06/23/2022
To align the business and sustainability strategy with stakeholder expectations Sika regularly processes a materiality analysis. The outcome is a materiality matrix, showing the topics that matter the most to Sika and its stakeholders. The information gained through this process supports decisions about the direction of the business and sustainability management, identifying risks and opportunities. It also allows the integration of sustainability topics into the Sika Growth Strategy, and the selection as well as the prioritization of focus areas for reporting and communication based on stakeholder needs.
Materiality Analysis 2022: Results Available Now
Materiality analyses were carried out by Sika back in 2013, 2015, and 2018. In 2022, to define the new Materiality Matrix, Sika followed a three-steps process:
- Inventory of potential material ESGE topics: In total, 29 ESGE topics were rated by stakeholders (7 Environment, 8 Social, 10 Governance, 4 Economic), focusing on the ESGE topics’ relevance for Sika’s business.
- Identification and prioritization of stakeholders: approximately 3,300 internal and external contacts, covering 17 stakeholder groups were sent a survey, with a total of 1,127 responses. For every response, Sika donated for two NGOs. Feedback was collected from more than 90 countries.
- Prioritization of material ESGE topics: all sustainability/ESGE topics were given medium to very high importance, there has been a clear convergence between internal and external stakeholders’ opinions on the most important topics.
Internal stakeholders gave higher scores to governance and economic topics, and external stakeholders gave higher scores to social and environmental topics. Global results matched regional preferences.
The Board of Directors approved the new Materiality Matrix in May 2022.
Biodiversity and Nature: After reviewing the analysis conducted between 2021/2022, the positioning of the topic “Biodiversity and Nature” on the x-axis was adjusted to reflect the actual scoring (2.9). According to the Sika methodology, the topics were scored from 1 to 5 and the scoring scale of the matrix is: Low (1-2), Medium (2-3), High (3-4), Very high (4-5).