Conducting a Double Materiality Assessment for a Global Leader in the E-Learning Industry
Challenge
The client, a pioneer in the e-learning industry with a significant global market presence, was undergoing transitions related to recent mergers and acquisitions, driving long-term consolidation throughout the business. The client sought to establish a mature ESG program that was integrated throughout its business, would drive ongoing performance improvement, and would establish the company as a leader and responsible business partner.
The company was starting to experience pressure from stakeholders, including customers and business partners, to align with and support their ESG objectives and goals. The company wanted to coordinate ESG strategic and reporting initiatives across the four organizations being united under a single parent company, with the goal of improving the company’s scores on raters and rankers. The company had a strong existing track record of corporate social responsibility and had identified relevant pillars to drive positive impact but lacked structure around these initiatives. Finally, the company was focused on strengthening its corporate governance practices and sought an ESG program that holistically incorporated governance topics, including global compliance.
Solution
To support the client’s needs, Antea Group completed the following activities:
A double materiality assessment to identify priority ESG topics and understand the impact these topics have on the client as well as the client’s impact on stakeholders. During the materiality assessment, stakeholder perspectives were gathered from a broad range of stakeholder groups, including internal and external participants to help refine which ESG topics stakeholders deemed most important to the company’s success.
Peer benchmarking to understand how mature the client’s industry is with regard to reporting on the client’s material ESG topics and identify peer best practices
A current state assessment to compare the client’s public ESG disclosures to the processes that are actually in place and progress they are making internally.
Result
The completion of the materiality assessment resulted in a materiality matrix, illustrating internal and external stakeholder ranking of topics and a report with additional details.
Based on comprehensive data analysis, 14 topics were identified as material to stakeholders. 15 additional topics were deprioritized as being a low priority to stakeholders at this time. The materiality assessment set a foundation for developing a robust sustainability strategy. Following the materiality assessment, Antea Group continued to support the client in strategy development.
Through the current state assessment, the client gained the desired understanding of their own ESG performance, peer performance, and international expectations. Additionally, the double materiality results provided the client with stakeholder expectations and a material ESG topic list to guide their continued ESG strategy development.
