Sustainability Management
Materiality Analysis & Stakeholder Engagement
Materiality Analysis
USI uses the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standards and the AA1000 Accountability Principles of Inclusivity, Materiality, Responsiveness, and Impact as our framework to identify material issues for ESG disclosure. We referenced GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 and integrated the Value Balancing Alliance methodology, Harvard Business School Impact-Weighted Accounts methodology, London Benchmarking Group (LBG) framework, and the TIMM Impact Evaluation framework to assess the significance of economic, environment, and people/human rights impacts mapped to sustainable issues. The results are then prioritized according to their significance, presented to the Sustainability Committee, and incorporated into our enterprise risk management process to serve as a reference for setting our long-term sustainability goals and strategies.
Phase I. Inclusivity: Identify Stakeholders & Design Sustainability Surveys
In 2022, we defined our 7 major stakeholders as: shareholders/investors/banks, employees, customers, suppliers/contractors, governments, industry unions/associations, and communities (including NGOs and the media).
We integrated the SDGs, GRI Standards, SASB Standards, TCFD framework, RBA Code of Conduct, S&P Global CSA, and MSCI ESG Rating with our industry-specific characteristics and ASEH's requirements and compiled them into 8 governance issues, 6 environmental issues, and 7 social issues, 21 sustainable issues in total.
Phase II. Materiality: Investigate Stakeholder Concerns & Double Materiality Impact Analysis
In 2022, we collected 1,089 Stakeholder Concern Surveys from external and internal stakeholders and identified issues of high stakeholder concern.
Using the EU concept of double materiality, we conducted an Operational Impact Survey to reflect Financial Materiality and measured the impact of each sustainable issue on the Company's revenue, risks, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. 89 senior executives and Sustainability Committee members filled out this survey as representatives of USI's operations.
For Significance Materiality, apart from incorporating TIMM impact evaluation results, 10 managers and colleagues conducted an External Sustainability Impact Survey that includes 9 positive and 6 negative impacts on the economy, environment, and people/human rights and assesses the severity and likelihood of actual and potential impacts. The survey results identify 6 significant impacts, including 3 positive economic impacts, 1 positive, and 2 negative environmental impacts.
Impact Evaluation-External Sustainability Significance Impact
Double Materiality Assessment Results
Dimension | Material Issue | Operational Significance (Financial Materiality) | External Sustainability Impact (Significance Materiality) | ||||||||
Revenue | Risks | Customer Satisfaction | Employee Engagement | Innovating Products that Advance Industrial Development (+ Positive) | Creating Upstream or Industrial Value (+ Positive) | Paying Taxes & Fees to Support Infrastructure and Social Welfare (+ Positive) | Producing Products with Environmental Benefits (+ Positive) | Resource Consumption (- Negative) | Pollutant Emissions Affecting Human Health (- Negative) | ||
Governance/ Economic |
Business Ethics | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||||||
Customer Relationship Management | √ | √ | √ | √ | |||||||
Sustainable Supply Chain | √ | √ | √ | √ | |||||||
Innovation Management & Sustainable Production |
√ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |||||
Cybersecurity Management | √ | √ | |||||||||
Environmental |
Climate Change | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||||||
Energy Management | √ | √ | √ | ||||||||
Air Pollution Control | √ | ||||||||||
Social |
Occupational Health & Safety | √ | |||||||||
Talent Attraction & Retention | √ | √ | |||||||||
Human Capital Development | √ | ||||||||||
Human Rights | √ | √ | |||||||||
Social Involvement | √ |
Phase III. Responsiveness: Identify Material Issues & Define Topic Disclosures and Boundaries
We assessed the significance of the issues by cross-analyzing the Stakeholder Concern Survey, Operational Impact Survey, and External Sustainability Impact Survey, then consulted external experts and the Sustainability Committee to determine 13 material issues. The materiality assessment results were then reviewed and signed off by the Board of Directors.
We mapped 19 GRI topic standards and 5 USI-specific topics responding to the identified material issues. Non-material issues such as Diversity & Inclusion are also disclosed in this report as they are essential in USI's sustainable development.
Following the principle of comparability, our 2022 ESG Report covers the material issues of the previous year. The structure of this report follows indicator reporting requirements and fully discloses USI's current policies and plans for fulfilling ESG sustainability development.
Phase IV. Impact: Formulate Long-term Goals & Evaluate Impact
USI's five Sustainability Taskforces have disclosed management approaches and strategies for each material issue according to their requirements, formulating 38 long-term goals.
In addition to quarterly Executive Team meetings, the Sustainability Taskforces also meet semiannually to review the progress of each goal. At the annual Sustainability Committee meeting, we review our achievements, make rolling adjustments, track sustainability trends, and manage the impact of our sustainability goals. We publicly disclose the direction, progress, and performance of our sustainability goals in our annual ESG Report.
Stakeholder Engagement
To respond to issues that highly impact corporate operations and are also of high stakeholder concern, we communicate with our stakeholders through various platforms on our sustainable development strategies and progress to maintain and strengthen our relationships.
Stakeholder | Focus Issues | Communication Channel/Frequency | 2022 Performance |
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Shareholders/ Investors/ Banks |
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Customers |
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Employees |
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Suppliers/ Contractors |
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Governments |
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Industry Unions/ Associations |
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Communities (NGOs and the Media) |
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