In 2020 RAG Austria AG carried out a comprehensive materiality analysis which included key external stakeholder groups for the first time.
For the purpose of preparing this report, the relevance of the material topics identified at that time was assessed by the experts from the CSR coordination team, taking into account the topics and impacts described in the GRI Oil and Gas Sector 2021 Standard.
At a workshop held with the coordination group, the topics from the sector standard were clustered into subject areas and assigned to the various task forces, which evaluated the relevance of the topics within their area of responsibility to identify whether RAG‘s operations have or can have an impact on the economy, the environment and people, and what those impacts are or can be.
After this, the experts from the coordination group took part in a workshop where they discussed and assessed the materiality of the task forces’ conclusions, prioritised them and assigned them to the current material topics. In contrast to 2020, we have consolidated two previous material topics due to the high degree of overlap between them – the topics ‘local links‘ and ‘stakeholder engagement‘ have been combined to form a new topic, ‘local communities‘. The Executive Board approved these material topics.
The table below lists RAG Austria AG’s material topics, with the related likely material topics from the GRI Oil and Gas Sector 2021 Standard on the right and the chapters of this report in which they are described on the left. The coordination team considers all of the other likely material topics from the sector standard which are not mentioned here to be immaterial for this report.
For the 2019/20 Sustainability Report we evaluated the economic, environmental and social impacts and presented them in tabular form. This report describes the impacts on the economy, the environment and people in the chapters on the various material topics.
Looking ahead to our next Sustainability Report, in 2023 and 2024 we plan to update the materiality analysis in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), with a view to taking an even more structured and systematic approach. Above all, this will involve incorporating the principle of double materiality.