5.1.2Materiality Methodology

SBM Offshore conducts materiality analysis according to the GRI Standards in order to include the topics in the Annual Report that can reasonably be considered important for reflecting the organization’s economic, environmental, and social impacts, or influencing the decisions of stakeholders.

Update material topics

SBM Offshore conducted the following steps to assess the material topics in order to ensure the Report contains the level of information required by stakeholders.

  • Step 1: Update the list of potential material topics
  • Step 2: Stakeholder engagement survey
  • Step 3: Analysis of operating environment
  • Step 4: Validation in Management Board meeting

In 2019, SBM Offshore reached out to specific stakeholder groups to assess the validity of the 2018 materiality assessment. The input provided by the stakeholder groups reaffirmed the 2018 assessment; there are no new material topics in 2019.

2019 Material topics

The results of the materiality assessment can be found in the materiality matrix, which can be found in section 1.7 Materiality and Value Creation. SBM Offshore has a large number of material topics, however many are managed by the same department and in a similar way. Therefore, in order to avoid redundant information, the Company has merged the Disclosures on Management Approach (DMA’s) for some topics. The material topics that were merged are: Economic Performance, Cost of Ownership and Fleet Management & Project Performance; Ethics & Compliance and Transparency, trust and reputation; Pollution to air and sea and Environmental Impact; Employee Health and Safety and Security; Innovation & Technology and Energy Transition and Renewable energy; Operational Excellence and Quality and Digitalization & Standardization. The remaining material topics did not overlap and therefore are not merged.

The merged topics are also covered by the same indicators, as the GRI requirements entail multiple reporting requirements. Details on how the matrix corresponds to GRI and reporting boundaries can be found in section 5.2 Reporting Boundaries. General standard disclosure and aspects of lower priority are included in the GRI Content Index.