CSRD Double Materiality Assessment (Stakeholder Survey)

Stakeholders rate the ESRS topic areas by impact and financial materiality – the data basis for your CSRD materiality matrix.

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CSRD Double Materiality Assessment (Stakeholder Survey) – questionnaire preview

The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires in-scope companies to run a double materiality assessment: for every sustainability topic, evaluate how strongly the company affects people and the environment (inside-out, impact materiality) and how strongly the topic financially affects the company (outside-in, financial materiality). Stakeholder involvement is explicitly foreseen – and that is exactly what this template delivers: employees, customers, suppliers, investors and other groups rate the topic areas of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) on both dimensions. The result is the data basis for your materiality matrix and documented stakeholder engagement for the auditor.

When should you use this template?

This template is a great fit for:

  • At the start of every CSRD materiality assessment as structured stakeholder engagement
  • For the annual review of the materiality matrix
  • Also for voluntary reporters (e.g. under VSME) as a lean entry point

Every question in this template

  1. 1

    Which group do you belong to in relation to our company? *

    Single choice
    • Employee
    • Customer
    • Supplier / business partner
    • Investor / capital provider
    • Municipality, NGO or association
    • Other
  2. 2

    Our company's impact on people and the environment

    How significant is our company's impact on the following topics – positive or negative? (Inside-out perspective)

    Matrix
    Not significantLow significanceMedium significanceHigh significanceVery high significance
    Climate change and energy (E1)
    Pollution (E2)
    Water and marine resources (E3)
    Biodiversity and ecosystems (E4)
    Resource use and circular economy (E5)
  3. 3

    Financial significance of the topics for our company

    How strongly do the following topics affect our company financially, as risks or opportunities? (Outside-in perspective)

    Matrix
    Not significantLow significanceMedium significanceHigh significanceVery high significance
    Climate change and energy (E1)
    Pollution (E2)
    Water and marine resources (E3)
    Biodiversity and ecosystems (E4)
    Resource use and circular economy (E5)
  4. 4

    Which topics should our company address with the highest priority?

    Please rank the topics – the most important first.

    Ranking
    • 1Climate action and energy
    • 2Circular economy and resources
    • 3Fair working conditions
    • 4Supply chain responsibility
    • 5Consumer protection and data security
    • 6Ethics and good governance
  5. 5

    What concrete expectations do you have of our company on sustainability?

    Long text

From questionnaire to dashboard

The dashboard builds the exact visuals your sustainability report needs from the ratings:

  • Materiality matrix: The centrepiece: per ESRS topic, mean impact materiality plotted against financial materiality as a scatter chart – topics in the top right are double material and therefore reportable.
  • Stakeholder comparison: Topics crossed with stakeholder groups as a heatmap: do investors rate climate change differently from your own workforce? Exactly these differences are what the assessment requires.
  • Topic profiles per dimension: Mean bars per topic, separated into inside-out and outside-in – the tabular complement to the matrix for the report annex.
  • Priority ranking: The ranking question shows which topics stakeholders put on top – a plausibility check for your threshold decision.
  • Expectations verbatim: Open-ended expectations as a searchable text list plus AI topic analysis – quotes from it bring the stakeholder engagement section of your report to life.

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Frequently asked questions

Is this survey sufficient as a materiality assessment?
It is the stakeholder building block, not the whole process. The full assessment also includes analysing the business model and value chain, internal scoring workshops, threshold setting and methodology documentation. The survey provides the robust, documented stakeholder perspective for it.
Which stakeholders should we survey?
At minimum your own workforce, key customers, suppliers and capital providers; depending on the business model also municipalities, NGOs or associations. The group question at the start makes perspectives comparable in the dashboard – weighting can happen later in the analysis.
Can we adapt the topic list?
Yes – and you should: the template covers the topical ESRS standards (E1–E5, S1–S4, G1) at the top level. Make individual rows more concrete for your industry (e.g. “water use in production” instead of generic “water & resources”), but keep the mapping to ESRS topics so the matrix stays compatible.
Does the CSRD even apply to us?
The scope has been adjusted several times recently (see the Omnibus process); size classes and reporting years are decisive. Check the current status with your auditor. Many mid-sized companies run the assessment voluntarily – as a basis for the voluntary VSME standard or because banks and key accounts ask for it.

Start with this template

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