Response from Nick Robinson, SustainAbility, UK: Companies face a dilemma in satisfying everyone’s needs, including experts who ask for more and more information to be included in the report, and stakeholders who are becoming more aware of the information they require from a company. There is a need for transparency in the process that companies use to select information for a report. The company needs to say up front, “This is what we have included and this is why we have included it”. The problem with materiality in sustainability reporting is that it is still such a new concept. In order for it to mature, companies need to be transparent about materiality and about the challenges they face in deciding what is material and what is not. Stakeholders must be able to understand what is being reported on and why it is relevant for the company. Another way to develop the concept is for experts in the sustainability field to provide companies with frameworks for considering materiality. At the same time, companies walk a tightrope in presenting all the information that is material to the company and yet still producing a readable report that is manageable in scope. What you don’t want to lose is context. Companies are loading more and more information into their reports for a growing number of stakeholders. But in doing so, the reader may lose sight of what the company actually does and what it produces, and this is counterproductive. People cannot judge the materiality of the information without context. The key for me is to be able to see clearly what a company has decided to put in a report and why they haven’t looked at other issues. When SustainAbility examines a report, we look at how a company identifies certain issues as important and what they see as their sustainability challenges. Transparency is also enhanced by the level of assurance and verification of information. If a company is open to a very deep and rigorous assurance process, it indicates to me it is quite open to transparency. Assurance can inspire trust and confidence that a company has reported rigorously on all the material issues. Nick Robinson is a member of the core team at SustainAbility. He coauthored the Trust Us report, a benchmark of sustainability reporting developed and conducted with the United Nations Environment Programme, and now leads the Engaging Stakeholders programme, of which Novo Nordisk is a member. | 
