How to interpret the results of your data-driven double materiality analysis

There are two types of visualizations displayed on Datamaran related to double materiality:

1. In the “Double materiality” tab of the Analysis module

The results of your data-driven materiality analysis are presented in a tornado graph that compares the financial and impact results for each analysis issue and a table presenting a detailed breakdown of the scores normalized of each of the different sources used in the analysis.

In the chart, each score is classified on a scale from low- (very low) to high+ (very high), each side of the tornado graph represents one of the impact types, the financial impact and impact materiality have a scoring system from 0-1.

The chart allows you to identify those issues that are likely to materially affect your business (financial) and those areas that your business may materially affect (impact).

You are able to see the results ordered by:

• Issue relevance: overall relevance in your materiality analysis; is the product of the normalized x and y scores in the materiality analysis
• Financial materiality: areas more likely to affect your business;
• Impact materiality: areas that your business affects;
• Alphabetically ordered

 

The detailed table view displays the score of each issue in the different sources used to calculate the double materiality scores, it will allow you to deepen the results of your analysis and sort them by issue name, issue relevance and by source score.
 

For the scoring system, the platform searches for evidence across our sources utilizing Datamaran topics to see to what extent they have financial impact (financial materiality) versus environmental and social impact (impact materiality).

In terms of scoring for financial materiality, we take into consideration sources such as:

• Annual financial reports;
• Coverage of mandatory regulations with sanction;
• Voluntary initiatives that are introduced by institutions that represent the financial markets such as stock exchanges and central banks;
•  SASB accounting metrics - as this can be an indication that financial markets and investors are interested as these can have a financial impact.

For impact materiality, we take into consideration coverage within:

• Sustainability reports;
• Coverage in the news;
• Voluntary initiatives and regulations

You can see more details on the methodology used to analyze each source here.

2. The second visualization is in the “Summary” tab of each issue (“Matrix view” tab of the Analysis module)

The data presented here is the same as the data from the tornado graph but showcased individually at the issue-level only. The scores and the scale assigned to financial materiality and impact materiality reflect the scores from the tornado graph.

If you have started the monitoring process of your materiality analysis you will see also the Dynamic double materiality view,  this view allows you to see the issue rank changes in your double materiality analysis, at Financial and impact level, as well as for the underlying sources. The rank change is in bold numbers, and the current rank is the number next by. The green shading indicates issues that have increased in importance, while the orange shading indicates a decrease in importance.

By default, issues are sorted by Issue Relevance in the last version of your materiality analysis generated automatically, the relevance is the product of the normalized x and y scores in the materiality analysis. You can also sort your issues alphabetically.