Case Rodenstock: Elevating sustainability strategy with a data-driven double materiality assessment

Starting point: Preparing for CSRD reporting and setting a baseline for sustainability strategy

Preparing for CSRD reporting provided a boost to Rodenstock’s sustainability efforts, prompting the company to establish a dedicated sustainability function. For a global organisation like the Rodenstock Group, defining double materiality in a consistent and comparable way – while ensuring it could be updated annually – proved to be a considerable challenge.

Matthias Neumann, Sustainability Officer at Rodenstock, describes the initial situation: “We are a global organisation, which brings complexity. Reflecting different legislations, mindsets, and practices across these locations was challenging, and we quickly realised it wouldn’t be easy to manage CSRD efforts in all markets consistently,” Neumann explains.

Solution: A lean and objective double materiality assessment

For Rodenstock, it was clear from the start that conducting a double materiality assessment was more than just pleasing auditors; this was an opportunity to embrace a deeper approach to sustainability.

The assessment combined Rodenstock’s own data inputs with Upright’s data engine, which leverages 300 million scientific articles and external databases. Additionally, stakeholders were actively involved in the process through surveys conducted in the summer of 2024. The science-based insights provided by Upright were then enriched with stakeholder input to deliver a comprehensive assessment.

The process began in early summer and concluded at the end of summer, allowing the results to be presented to Rodenstock’s team when they returned from vacation, ready to incorporate the findings into their strategic planning.

Benefits: Building a consistent foundation for sustainability reporting and strategy

The final list of Rodenstock’s material impacts, risks, and opportunities and their ranking matched the company’s initial expectation.

“However, there were a few we hadn’t anticipated as material or that we had taken for granted internally,” Neumann shares.

One surprising finding was the importance of accessibility to their products and services. While Rodenstock had considered this issue as resolved, their double materiality assessment highlighted the need for greater transparency.

The team particularly appreciated the data-driven approach, which ensured the results were unified, objective, and comparable.This also ensures consistency of upcoming annual updates, making the process more straightforward in the future.

Beyond affirming existing priorities, Rodenstock’s double materiality assessment also shed light on the next steps in their sustainability journey. The company is now concentrating on consolidating its sustainability data, aligning it with business objectives, and preparing for future reporting requirements in order to set a solid foundation for long-term sustainability efforts.