🍀Materiality Screening Module

SBTN - Step 1a

The world map of pressures of facilities in Carbonze provides a visual representation of the environmental pressures associated with various facilities across the globe. Each facility is mapped based on its impact on different environmental factors such as carbon emissions, water use, land use, and biodiversity. The map allows users to identify hotspots and patterns of environmental pressures in different regions and helps companies understand the geographical distribution of their sustainability challenges.

In this step screening process, companies have the opportunity to identify the material pressures they are facing. This involves assessing and understanding the key environmental pressure areas that are relevant to their operations. By identifying these pressure areas, companies can gain insight into the specific areas where they may need to set targets to address their environmental impact effectively. This information is crucial in setting expectations for the company and determining the level of effort required to tackle their key environmental pressures. It also helps ensure compliance with validation requirements set by organizations such as the SBTN, IPBES and TNFD which promotes scientifically grounded and ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The screening step helps companies identify the environmental pressures they need to address and sets expectations for target-setting efforts. It introduces a prescriptive approach to screening impacts, providing a starting point for comprehensive environmental action. While the information used is based on sector-level averages and may not reflect a company's exact impact, it helps narrow the scope of target-setting and facilitates internal communication. The output is a list of relevant pressures by sector, activity, and commodities.

Materiality Screening within Direct Operations

The materiality assessment in Carbonze helps companies identify and prioritize key environmental pressures that need to be addressed in their sustainability efforts. This screening step gives companies an overview of the level of effort required and sets expectations for compliance with SBTN validation. It provides a foundational approach for understanding environmental impacts and encourages companies to focus on the most critical pressure areas for their target-setting strategies.

To ensure comprehensive coverage of a company's activities with the greatest environmental impact, it is important to list the activities within direct operations. This includes gathering basic information on the types of activities that define the business. This data is essential for assessing materiality, managing impact data, and providing information to stakeholders. The framework relies on this information to verify the company's coverage of high-impact activities in the short term.

Materiality Screening Upstream Activities

Once companies have determined their organizational boundary and identified activities within their direct control or direct operations, they need to consider which activities in their value chains should be included in the assessment. This involves assessing all value chain activities.

The Materiality Screening Tool can assist in identifying upstream activities by generating a list of economic activities based on direct and indirect spend data. This list, expressed using the "group" level from ISIC, can be cross-referenced with procurement data and previous analyses to ensure accuracy.

Approach for Materiality Screening

After conducting a materiality screening using the SBTN methodology, companies gain insight into the activities that are likely to have environmental and social impacts, which are crucial for further assessment in the target-setting process. One option is to use the Materiality Screening Tool and the High Impact Commodity List developed by SBTN. This approach allows for a quick screening of pressures associated with a company's core activities, identifying the most material ones for target-setting.

Prescriptive approach

Utilize the Materiality Screening Tool and the High Impact Commodity List to quickly screen pressures associated with core activities and identify material ones for target-setting.

Flexible approach

Employ other available tools or models, as well as prescriptive approach, that qualify for tool quality criteria, to determine societally material core economic activities.