Companies face rising expectations for greater transparency, credible assurance, and well-reasoned sustainability judgments. As regulations evolve and liability risks increase, materiality has become both more important and more challenging, shaping how organizations manage risk, allocate resources, and communicate long-term value.
About the Series
Materiality is a mindset that guides companies on what truly matters for resilience, credibility and long-term value – not just a reporting requirement. WBCSD’s Materiality Mindset series explores how companies are rethinking materiality across three connected dimensions: the legal and governance foundations that define accountability, the operational processes that embed materiality into decisions, and the strategic lens that uses materiality as a guide for long-term performance and investment.
As boards navigate a more volatile geopolitical, commercial and physical operating environment, the question of what is “material” is more complex than ever.
The WBCSD Materiality Mindset series helps companies navigate this shift by strengthening how materiality is understood, applied, and assured across the business.
It explores how companies are strengthening materiality across three connected dimensions:
Legal & Governance
accountability, liability, and judgment.
Operations & Management
embedding materiality into day-to-day decisions.
Strategy & Markets
linking materiality to long-term performance.
Addressing the Materiality Tunnel Vision
A Materiality Tunnel Vision occurs when companies concentrate only on what is easily assurance-ready or defensible rather than what is strategically important. This often results from rising assurance demands, audit constraints, and liability concerns.
Broadening the materiality lens helps companies identify emerging risks and opportunities, strengthen governance, and better connect sustainability insights to business decisions.
This Initiative Helps Companies:
Balance assurance demands with strategic insight
Clarify roles across legal, risk, finance, sustainability, reporting, and strategy
Embed materiality earlier in governance and planning
Improve assurance readiness through aligned evidence expectations
Connect materiality to decision-making and value creation
Produce clearer, more credible disclosures
Further Exploration
A curated selection of resources that deepen the understanding of materiality as a strategic concept and provide the foundations that inspired this series.
External Resources
UK FRC Materiality Series – Research & Insights
The UK FRC’s Materiality Series laid the foundation for the ‘Materiality Mindset’, exploring how materiality shapes corporate reporting, professional judgment, and assurance practices. Explore the full insights here.
Sustainability Reporting and the Evolution of Materiality – The Accounting Review
A foundational academic article tracing 25 years of materiality thinking, offering deeper conceptual insight into its strategic and relational role. Explore the full article here.