Double materiality: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)
Double materiality (French: double matérialité) is a principle of European sustainability reporting: an issue matters either because the organisation affects people or the environment, or because it affects the organisation's financial position. The term belongs to that reporting framework, not to the common vocabulary of the harmonized structure.
Updated: · edition covered: ISO/UNDP 53001:2026
In an ISO/UNDP 53001 audit
An ISO 53001 auditor does not assess a double materiality analysis as such and gives no opinion on compliance with the CSRD. Where the organisation uses such an analysis to choose its priority SDGs, however, its method, its date and the way it feeds the system are examined.
The impact side must not be hidden behind the financial side: an SDG set aside because it weighs little on the accounts, while the business harms it significantly, has to be justified. Since the Omnibus I directive, the CSRD applies only to companies with more than 1,000 employees and turnover above €450 million. See the ISO/UNDP 53001 standard.
Where the two frameworks meet
Some organisations run both a CSRD report and an ISO 53001 system. The auditor accepts that one analysis can serve both, provided the SDG choices it leads to are traceable and are reviewed at the pace the management system sets.
See also
- Priority SDG: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)A priority SDG (French: *ODD prioritaire*) is a Sustainable Development Goal that the organisation treats as central to its management system, because its activities contribute strongly to it or risk harming it.
- Impact: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)An impact (French: *impact*, the same word) is a change, positive or negative, that an organisation causes or contributes to for people, society, the economy or the environment.
- Contribution to the SDGs: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Contribution to the SDGs (French: *contribution aux ODD*) is the effect, positive or negative, that an organisation's activities, products and decisions have on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.