Materiality and social impact measurement

Challenge

In 2021, Corporate Citizenship (an SLR company) supported Co-op in undertaking a project to identify clearly and accurately the most important material issues to the business and measure social impact. The goal of the project was to better articulate Co-op’s unique cooperative approach, inform strategic decisions, and directly link commerciality with social impact.

Solution

Corporate Citizenship initially played an advisory role in the double materiality process, with the intent to use the materiality assessment findings to inform the priority issues for Co-op’s social value framework development.

However, through initial discussions and varied survey results, we uncovered that internal stakeholders wanted to play a more active role in determining priority impact issues, and would benefit from an external party coming in to mediate conversations and ensure their voices were heard. Corporate Citizenship therefore extended its work with Co-op, to include additional workshops, interviews, and validation sessions, becoming more hands-on in supporting the stakeholder engagement process.

Impact

The comprehensive approach taken by Corporate Citizenship allowed Co-op to understand their most material issues, but also prioritise risks and opportunities while simultaneously ensuring stakeholder buy-in. Co-op went on to publish the findings in their 2021 Sustainability Report, stating that Corporate Citizenship helped “build a methodology informed by best practice, that would address the specific needs of our Co-op”.