for governance and measurement of prioritised issues

// Fit

Who this is for

Organisations building an ESG strategy or first sustainability report
Companies whose current material topics have not been reviewed in several years
Boards asking which issues genuinely warrant attention
Organisations preparing for assurance on their reporting

// Why CER

Practitioners, not report writers

CER works from Singapore with organisations across Asia, which matters for this service because requirements arriving from European regulators, regional supervisors and local listing rules do not align neatly.

Engagements run through to implementation: the data collection process, the documentation, the controls and the internal handover, so that the second cycle is cheaper than the first and can be run without us.

Where an organisation would be better served by building the capability internally, CER Academy delivers the same technical material as training.

Meet the people behind the work

// Our people

Expertise on this service

Chan Ee Chong

Lead Consultant

Over twenty years in wealth management and business consultancy, with ESG project experience across South-East Asia.

ESG advisory · Wealth management · Business consultancy

View Chan Ee Chong’s profile

// Questions

Frequently asked

What is double materiality?

It assesses two directions: how sustainability issues affect the organisation financially, and how the organisation affects people and the environment. Some frameworks require both; others focus on financial materiality. Which applies depends on the regime you report under.

How often should materiality be reviewed?

Periodically, and whenever something changes materially -- an acquisition, a new market, a regulatory change, or a significant incident. An assessment several years old is difficult to defend as current.

Do we need to engage external stakeholders?

For a defensible assessment, yes. An internal-only exercise measures management perception. Where external engagement is genuinely constrained, that limitation should be disclosed rather than obscured.

// Related