How Does the Understanding of Materiality Affect Non-Financial Reporting?

Discussion Series on The Final Report Of The German Sustainable Finance Committee

with Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen (Universität Hamburg), Ingmar Jürgens (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management), Prof. Dr. Frank Schiemann (Universität Hamburg), Theresa Spandel (Universität Hamburg), and Raphael Tietmeyer (Universität Hamburg)

When companies report on non-financial aspects such as their environmental or social impact, they need to decide what information is material for these reports. The understanding of “materiality” is explicitly or implicitly inherent to all regulations or recommendations on non-financial reporting; and in that sense, is also one of the central issues for the up-coming review of the EU non-financial reporting directive. Against this background, also the recommendations in the final report of the German Sustainable Finance Committee can be seen in the light of materiality. In our event, we will present and discuss different definitions of materiality upon which existing standards and recommendations are built. How can companies deal with the challenge of identifying what non-financial information is material for their reporting?  What role does the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) Materiality Map play? (How) Can the concept of materiality help in defining the scope of mandatory non-financial reporting? We look forward to discussing these and more questions with you in the last part of our discussion series.

This event is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.