To understand your DWA in the context of your report, you must first link the DWA to the report. To do this, go to Settings > General > Double Materiality Assessment (DWA) inside your report.
Once your DWA is linked to the report, you can view the results under Materiality.
After the initial link, the selection of standards and topics is not automatically transferred from the DWA results. You can manually adjust these selections. If your selection differs from the materiality indicated by the IRO results, a warning message will appear. With “Apply Materiality”, you can either adopt the recommended selection or intentionally deviate from it. This allows you to work on your Double Materiality Assessment and the CSRD datapoints at the same time.
💡 Tanso Tip
If you already have a preliminary idea of your material (sub)topics, you can select them here so you can begin working with the CSRD module right away. If you are confident that a (sub)topic will be material and want to start data collection, you are welcome to do so. We recommend deselecting a (sub)topic only after completing the Double Materiality Assessment.
When you click “Edit”, you can select or deselect subtopics by clicking the checkboxes on the left side of each subtopic.
Once you have made your selection, click “Save changes”. Your report scope will be updated accordingly.
If a subtopic is excluded (by deselecting it in the DWA), the related datapoints are not deleted. Instead, they move to Excluded datapoints under Settings. If the subtopic is re included later, all previously entered content in the datapoints remains intact.
If you deselect subtopics that are classified as material based on the IRO assessment, a warning message appears.
Using “Apply Materiality”, you can automatically select all sustainability aspects identified as material through the IRO assessment.
Specific to CSRD Reports: Explaining Materiality
Justifying Excluded Topics
It is rare that an entire topic (standard) or subtopic (e.g., “Water and marine resources”) can be excluded without having identified at least one IRO. More commonly, some sub subtopics are irrelevant, while others have IROs that were identified but assessed as not material.
Important: If an entire standard is excluded, the process used to reach this conclusion must be described (see paragraph 29 and ESRS 2, Appendix C).
Excluding subtopic E1 (Climate) requires especially detailed justification.
In your report under Materiality, you will find the field “Explanation of excluded sustainability topics”. At the bottom of this section, you can provide justification for all excluded sustainability topics. The level of detail should ideally be checked with your auditor.
To add a justification, click “Edit”.
A second window opens with a text field for each excluded sustainability topic. Enter your justification there.
Once completed, click “Save” in the top right.
To transfer the justification into the corresponding ESRS datapoint in your report, click “Copy” next to the heading. Then click the adjacent button to navigate directly to the datapoint. Paste your justification into the appropriate field.
These justifications are required only for ESRS reports.
Examples of justifications for excluded topics
Example for E3 "Water & Marine Resources":
For the subtopic E3 "Water & Marine Resources", the following results could be obtained within the DWA:
Water consumption
IROs were identified but not considered material because consumption is quite low and no area is affected by water risks/stress (e.g. low water consumption, no location in a water-stressed region).
Water withdrawal
IROs were identified but not considered material because the amount of water used is manageable (e.g. small amount of water withdrawn).
Discharge of water
IROs were identified but not considered material because the water is discharged only to a tested wastewater treatment plant.
Discharge of water into oceans
Not applicable
Harvesting & use of marine resources
Not applicable (as no use of gravel, seafood, deep-sea minerals).
Mandatory information when excluding a sustainability topic
Even when sustainability topics or standards are excluded, the following information is still required:
Whether and how the company reviewed its assets and business activities to identify IROs related to the topic
Example: “No assets or business activities were reviewed.”
Whether and how the company conducted stakeholder consultations
Example: “No consultations were conducted.”
While these answers may formally meet requirements, they are not recommended because they lack substance and can be challenged.
Recommendations for a well founded justification
Your own operations:
At a minimum, you should state where you get your water from and where it goes
In addition, how much is consumed (i.e. does not flow back or is passed on to third parties) and whether your own location is in a water-stressed region
→ Use the: Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas (according to ESRS recommendation)
Value chain:
Hold documented discussions with the main supplier and customer about how they deal with the issue. Ask whether there are dependencies or locations in water-stressed areas.
Consultation:
Consultations with other stakeholders are not necessary if no location is in a water-stressed region. Nevertheless, they can be a good addition to increase the traceability of your assessments.
Additional examples for (sub)subtopics
Further examples for individual (sub-)topics:
E3 Marine Resources: Not applicable. No water is taken out of the ocean and no marine resources are used.
E4 Desertification: Not observable. No direct contribution to desertification identifiable through own activities.
S4 Non-discrimination: Not observable. No cases of discrimination, exclusion of customers and end users identifiable.