The Integrated Reporting Movement: Meaning, Momentum, Motives, and Materiality

Appendix 6BMethodology for the Materiality Matrices Review

We studied the materiality matrices of 91 companies as published on their websites, restricting our search for matrices to those that had been published or updated since 2010 in order to provide the most accurate review of current practice. An initial group of 16 companies was identified from an Internet search, which we supplemented with companies identified through four other sources. Framework LLC's 2011 report “The Materiality Bridge” was the source of 10 companies. The 2011 Fronesys report “Materiality Futures” was the source of 14 companies. RobecoSAM provided proprietary data from its Corporate Sustainability Assessment of 2000 firms.¹ This is a representative sample of the Standard & Poor's (S&P) Global Broad Market Index since the sample is based on a geographical and sector mix that closely mirrors the S&P broader universe of approximately 10,000 companies. RobecoSAM evaluated these companies for evidence of a materiality process description, a materiality matrix, or a discussion of materiality issues. We identified 42 companies from their study as having materiality matrices and included them in our review. Finally, from the analysis of integrated reports in Chapter 7, we were able to identify an additional nine companies to include in our review.

The materiality matrix was located either separately on the company's website or in one of its reports (annual, sustainability, or integrated). We evaluated both ...