We carried out an extensive double materiality assessment for the first time in 2023 to anticipate the requirements established by the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which specify the information that a company must disclose about its material impacts, risks and opportunities. This assessment combines, in a single matrix, multi-stakeholder impact materiality views and also a financial materiality analysis.
Thanks to this twofold dimension, an additional layer of information emerges, when compared to the previous assessments conducted by the Group (in 2013, 2016 and 2019), which were in line with the best practices at the time, such as the Global Reporting Initiative, but which only covered impact materiality.
The 2023’s survey, the most robust and extensive to date, collected information from over 16,600 stakeholders from nine different groups1, in Poland, Portugal and Colombia, for an in-depth analysis of impact materiality along our value chain, considering both severity2 and likelihood. To identify financial materiality, the assessment was based on the Group’s risk management system3 and considered the risks and opportunities along the value chain, based on magnitude4 and likelihood. Once completed, senior managers and members of the Executive Committee also validated the assessment.
The assessment involved four major steps5:
The following material topics were identified:
Below are the 10 most material topics identified in the double materiality assessment:
- product affordability;
- product safety and quality standards;
- sustainable & responsible criteria in the supply chain;
- food waste;
- product and services innovation;
- climate change;
- packaging redesign for sustainable resource use;
- compensation and benefits;
- employee learning and development;
- engagement and supporting local communities.
Despite including financial materiality aspects in 2023’s assessment, the material topics identified are, for the most part, the same as in the previous assessment. The only difference is the topic “climate change”, which is now included as one of the most relevant. The “circular economy” topic, included in the 2019 matrix, can be transposed to these results as it is linked to the topics “packaging redesign for sustainable resource use” and “food waste”.
We intend to repeat this assessment every three years. In the interim, adjustments will be made to ensure the assessment is kept current. Throughout this chapter, and for each material topic, information will be shared on how the impacts, risks and opportunities identified along our value chain are managed and how we integrate them into the way we do business.
1 Responses were received from representatives of the following groups: employees, consumers, suppliers and service providers, non-governmental organisations, charities, analysts and investors, the media, sectoral associations, insurance companies, and opinion makers. For more details on stakeholder relationships, visit the Stakeholder Engagement page on our corporate website.
2 Severity was evaluated based on the following factors: scale, scope and irremediable character of the impact.
3 To learn more, see “Subsection III – Internal Control and Risk Management”.
4 Magnitude was evaluated based on the potential financial impact on the Group’s revenues and costs associated with a specific risk or opportunity.
5 Within the scope of the identification of sustainability topics, and in regard to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) methodology, this approach was carried out in accordance with the draft version dated November 2022. However, correspondence with the version published in the delegated act of July 31, 2023 was ensured.