Material Aspects and Boundaries

Our Approach to Defining Report Content and the Aspect Boundaries

We believe it is vital to align the Bank’s business strategy with the expectations of our stakeholders, given the strong connection between our sustainability commitment and our overall goals as an enterprise. The content of this Report therefore considers the full range of the Bank’s business activities, along with our economic, environmental and social impacts and also the views expressed by our stakeholders, as outlined in the section ‘Stakeholder Engagement Process’.

The methodology used to determine report content is based primarily on the strategic imperatives and the GRI G4 guidelines and follows a two-step process:

Step 1 – Identify Relevant Aspects and Their Boundaries

We have identified aspects with broad sustainability significancecollected via the stakeholder engagement process and established ‘boundaries’ to isolate those impacts that are most relevant to Commercial Bank and our stakeholders.

We evaluated aspects according to their impact on, and contribution to, areas of sustainability related to the Bank’s business strategy and operations. They were also assessed in the light of stakeholder expectations – again, as gathered through the engagement process.

Aspects were categorised according to three levels of significance: high, moderate and low. We applied the following criteria to measure impacts and boundaries:

• The level of influence that the Bank has over each aspect.
• The extent to which a resource is used in our operations.
• The degree of various stakeholders’ interactions and their levels of expectation.
• The Bank’s responsibility as a good corporate citizen.
• The impacts of the activities of our customers and suppliers.
• The value that the Bank can potentially deliver in relation to each aspect.

Step 2 – Establishing Material Aspects and Prioritisation

We evaluated and ranked ‘material aspects’ based on their importance to the Bank’s operations, as well as the expectations of our stakeholders and the applicability of relevant local and international laws, regulations and treaties. At the same time, for each material aspect, we identified a boundary encompassing its most significant impacts.

To establish an aspect’s ‘materiality’ or direct importance, we prioritised its relevance (again, with rankings of high, medium and low) from two perspectives:

1. The importance of the aspect to our pursuit of the Bank’s strategic objectives (set out in the Corporate Plan) as we fulfill our responsibilities to the economy, the natural environment and society as a whole.
2. The importance of the aspect to specific stakeholder groups, and the influence it could have on how they assess their relationship with the Bank.

The following table shows the levels of significance accorded to various aspects relative to the triple bottom lines of sustainability.

				Aspect Boundary						Materiality
				Internal			External
Aspect			Significance to Bank’s Operations	Sri Lanka	Bangladesh		Customers	Communities	Suppliers	To the Bank	To the Stakeholder
Economic
1.	Economic performance		High							High	High
2.	Market presence		High							High	High
3.	Indirect economic impact		Moderate							Moderate	High
4.	Procurement practices		Moderate							Moderate	High
Environmental
5.	Materials		Low
6.	Energy		Moderate							High	Moderate
7.	Water		Low
8.	Biodiversity		Low
9.	Emissions		Low
10.	Effluents and waste		Moderate							Low	High
11.	Products and services		Moderate							High	High
12.	Compliance		Low
13.	Transport		Low
14.	Overall		Low
15.	Supplier environment assessment		Moderate							High	Low
16.	Environment grievance mechanisms		Low
Social: Labour Practices and Decent Work
17.	Employment		High							High	High
18.	Labour/management relations		High							High	High
19.	Occupational health and safety		Moderate							High	High
20.	Training and education		High							High	High
21.	Diversity and equal opportunity		High							High	High
22.	Equal remuneration for women and men		High							High	High
23.	Supplier assessment for labour practices		High							High	Low
24.	Labour practices grievance mechanisms		High							High	High
Social: Human Rights
25.	Investment		Moderate							High	Moderate
26.	Non-discrimination		High							High	High
27.	Freedom of association and collective bargaining		High							High	High
28.	Child labour		High							High	High
29.	Forced or compulsory labour		High							High	High
30.	Security practices		Moderate							High	High
31.	Indigenous rights		Low
32.	Human rights assessment		High							High	High
33.	Supplier human rights assessment		High							High	High
34.	Human rights grievance mechanisms		High							High	High
Social: Society
35.	Local communities		Moderate							Moderate	High
36.	Anti-corruption		High							High	High
37.	Public policy		Low
38.	Anti-competitive behaviour		Low
39.	Compliance		High							High	High
40.	Supplier assessment for impacts on society		Moderate							High	Low
41.	Grievance mechanisms for impacts on society		Low
Social: Product Responsibility
42.	Customer health and safety		Low
43.	Product and service labelling		High							High	High
44.	Marketing communications		High							High	High
45.	Customer privacy		High							High	High
46.	Compliance		High							High	High
47.	Product portfolio		High							High	Low
48.	Audit		High							High	Low
49.	Active ownership		Low
Other Topics
50.	Bank’s CSR activities		High							High	High

 

There were neither material restatement of information provided in earlier reports nor any material change in the scope nor in the aspect boundaries of the report with regard to reporting on sustainability impacts of the Bank.