Abstract

MATERIALITY IS A SUSTAINABILITY LYNCH-PIN that binds strategy, the business case and effective reporting together in a way that will result in profitable and effective sustainability initiatives. Many organisations

believe that sustainability is important for their success and are committed to becoming more sustainable. But they don’t always know how to prioritise action for sustainability, how to get quick wins or how to effectively communicate sustainability programmes to their stakeholders. A well thought out and implemented materiality process can assist organisations achieve all of those things, although getting ‘quick’ wins will require quite a bit of planning and some sustained hard work. Making Sustainability Matter is needed because too many organisations:

• waste resources on sustainability programmes that are not strategically aligned to the organisation,

• have programmes that cannot be communicated effectively to generate trust and give transparency that matters.