Layli Miller-Muro

ESG Simple Materiality Assessment Template

Conducting a materiality assessment is a process of engaging internal and external stakeholders to determine
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues, and gain insights about their relative importance to ESG
set goals and prioritize action.

1. Identify Internal and External stakeholders.

Some internal stakeholders may include board members, owners, employees, etc. Some external stakeholders
may include customers, investors, competitors, the environment, industry associations, government agencies,
etc.

Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders

2. Identify ESG Issues to Assess

You can circle those that are important to you and add additional ones.

Environmental Social Governance

• climate change and carbon
Emissions
• air and water pollution
• energy efficiency
• waste management
• water management and
conservation
• biodiversity and deforestation
• transportation and delivery
mechanisms
• environmental supply chain
management
• human rights
• community impact
• respect for indigenous peoples
• employee relations
• working conditions
• diversity & inclusion
• discrimination
• child in forced labor health and
safety
• consumer relations
• community engagement,
charitable giving, and
volunteering
• supply chain practices
• board independence and
composition
• executive compensation
• audit committee structure
• bribery and corruption policies
lobbying activities political
contributions
• grievance mechanisms
• systematic risk management
• equal pay and fair wage
practices
• business ethics
• succession planning
• data security and privacy
• transparency practices
• accountability practices
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3. Engage Stakeholders to Assess Materiality of Issues

Engage internal and external stakeholders through surveys or interviews to rate, on a scale of 1-10, their
perceived importance of the ESG issues to society and to the company.

Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders

1. Issue: Rating 1. Issue: Rating

4. Map Issues and Their Importance Rating on a Graph

Important to stakeholders (Action: Significant to business and stakeholders

Importance to External Stakeholders

Sustain/Communicate) (Action: Prioritize)

Lower priority to both (Action: monitor, comply, Important to business (Action: Continue internal
manage) efforts)

Importance to Business
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Example: Bank of America’s Materiality Map

Example: Putnam Investment’s Materiality Map