Materiality is an assessment of how the activities of a business impact society, the environment, specific stakeholders and the finances of the business itself. That business may have caused these impacts, contributed to them or have links to the impacts.
Meridian is committed to delivering on its purpose of clean energy for a fairer and healthier world. Our strategy for achieving this is to expertly navigate the energy transition for Aotearoa New Zealand.
We also recognise that it matters how we manage the impacts associated with our operations, development practices and supply chain.
To do this, Meridian considers both impact materiality (society, the environment and stakeholders) and financial materiality (how they do or may impact our bottom line). This is known as double materiality.
Meridian reports on our material impacts and topics as part of our annual Integrated Report. We do this based on the updated 2021 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Our material topics are also reflected in our business strategy and risk management approach.
We measure our material impacts using a mix of internal and external stakeholder engagement, together with consideration of:
We alternate between what we call review years and reassessment years. FY26 was a review year.
Review years involve an internal process which considers only those material impacts reported in the previous year. To assess our FY26 impacts, we conducted internal scoring sessions for each of our FY25 impacts or group of related impacts. These brought together subject matter experts to review and score impact materiality, with a separate group of financial and risk experts then scoring the financial materiality of each impact. We also reviewed the stakeholder feedback that was received in the FY25 reassessment year.
Reassessment years involve the same internal process, together with external stakeholder engagement and consideration of new impacts.
We assess the significance of each impact by scoring its severity and likelihood. For severity, we consider the scale (how grave the impact is), scope (how widespread it is) and each impact’s irremediable character (how hard it is to put the harm right). Potential impacts are considered against the likelihood of the impact occurring. In addition, we consider the potential financial impact on Meridian over time.
For each impact, we calculate a social and environmental significance score and a financial significance score. Closely related impacts are then grouped into material topics. Each topic is scored and ranked by summing the social and environmental or financial significance scores of its related impacts, using whichever is higher.
In order to determine the material topics and underlying impacts for reporting, we apply a minimum threshold for each axis (impact and financial materiality). This year, the threshold was raised from 45 to 110. This resulted in four topics and nine impacts reported this year, compared to nine topics and 14 impacts in FY25.
Our FY26 material topics in order of priority are:
The topics reported last year that did not meet the FY26 reporting threshold are climate-related impacts, customer decarbonisation, public trust, emissions and waste, cyber and physical security, and people. However, each of these material topics remains strategically important to Meridian and is actively managed. Please refer to our Integrated ESG Data Pack, Climate-related Disclosure and Climate Action Plan to learn more.
Every two years we engage with stakeholders who are likely to experience significant impacts through our activities. Their feedback can help identify new impacts and also provides input into our scoring process. Last year, we captured the feedback of 198 stakeholders and this research was reviewed again this year.
You can read more about the stakeholder feedback captured in FY25, and how this was assessed, in Kantar’s External Stakeholder Feedback Report.
Tackling Zero is Meridian’s quarterly newsletter for people whose roles or studies are focused on sustainability, or for whom this is an area of interest. Each issue will offer Meridian’s insights into a topical sustainability issue, as well as stories on how we, our customers and supply chain partners are tackling sustainability. It also includes links to recent Meridian disclosures such as new policies and reports.