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Knowledge Hub·Materiality Navigator

Most materiality assessments start from a long, generic list of topics — and much of the early work goes into finding out which ones actually apply.

Start a materiality assessment with a sharper first question.

Choose an industry and a business model and start from an industry-informed shortlist instead of a blank page — each topic with the reasons it may matter, the questions to test, the evidence to collect and the disclosures it connects to. Then record a preliminary screening decision a reviewer can follow.

The shortlist is an industry-informed hypothesis. Your task is to test it against the organisation's impacts, dependencies, risks, opportunities and stakeholder evidence.

Example: choose Oil and Gas and Exploration and Production to find candidate topics. Investigate each topic and record your reasons. The final frame explains the available screening choices; it does not assign decisions to the example topics or determine materiality.
Choose your industry

Choose an industry

Industries by sector

48 industries, grouped by sector.

Consumer Goods

4 industries · 124 topics

Extractives & Minerals Processing

5 industries · 169 topics

Financials

1 industry · 74 topics

Food & Beverage

5 industries · 127 topics

Health Care

3 industries · 97 topics

Infrastructure

7 industries · 168 topics

Public sector and non-profit

2 industries · 32 topics

  • NGO

    1 sub-industry 16 candidate topics

  • Public Agencies

    1 sub-industry 16 candidate topics

Renewable Resources & Alternative Energy

1 industry · 33 topics

Resource Transformation

4 industries · 109 topics

Services

5 industries · 120 topics

Technology & Communications

4 industries · 104 topics

Transportation

7 industries · 139 topics

How it works

Four steps from shortlist to decision.

  1. Choose the business modelPick the sub-industry you are screening. The shortlist narrows to its candidate topics.
  2. Refine with activitiesOptionally tick what the organisation actually does. Topics those activities touch move to the top, with the reason shown.
  3. Investigate each topicRead why it may be material, the questions to test, the evidence to collect and the disclosures it connects to.
  4. Record a preliminary decisionInclude, ask for more evidence or set it aside provisionally — with the rationale a reviewer would expect. Decisions and notes stay in this browser until you export them to Excel.

Beyond the screening

A screening is where a materiality assessment starts, not where it ends.

Stakeholder engagement, severity and likelihood, financial effects, thresholds, governance and an audit trail turn a shortlist into a result you can defend.

Certified Materiality Assessment for ESG Reporters Course →

Materiality Navigator — walkthrough