Custom double materiality tool development
Appfront builds tools for double materiality assessment, the step that determines which topics an organisation reports on in its sustainability statement. Impacts on people and the environment, as well as financial risks and opportunities, are recorded, assessed and justified topic by topic, with input from stakeholders. The outcome is a list of material topics, with an audit trail of how they were reached that your auditor can follow.
What is a double materiality tool?
Under the CSRD, an organisation reports under the ESRS on the sustainability topics that are material to it. This is determined through a double materiality assessment: what impact does the organisation have on people and the environment, and which sustainability topics give rise to financial risks or opportunities? A topic is material if it passes the threshold on either side.
With the 2026 Omnibus Directive, the group of organisations falling under the CSRD has shrunk considerably, and the ESRS have been simplified. For those who are in scope, the double materiality assessment remains the core. Organisations outside the scope also sometimes carry out the assessment, because customers, banks or investors ask for it, or to steer their own sustainability policy. Whether your organisation falls under the CSRD is something you determine together with your auditor.
In practice, the assessment is done in a spreadsheet with workshops around it. The scores are in there, but the justification lives in the heads of the participants. Next year, nobody remembers why a topic got a three. And the auditor asks how the outcome was reached. We build custom work that fits how you run the analysis, with the justification and the audit trail included.
Per topic
Impacts, risks and opportunities for each sustainability topic, across the entire value chain.
Scores with justification
Assessment according to your criteria and thresholds, with sources and stakeholder input.
Audit trail
An outcome your auditor can follow, which can be updated next year.
How we build your double materiality tool
We start with your analysis: which method, which criteria and thresholds, who takes part, and how stakeholders are involved. You decide on the method, often with an adviser and in line with the guidance available. The tool ensures every step is recorded, so the analysis can be repeated and checked.
Your context, value chain, criteria, thresholds and participants.
Sustainability topics with impacts, risks and opportunities.
Scores with justification, and stakeholder input.
Material topics, an audit trail for the auditor, and the next cycle.
What a double materiality tool actually does
The components below come up in almost every materiality assessment. Which ones you need depends on your approach.
Topics
Sustainability topics as a starting list.
Impacts
Impacts on people and the environment per topic.
Risk and opportunity
Financial risks and opportunities per topic.
Stakeholders
Input via surveys or sessions.
Justification
Sources and rationale for each score.
Outcome
Material topics with an audit trail.
For whom we build a double materiality tool
The tool is intended for those who carry out or guide a double materiality assessment.
CSRD-obligated organisations
Reporting under the ESRS. The audit trail is the core.
Voluntary reporters
Buyers and banks ask for it. A clear outcome matters most.
Sustainability teams
Every year afresh. The versions are what you need.
Consultancies
Analyses for clients. A consistent way of working is at the core.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page covers the double materiality assessment. For the full sustainability report, see our page on CSRD reporting software; for the voluntary standard for SMEs, see our page on VSME software; and for data from the supply chain, see our page on a supplier sustainability data portal. You can read about how we work under custom software development.
Why choose Appfront for your double materiality tool?
A score without justification becomes a puzzle next year and a question for the auditor. That is what we build on: impacts, risks and opportunities per topic, scores with justification, and a trail that can be followed.
Substantiated
Every score with source and rationale.
Repeatable
Next year, you pick up where you left off.
Verifiable
A trail for the auditor.
Security and privacy for a double materiality tool
The tool holds strategic information about the company, its risks and its value chain. Access is set up by role, and stakeholders taking part in a survey see only their own questions.
The tool runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage, daily back-ups and sign-in with a second factor. Changes to scores are logged.
Frequently asked questions about a double materiality tool
Questions companies ask before getting started.
An assessment that determines which sustainability topics are material to a company, from two angles: the company's impact on people and the environment, and the financial risks and opportunities that sustainability topics present for the company. The material topics determine what is reported.
With the 2026 Omnibus Directive, the scope of the CSRD has been sharply narrowed to the largest companies. Whether your company falls under it, and from when, is for you to determine with your accountant or adviser.
Often, yes. Buyers, banks and investors increasingly ask about sustainability, and a materiality assessment helps you decide where to focus. The tool also works for a lighter assessment, for example alongside the VSME.
The method you choose, often with an adviser and in line with the guidance available. The tool records the steps, criteria and thresholds as you have defined them, and ensures every assessment is justified.
Through surveys that stakeholders complete online, or by recording the outcome of sessions and conversations. Their input is attached to the topics it concerns and is visible in the justification.
The outcome, and the trail leading to it: which topics were considered, which impacts, risks and opportunities, how they were assessed, with what justification, and who was involved. The auditor can be given read access.
Check that first. Many sustainability reporting packages have a materiality module, and that may be enough. Custom development makes sense if you have your own method, want to involve stakeholders broadly, or carry out the assessment for multiple clients or divisions.
A materiality assessment you can follow?
Tell us how you currently run the assessment, who takes part and who you report to. We will show you what the topics, the assessment and the trail look like.