2025 Materiality Assessment and Sustainability Reporting Project

SUST 6450
Open Closing on December 15, 2024 / 3 spots left
Schulich School of Business
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Professor of Sustainability Accounting
2
Timeline
  • February 5, 2025
    Experience start
  • April 3, 2025
    Experience end
Experience
3 projects wanted
Dates set by experience
Preferred companies
Ontario, Canada
Startup, Family-Owned, Non profit, Small to medium enterprise, Social Enterprise
Any industries
Categories
Community engagement Social work Environmental sustainability Social justice
Skills
stakeholder engagement competitive analysis business strategies sustainability reporting corporate social responsibility management public relations
Learner goals and capabilities

Materiality is the principle of defining the social and environmental topics that matter most to your business and your stakeholders. A double materiality assessment should be used as a strategic business tool, with implications beyond corporate responsibility or sustainability reporting. A broad and inclusive double materiality process, including stakeholder engagement, can deliver benefits such as:

 

  • Ensuring business strategy takes into account significant social and environmental topics, and the management of sustainability issues is embedded in wider business processes.
  • Identifying trends on the horizon, such as water scarcity or changing weather patterns, that could significantly impact the company's ability to create value in the long-term.
  • Prioritizing your resources for the sustainability issues that matter most to the business and stakeholders, so you can focus time and money on the most important topics, and on collecting relevant data.
  • Highlighting areas where we need to manage and monitor risks that are important but not currently addressed.
  • Identifying the areas of interest to the most important stakeholders, enabling you to report concise Information that gives a meaningful picture of progress to those who need it.
  • Helping to identify where the company is creating, or reducing, value for society.
  • Completing an industry and competitive analysis of the reporting efforts currently in place.
  • Identifying the reporting standards that your organization should consider and their implications.
  • A practical ‘how to’ guide to sustainability reporting for your organization. 
Learners
Post-graduate
Intermediate levels
20 learners
Project
50 hours per learner
Educators assign learners to projects
Teams of 4
Expected outcomes and deliverables

A written report and accompanying slidedeck providing:

  • The double materiality assessment of your organization via rigorous stakeholder engagement, including a matrix
  • Practical recommendations on potential mitigating actions and/or solutions to the issues deemed most material, as well as on your sustainability reporting plans, process and/or strategy.

 

A live, in-person presentation of the findings (to which you will be invited to attend – see below)



Project timeline
  • February 5, 2025
    Experience start
  • April 3, 2025
    Experience end
Project Examples

Learners in groups of 3-5 will work with your company to identify your needs and provide actionable recommendations, based on their in-depth research and analysis.


Project activities that learners can complete may include, but are not limited to: 

  • acquire expertise in the collection and analysis of reliable sustainability-related data that allows for effective internal and external benchmarking. 
  • apply the technical and processual skills in an intensive experiential learning opportunity that involves conducting a materiality assessment with a Canadian organization. 
  • identify ways of influencing and shaping how sustainability goals and metrics can be aligned with core business strategies. 
  • understand how different methods, tools, and choices of metrics vary by industry, growth stage, and jurisdiction governing the organization.
  • effectively work in groups/teams;
  • produce a clear and effective written report and present findings to peers.