From materiality analysis to sustainability strategy

Back in 2014, we supported the baby food manufacturer Holle in structuring its sustainability issues and formulating sustainability goals. An important tool in this process was the materiality analysis.

For this workshop format, we brought in representatives from the management, communication, purchasing and quality departments. Together we discussed Holle’s key sustainability issues.

Materiality analysis: Assess the influence of economic, environmental and social impacts on decisions made by customers, employees, politicians and associations.

Process

The materiality analysis consisted of three parts:

Workshop in the company:
- Developing a materiality matrix for each stakeholder, in this case: employees, customers, politics, associations.
- Answering the question of how big the impact of Holles’ actions is on an economic, ecological and social level.
Summarising the workshop results in clusters by Soil & More Impacts.
Formulate sustainability goals for Holle based on the clusters

ResultsHolle's sustainability strategy was developed from the materiality analysis. The results were used for the first time in the Sustainability Report 2014. It presented the sustainability spike, which is based on the clustered workshop results and covers the following aspects: corporate culture, product responsibility, partnerships, agriculture, employees and resources. To this day, Holle uses the sustainability spike in direct communication with customers, for example on packaging.

Holle’s sustainability strategy was developed from the materiality analysis. The results were used for the first time in the Sustainability Report 2014. It presented the sustainability spike, which is based on the clustered workshop results and covers the following aspects: corporate culture, product responsibility, partnerships, agriculture, employees and resources.

To this day, Holle uses the sustainability spike in direct communication with customers, for example on packaging.