A double materiality assessment shows you which sustainability issues matter most to your business, so you can focus your time and money where it counts. For a small business, it takes days, not months.
When I start working with a business, I ask: what keeps you up at night? The answer is usually finding good people or cutting costs. Sustainability can help with both. KPMG found one in five UK office workers had turned down a job over an employer’s ESG values. The Carbon Trust says many SMEs could cut energy costs by 20 to 30%.
Here’s how to do it in five simple steps.
What is double materiality?
It means looking at sustainability from two directions:
- Your impact: how your business affects people and the planet, such as emissions, waste or working conditions.
- The impact on you: how sustainability issues affect your business, such as energy costs, customer expectations or hiring.
An issue is material if it matters a lot in either direction. A café’s food waste, for example, harms the planet and costs money every week.
Is this for my business?
This guide is for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). In the UK, you’re an SME if you meet two of these three: up to 250 employees, turnover up to £54m, and a balance sheet up to £27m.
What you need
- Three or four short sessions over a couple of weeks
- One person to lead, plus input from a few staff, customers and suppliers
- A rough picture of who you buy from and sell to
- A simple tool to score and record your issues, such as our workbook
Want an expert in the room? I can run the sessions with your team.
Five steps to your assessment
- Start with your purpose. Note why your business exists, the problem you solve and the values you want to be known for.
- List the issues. Start with the topics the SASB Standards flag for your industry, then add any others that matter to you. Our workbook gives you 17 to start from.
- Ask your stakeholders. A short survey or a few conversations with staff, customers and suppliers is enough.
- Score each issue both ways. Rate its impact on people and planet, and its impact on your business, from 1 to 10. Ask two or three people who know your business well, such as a senior leader and whoever leads on sustainability or customers, to score separately, then compare.
- Pick your priorities and act. Choose your top five to eight issues and set a target and owner for each. Note why you chose them, and review every year or two. Act on your top issues first and plan for the next tier. Your top priorities are the issues that score highly in both directions: the red box on your matrix. Share your matrix in your impact report or with customers and investors, and review it every year or two.
What it looks like in practice
- Skincare brand: SASB flags water, product safety and packaging. Add ingredient sourcing and honest “natural” claims.
- Restaurant: SASB flags energy, food waste, food safety and staff. Add local sourcing and fair pay.
- Small data centre: SASB flags energy, water for cooling and data security. Add pressure on the local grid and effects on neighbours.
Common mistakes
- Doing it alone. Get input from a few staff, customers or suppliers.
- Making everything a priority. If everything matters, nothing does.
- Doing it once. Your priorities change as you grow, so review them every year or two.
- Not acting on it. Use your results to shape your targets, budget and communications.
Get the workbook
Our Double Materiality Workbook turns these five steps into a simple Excel tool. It includes 17 ready-made issues aligned to SASB, GRI and B Corp standards, a scoring guide for team scoring, a matrix that builds itself, for review every year or so, and an action planner.
Still need support? Book a free consultation.
Sources
B Lab: B Corp standards and Impact Topics
KPMG UK: Climate quitting, younger workers voting with their feet on ESG (2023)
Carbon Trust: UK SMEs missing out on vital energy savings