bat sustainability report 2007 - Materiality test
Comment from Ernst & Young LLP
“British American Tobacco undertook a materiality process which was refined through discussions with management and specific external stakeholders. The application of the materiality test has required a significant degree of judgement by management on the relevance of particular topics to the readers of the Report and the significance to British American Tobacco’s business. We are not aware of any key topics considered most material by British American Tobacco through this process that were not included in the Report.”
Three-stage materiality test
Stage one: The existing 76 issues were mapped onto a matrix, categorising each one according to its concern to stakeholders and its potential impact on the Group.
Stage two: Internal consultation with regional teams, senior functional managers and the Management Board and the Board CSR Committee.
Stage three: Dialogue with external stakeholders.
The result has been a focusing of our efforts into five categories – harm reduction, marketplace, supply chain, environment and people and culture.
Over the last seven years we have consulted stakeholders to identify their issues of greatest concern. In 2007, we decided to take stock and review all the issues that had been raised in dialogue with our companies internationally.
A total of 76 issues across 14 categories were identified. In order to establish which were the most significant, we devised a three-stage review process.
In stage one, the existing 76 issues were mapped onto the matrix below, categorising each one according to its concern to stakeholders and its potential impact on the Group. Stage two involved a period of internal consultation involving regional teams and senior functional managers in the relevant areas, such as our Head of Environment, Health and Safety, as well as the Management Board and the Board CSR Committee.
From this process, we generated a reduced list of issues which we then presented for comment at our dialogue on sustainability.
The result has been a focusing of our efforts into five categories – harm reduction, marketplace, supply chain, environment and people and culture.
We believe the increased focus provided by our sustainability agenda will help us to make greater progress on our most significant issues.
At the same time, we acknowledge that some stakeholders are interested in other areas of our social, environmental and economic performance. Therefore, we intend to continue reporting on a wider scope of activity on our website, including our community investment and our views on public place smoking, two issues that we know are of interest to particular stakeholder groups.
© 2008 British American Tobacco