Involving stakeholders in your materiality assessment helps ensure that your sustainability priorities reflect real-world expectations — both inside and outside your organisation.
Why Stakeholder Involvement Matters
Under the ESRS (Draft July 2025), companies are expected to consider the views of affected stakeholders when determining which topics are material.
📘 ESRS 2 IRO-1 requires organisations to describe how they identify impacts, risks, and opportunities — including how stakeholders were involved.
In VSME, stakeholder engagement is optional, but it can improve the quality of your assessment and help focus your reporting on what matters most.
Who to involve
Depending on your organisation, consider including:
Management / Leadership – to provide strategic perspective
Employees – especially those involved in operations, HR, environment, or compliance
Board members or owners – where relevant
Other internal experts – such as finance, risk, marketing, or legal
💬 You may also include external stakeholders later — such as unions, suppliers, customers, or community representatives — especially for ESRS.
Ways to Involve Stakeholders
You don’t need a large consultation process. Even small steps can be meaningful:
Internal workshops – Gather input from departments like sustainability, finance, operations, HR, and risk
Surveys or interviews – Ask key stakeholders about what they see as the most important ESG topics
Use past feedback – If you've already collected feedback through audits, complaints, or assessments, you can use it to inform this step
Include diverse voices – Try to include people affected by your operations, not just decision-makers
What to Document
You can use the “Comments” field in the Materiality Assessment module to note:
Who was involved in the assessment
How their input influenced your scoring
Any topics raised as especially important or sensitive
📝 This supports your future reporting and improves ESG rating outcomes by showing how your decisions are informed by stakeholder needs.
Tip
Stakeholder involvement doesn’t need to be perfect or formal — it just needs to be honest and traceable.
Even a small conversation can shape better sustainability decisions.
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