Juliana Webel
Juliana Webel
Double Materiality x Systems Thinking
Juliana Webel x Julia Nitz
Most DMAs are done just for compliance. There is a better way.
Since the era of GRI and CSRD, the Double Materiality Assessment has become one of the foundational exercises of corporate sustainability reporting. For most companies, it’s treated as exactly that: a reporting exercise, boxed in as a compliance task, then left aside, sitting idle for months. Given how much time and resources go into a DMA, it’s striking how little practical use companies get out of the results afterward.
This approach to DMA is for you if:
You’ve already run a DMA which you need to update, and you’re sitting on a list of impacts, risks and opportunities that hasn’t been touched in months, with no clear way to pick it back up.
You’re about to start your first DMA and feel overwhelmed, unsure of the first step or the right direction.
You want to map your organisation as a system to see your IROs connected visually, helping you understand what decisions need to be made to trigger systematic change.
You see the value in understanding how deeply your company interacts with and depends on external systems, and want to build risk awareness and business resilience from that.
Julia Nitz and I explore four friction points companies struggle with the most when performing a DMA.
1. There’s no shared definition of materiality across frameworks
2. There’s no standard procedure for running a DMA
3. Impact materiality is harder to engage with than financial materiality
4. Data collection starts without knowing what’s worth collecting
Two ideas that look separate
We started by exploring two topics that, on the surface, had nothing to do with each other: Double Materiality and Systems Thinking. One is a regulatory exercise most companies approach as an obligation, while the other is a way of understanding how complex things behave. The more we worked through the two together, the clearer it became that looking at a DMA as a systems thinking tool can bring real value to an organization, whether or not it has any reporting obligations.
The usual workshop
Figure out the list of IROs per topic and subtopic.
We’d argue that’s like asking someone to put together a puzzle without giving them any physical pieces.
What we propose instead
Look at the DMA through a systems-thinking lens to understand what is driving your IROs, making it easier to identify what needs to change.
IROs are a derivative of how the system functions, not standalone items you identify and then try to link together afterwards.
What you will find in the paper
What changes when you apply a systems thinking lens to the DMA?
Once you understand the elements, connections, and feedback loops that compose your organisation's system, the value shows up in how the DMA gets used, not just in how it gets built.
You will know where to focus
Once you understand the elements, connections, and feedback loops that compose your organisation's system, the value shows up in how the DMA gets used, not just in how it gets built.
The DMA gets used between reporting cycles
A systems-driven DMA produces a map of where your risks and opportunities actually generate from, and who holds the levers that could change that pattern.
Real engagement: people become allies, not obstacles
When people across the business see their own work reflected in the DMA rather than replaced by it, the process gains legitimacy from the inside out.
Resources go where they matter most
Once you understand the connections and feedback loops in your organisation, you can identify where to prioritise resources and investment to improve both sustainability practices and long-term profitability.
Let’s run your next DMA this way.
This paper lays out the foundation of the thinking. Putting it into practice, mapping your organisation as a system, deriving your IROs from it, and building the feedback loops into how you actually use the results, is the work we do with clients directly. Whether you’re running your first DMA or revisiting one that produced an excel nobody’s touched since, we’ll help you build it this way from the start.