As a general practice for most listed companies, stakeholders engagement and materiality assessment are conducted annually or at least regularly. With the material issues identified been used as the basis of the sustainability reporting as well as guidance for the senior leadership of companies in designing long-term business strategy, the validation of the assessment process and the ESG issues identified are crucial to business operations.
GreenCo recently conducted a validation meeting for a licensed bank in Hong Kong. During the meeting, the methodology of materiality assessment, analysis of responses and material issues identified were presented to the senior management and leadership of the company for endorsement. Expectations and recommendations from the stakeholders were also summarised for their reference.
We believe by conducting validation meeting is one of the best ways for the senior management of a company to demonstrate its engagement in the overall ESG oversight while fulfilling its obligations for the good ESG governance.