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Materiality assessment

Prioritizing challenges

Materiality assessment is a methodology to identify which Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues are the most significant for an organization. BOBST’s materiality showed that the most significant topics address challenges at three different levels of the value chain: operations, equipment, and packaging use & end-of-life. This finding motivated the articulation of BOBST’s sustainability strategy into three streams.

BOBST’s materiality assessment

In 2020, BOBST conducted a materiality assessment for the first time. The process began with a thorough review of ESG challenges in the packaging industry, which led to a list of potentially relevant topics.

To prioritize these topics, focus groups and bilateral interviews were organized with key stakeholders, both internal and external, chosen to reflect the diversity of perspectives in BOBST’s ecosystem. In particular, the various functions, managerial levels, geographies, ages, and gender within the Group:

  • More than 100 BOBST employees took place in face-to-face consultations, including amongst others: Local Entity Heads, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) managers, HR representatives, R&D engineers, administrative functions, together with Group Executive Committee and Board of Directors members;
  • In addition, 25 external key industry stakeholders were consulted, including brand owners, converters, associations, and others (e.g. partners).

Materiality matrix

The materiality matrix provided a visual representation of the issues that were prioritized according to their importance to the company’s stakeholders.

The result of BOBST’s materiality analysis shows the topics relevant to BOBST’s value chain based on the rankings given by the participants as represented in the materiality matrix.

Several sustainable issues are drawn from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and some are sector-specific topics not covered by the GRI standards but deemed to be of material importance by stakeholders.

The highest impact occurs downstream in the value chain, where BOBST has little leverage

Main findings of BOBST’s materiality analysis

The identified topics address challenges at three different levels of the BOBST value chain.

In quantitative footprint studies, such as the BOBST equipment life cycle assessments, it has become clear that the most significant sustainability impacts occur down the value chain at the customer sites and at end-of-life phase, where BOBST has little influence and leverage.

The three streams and their priority topics for the years 2022-2023

BOBST operations

  • Climate change
  • Energy
  • Water & waste
  • Occupational health & safety
  • Women & youth, diversity & equal opportunity
  • Innovation
  • Procurement & supply chain
  • Business ethics
  • Digitalization & data management
  • Talent attraction & satisfaction

Other important topics

  • Waste from the machinery

BOBST equipment

  • Machinery energy consumption
  • Extending the life of BOBST machines
  • Machine safety for the user

Packaging use & end-of-life

  • Environmentally improved packaging (This is an umbrella topic that addresses the environmental footprint of packaging holistically throughout its life cycle. A main focus area is the EoL of packaging, in particular the design for recyclability of packaging. However, other EoL pathways, e.g. compostability and biodegradability, are also considered).