Navigating the Materiality Maze: A Survey of the Full Spectrum of Materiality Definitions and Approaches

1. Navigating the Materiality Maze: A Survey of the Full
Spectrum of Materiality Definitions and Approaches
Bill Baue, Sustainability Context Group @bbaue
Cornis van der Lugt, Stellenbosch University & BSD Consulting
Louis Coppola, Governance & Accountability Institute @gainstitute
Jackie Cook, Fund Votes
Rachel Guthrie, TD Bank Group
Ralph Thurm, A Leader’s Guide to ThriveAbility @aheadahead1

2. 2
About TD

3. 3
Materiality Assessment

4. 4
Process to Determine Material Issues
Document
Review
• Internal
Documents
• External
Research
• Media Analysis
• Peer review
Stakeholder
Engagement
• Panel
discussions
• Analysis of
feedback
Prioritization
• Information broken
into 60 aspects
• 60 prioritized to 19
 Customer Research
 Employee Research
 Reputational Risk documents
 Shareholder resolutions
 Ombudsman Reports
 Internal Environmental
Research
 Globescan Survey
 Edelman Trust Barometer
 Media Scans
Stakeholder Panel
• Online web platform
• Wide range of stakeholders represented
• 18 participants, including companies such as:
- Wells Fargo
- Tim Hortons
- The Co-operators
- Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
- PWC
- Bentall Kennedy
- Addenda Capital
- Export Development Canada
- Credit Counselling Society
- Trucost
- Calvert Investments

5. 5
Things to consider about Stakeholder Panels
 Identify quality experts
 Playing nice in the sandbox
 Budget / travel / geography constraints
 Is it ok to listen in?
 Including the employee voice
 Are you really ready to hear the good, the bad, the ugly?
 Reality check on the pace of change

6. 6
Stakeholder Panel – Web Platform

7. 7
High Engagement – Rich Feedback

8. 8
Agree/Disagree Activity
Q1) Stakeholder panels are just the latest buzz trend in CSR –
companies aren’t able to sustain this level of engagement on an
annual basis.
Q2) Companies already know what their material issues are – they
don’t need CSR experts in panels to tell them.
Q3) The value of stakeholder engagement is more in the process
than the outcome.