The North Face Materiality Assessment

Objectives

The objectives of The North Face were two-fold: for them to understand how their stakeholders and staff view the brand’s sustainability position in relation to their competitors and understand their thoughts on where they should focus; secondly to bring these insights together and show how they could inform future strategy.

Project

Anthesis conducted a materiality assessment to identify the issues that matter most to the future sustainability of The North Face. We explored a range of environmental, social and governmental issues, themes and opportunities via benchmarking, desk research, interviews with internal and external stakeholders and a staff survey. We also developed alternative names, narratives and goals showing how the most material issues could be taken forward into a strategy.

Services

• Materiality assessment and matrix development
• Stakeholder engagement – through surveys and interviews
• Strategic pathway development
• Competitor benchmarking

Key Project Outputs

• A materiality matrix
• Supporting slide deck report containing insights from benchmarking, the staff survey and stakeholder engagement
• Names, narratives, example goals and activities for three strategy pathways used as source material for The North Face sustainability strategy development.

Impacts

The North Face is using the materiality assessment and strategy pathways as inputs to the development of a refreshed sustainability strategy during 2016.