Experts: How ESG materiality assessments impact compliance

Transparency in environmental, social, and governance reporting has become an important goal, with materiality assessments impacting compliance outcomes, experts said during Compliance Week’s virtual ESG Summit on Tuesday.

Hilary Wandall, chief ethics and compliance officer at business analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet, spoke as part of a session on materiality assessments. She was joined by Gwen Miller-Dannelongue, ESG and impact reporting manager at satellite imagery provider Planet Labs, who broke down the initial process of a materiality assessment.

“You’ll start by pulling a larger universe of topics that you think may be material to your organization,” Miller-Dannelongue said. “Typically, that’s 20 to 30 topics you have found via research of your peers.”