Prioritising Key Issues

Our ‘materiality’ process provides a tool for identifying the key sustainability issues we face as an organisation, corroborating the views of our people with the perceptions of various external stakeholders, and agreeing a prioritised list of issues that inform our strategy and guide us on what to report.

Materiality Results

Our most recent materiality analysis was carried out in 2018. The results are reflected in the matrix below.

The analysis identified our most important issues as:

  • Corporate governance and business practices
  • Supply chain sustainability
  • Customer centricity and experience
  • Employee engagement and wellbeing
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Digitalisation

The materiality matrix plots each issue and the ratings accorded to it. The y-axis represents the importance to stakeholders and the x-axis represents increasing importance to Chalhoub from left to right. Issues found closer to the upper right-hand corner of the matrix are of higher importance to Chalhoub and stakeholders.

Materiality Definitions and Methodology

Definitions of Materiality

For the purposes of this report, we use the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) definition of material topics: “those that reflect the organization’s significant economic, environmental and social impacts; or that substantively influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders.”

Materiality Process

Our most recent materiality analysis aligns with the GRI Standards, and followed three key steps:

We created a list of potential issues. Issues were identified through desk-based research, including a review of peer companies and industry standards, and employee interviews.

Once potential issues had been identified, internal and external stakeholders were surveyed to rate them in terms of their perceived importance. Average ratings were obtained from both groups of stakeholders. Internal stakeholders came from a wide range of functions across the business, while external stakeholders included primarily representatives of nongovernmental organisations and business partners. One internal stakeholder workshop was conducted and several interviews with external stakeholders were conducted to comment on the issues.

The materiality analysis was completed, the results were reviewed internally by Chalhoub’s sustainability team. Revisions were then made to ensure that our process and list of important issues were complete, well understood and inclusive of the perspectives obtained from stakeholders. The final materiality matrix was validated by our CEO.

Stakeholder Engagement
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