Material issues

During FY2016/17 we employed an external sustainability consultancy to conduct interviews with a broad range of our external stakeholders as part of a materiality assessment process. They then assessed the content of the interviews to identify key sustainability themes to focus on in our strategy development and reporting. Within this engagement exercise, a selection of Johnson Matthey’s customers and investors, as well NGOs and thought leaders, were interviewed, in confidence, by the external agency. Employees from across the company, working in a wide range of functions and business also completed a questionnaire to rank which Sustainability topics they considered most important to Johnson Matthey’s ongoing success. The resulting materiality matrix illustrates the relative importance of the key topics identified to both internal and external stakeholders. These topics were then used to define the priority goals and targets for the company’s sustainability strategy.

During FY2020/21 we carried out an internal review of the continued relevance of these topics on our materiality matrix, and found them to all be ongoing priorities for both our internal and external stakeholders. We recognise that the relative order of importance may of changed for some stakeholder groups but have not sought to quantify this and update their relative positioning on materiality matrix chart.

Materiality map

The map below highlights the areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus for JM that we have identified as key to our business and most important to our stakeholders.

Each area of focus is identified by a coloured circle. The coloured circles closest to the centre of the map are focus areas that JM has the ability to impact most directly. Our ability to impact decreases from the centre of the map outwards.