Sustainability insights: 9 priority sustainability topics

Sustainability insights: 9 priority sustainability topics for garment and upholstery manufacturers
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A few months ago LTP published the article: “3 simple rules to identify the relevant sustainability priorities for your own company” . This article described how to conduct a best practice materiality assessment by following 3 simple rules.

We are now happy to share more details about the result of the materiality assessment conducted between May and August 2021 and how we arrived to it. We believe that the 9 identified sustainability priorities are also relevant for our peers and for garment and furniture brands.

What is a materiality assessment?
An assessment to identify sustainability priority topics

As its name indicates, a materiality assessment is an evaluation to identify what is material, meaning what is important or significant. Not to be confused with the materials used in products. The objective is to know which sustainability topics are important and should be of focus for an organization. It enables a company to go from a long list of potential sustainability topics to a list of the most relevant ones and as such where to prioritize time and money. Although today there are many resources available to assess which sustainability topics are critical for some industries, the level of detail is not sufficient to ensure relevance for a specific organization, considering its geographical footprint, its industry and its activities within the value chain.  

At LTP Group, we conducted the materiality assessment to be able to build a sustainability strategy that would focus on the right priorities as part of our 2025 Strategy.  

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What is the process?
The importance of stakeholder’s involvement

The first step of conducting a materiality assessment is to identify which stakeholders should be involved, to guarantee that the identified priority sustainability topics are the right ones. Involvement of stakeholders is a core principle, as a materiality assessment based on internal knowledge only or which does not involve different perspectives won’t be strong enough to be used as basis for a sustainability strategy.  

As described in the below figure, we involved the management team, the sales team and the purchase team to identify together with the sustainability team which internal and external stakeholders should be involved. We made sure to have a group that would represent the complexity of our activities in terms of geographies, industries, and type of work. In total, 80 people have been involved through interviews and an online survey.  

Each stakeholder provided their knowledge and point of view, and has given grades to 20 sustainability topics which had been pre-identified in internal workshops. Out of this collective input we have identified 9 sustainability topics that are material for us as an organization.  

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What are the results?
Ranking of topics by level of importance for both the business and external stakeholders

The 9 material sustainability topics are listed in the below figure. They are identified as material since they are highly important for both LTP business interest representatives (management team, board of directors) and LTP stakeholder interest representatives (employees, customers, civil society etc.).  

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How to use the results?
Grouping of results and development of sustainability commitments

As depicted in the below figure, the 9 material topics were grouped in three categories based on shared properties. For each of them we identified the relevant UN SDGs by utilizing the GRI UN SDGs linkage resource. We also defined 4 related sustainability commitments:  

• Care for People
• Embrace Circularity

• Fight for Climate
• Unlock Transparency

For clarity, the 4 sustainability commitments description should indicate the related sustainability topics coming out of the materiality assessment and the ambition level of the company on those. It is also essential that the company’s executive team signs off on the commitments.  

Who to contact in case of questions?

If you have any questions about @LTPGroup’s work with the materiality assessment or sustainability strategy, please contact our Strategic Sustainability Manager, Karin Simondon at KASI@ltpgroup.com  

Consciously Crafted Garment & Furniture

LTP Group is production partner for demanding Sport & Outdoor and Furniture brands with 9 fully owned factories across 5 countries in Europe, Asia and North America.

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