Materiality Assessment

This report is aligned to the fourth generation (G4) guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and thus also observes the principle of materiality. We consider aspects to be material if they are important to both our Group and our stakeholders. During the establishment and expansion of the sustainability management at ProSiebenSat.1, we carried out our first materiality assessment in late 2015 and early 2016.

Through internal workshops, surveying people in positions of responsibility in various specialist departments, analyzing the results of research by our own research department, dialog with individual interest groups and observing the regulatory framework of our existing reporting system, we comprehensively identified potential issues and stakeholders and narrowed down the universe of topics. As a next step, we arranged the issues along our individual value chain and defined priority criteria. The aspects thus derived are synthesized into five areas of action, as shown by the table below:

ProSiebenSat.1 areas of action

ProSiebenSat.1 areas of action (Graphic)ProSiebenSat.1 areas of action (Graphic)

In the “Public Value” action area, ProSiebenSat.1 has been active in various projects in its role as a media corporation for years. With regard to environmental performance indicators, we have made great efforts in recent months and systematically broadened our reporting:

  • Back in 2011, the Group placed its public value activities in a larger social context and established an Advisory Board. The interdisciplinary body chaired by Bavaria’s former Prime Minister Dr. Edmund Stoiber advises ProSiebenSat.1 Group on socio-political issues and gives suggestions regarding the Group’s media offerings. In 2015, the Advisory Board met three times. Members of the Executive Board and other decision-makers in the Group participated in these events. In 2015, the Advisory Board again devoted itself to the priority issue of “digital education” with a view towards ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s young target group. ProSiebenSat.1 Group reaches around 42 million households every day with its TV stations and more than 30 million users per month via its web offerings. The distributed content helps to shape the opinions of viewers and users. We are aware of this responsibility and we use the wide reach of our media to shine a spotlight on important ecological, social and political issues. We pursue four goals: We want to build knowledge, create opportunities, communicate values and engage culture.
  • In the “Climate and Environmental Protection” action area, we calculated ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s carbon footprint for the first time for financial year 2015 and subjected our emissions to an external review. In the first half of 2016, relevant CO2 emissions categories were first assessed on a qualitative basis. A target concept for a carbon footprint was then developed, specially aligned to the ProSiebenSat.1 model of value creation. In the subsequent target/actual comparison, we coordinated the existing reporting of environmental and climate information with the defined requirements and developed efficient methods to ascertain missing data. As a result of the subsequent implementation, we have disclosed the CO2 emissions of our carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2 and selected Scope 3 categories) in this report.