If you are dealing with the materiality analysis as part of the ESRS for the first time, you may be asking yourself which stakeholders should be involved. We will try to explain this pragmatically in this article. 

If you already know which stakeholders you want to involve, you can find out how this works here: Link.

The ESRS identify two groups of stakeholders in relation to sustainability reports: (1) affected stakeholders and (2) users of sustainability reports. 

• Affected stakeholders are stakeholders who are affected by the actions of your company and its potential impacts. 
• Users of sustainability reports, on the other hand, are, for example, investors, NGOs or other independent parties. 

While it can make sense to include representatives of both groups in the materiality analysis, you should first ask yourself who can best help you assess the ESRS sustainability topics and IROs.

In most cases, these are primarily colleagues from your own company. They deal with the impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) of your company on a daily basis - naturally in different functions and with a focus on different topics - and are the best-informed stakeholders for you to get support in the assessment steps of the double materiality analysis.

Secondly, you should consider involving affected stakeholders. This is particularly important when assessing impacts. Relevant stakeholders can include suppliers or even employees in the value chain, as well as employee representatives and even NGOs as indirect representatives, for example, of nature. They may have a different perspective on your company and provide valuable input.

Thirdly, there is the option to involve users of sustainability reports, such as investors. They can especially help in assessing financial risks and opportunities.

In general, it is important to apply the principle of appropriateness. Depending on the size of the company, it may make sense to involve either more or fewer stakeholders to capture and assess all the different potential impacts, risks, and opportunities. Be sure to include the necessary stakeholders without overcomplicating things. Some companies, for example, conduct surveys with thousands of customers or suppliers – the relevance of these surveys is often very low and is therefore heavily criticized within the expert community.