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 our purpose of Clean energy for a fairer and healthier world. Our strategy for achieving this is an all-encompassing focus on climate action. 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, environment and stakeholders) and financial impact (how they do or may impact our bottom line). This is known as double materiality.
Closely related material impacts are then grouped into material topics.
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:
In 2024 we began alternating between what we call review years and reassessment years.
Review years involve an internal process which considers only those material impacts assessed and reported in the previous year. The focus is on reviewing and rescoring the significance of our existing impacts based on any changes in our operating or sustainability contexts. To do this we conduct a survey for each individual impact. These are completed by a range of internal subject matter, financial and risk experts.
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.
Reassessment years involve the same internal process, together with external stakeholder engagement and consideration of new impacts. FY25 was our first reassessment year and exploration of new impacts involved a three-step approach.
We began by reviewing our business strategy and the Detailed Enterprise and Emerging Risk report to explore whether there were initiatives or risks, including those arising from grievance mechanisms, that might suggest additional impacts. We captured stakeholder feedback through our Stakeholder Research Project (delivered by Kantar), and also engaged a sustainability consultancy to conduct a desktop study of emerging trends and potential impacts in New Zealand business, the global electricity industry and materiality best practice.
We then held a facilitated workshop with internal subject matter experts to review the potential impacts gathered from the above steps, and to consider others, before agreeing which impacts should be carried forward into the impact assessment process.
One new impact was added as a result of this work – ‘supporting companies to increase renewable generation through partnerships and offtake agreements’ – reflecting recent innovations in our approach to securing new renewable energy.
Scoring of material impacts then involved two parallel processes: a survey of internal subject matter experts and use of the Stakeholder Research Project to capture the feedback of external stakeholder and mana whenua through 101 interviews and 98 survey responses.
Meridian’s material topics are reflected in our risk management approach. We review our enterprise risks every six months, new and emerging risks every quarter and ESG risks (including new ones arising from material impacts assessment) at least annually. A key part of these reviews is to ensure appropriate mitigation measures are in place to deal with those risks.
In assessing risk related to our material topics we consider their potential impact on our business across the following risk categories:
Learn more about our risk management approach.
A full list of material impact and topics, their related targets and progress against targets can be found in the 'Our Material Impacts' section of our most recent Integrated 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.