We are embarking on a process to update our stakeholder materiality assessment (MA) for use in our 2023 Sustainability Report. By way of background, we are a relatively young, public company (IPO in 2017) and have conducted only one previous MA for which we used a third-party consultant. We want to update our MA this year and bring the process completely in-house.
That said, may I ask for any feedback you may have on any of the following ideas:
(1) Preferred survey platform (Survey Monkey, Survey Gizmo, etc.) and why? We currently anticipate asking the respondents to rate each response across a range (Highly Agree to Highly Disagree) as well as to rank the material topic in order from most significant to least significant for our business.
(2) Process for identifying stakeholders to include - How many stakeholders (i.e., debt & equity holders, employees, customers, suppliers, regulatory agencies, etc.) should we aim for to constitute a 'valid' sampling? For example, with >1,500 employees, should we engage all of them or use a randomly chosen sample set as a proxy?
(3) We have the material topics we identified in the first MA which we settled on after reviewing (i) stakeholder feedback during the period, (ii) peer company disclosures, and (iii) sustainability reporting frameworks. Any other potential sources of topics we should consider which could impact our identification of material topics? Is it reasonable to assume that if our business model hasn't changed since IPO, then we should not expect to see a significant change in our material topics?
(4) Any tips or tricks to improve response rates? For instance, have you seen better success on response rates if your original request for survey participation was accompanied by a note from the CEO, CFO, or CSO?
(5) Would you be willing to share samples of your company's MA questionnaire?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
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Teresa Odom
Vice President-ESG & Sustainability
Diversified Energy Company plc
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