4Determining the Content of this Report
GRI 3: Material topics 2021
TCFD: Risk Management
As preparation for reporting in accordance with ESRS, Cicor undertook its first double materiality assessment. This included identifying and objectively scoring impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) as a basis for the materiality decision on sustainability matters, resulting in a completed double materiality assessment (DMA). During the initial phase, the impacts of the Company’s business activities, products, and services on environmental and social matters were examined. This includes aspects such as the Company’s carbon footprint, resource consumption, and the effects of the Company’s supply chain on human rights and labour conditions. Secondly, the Company evaluated how environmental and social developments, including regulatory changes or physical risks from climate change, may affect the Company’s financial position, performance, or market standing. By applying this dual perspective, Cicor ensures that the Company’s stakeholder expectations as relates to sustainability impacts, opportunities and risks are addressed. This analysis serves as the foundation for strategic decisions and the Company’s commitment to long-term value creation. The materiality scoring method and criteria focus on:
- Impact materiality: Considering the scale, scope, irremediability and likelihood of impacts being positive/negative and actual/potential. Severity takes precedence over likelihood for potential negative human rights-related impacts.
- Financial materiality: Assessing financial significance of risks/opportunities by assessing their likelihood and the nature of financial impacts.
The legal definition of materiality was taken into account in the journey of this process. The results of this analysis and the material topics were confirmed by the Cicor Management Board in this reporting year. Cicor commits to revisiting the DMA regularly to identify, assess and prioritise IROs, considering evolving trends, underlying assumptions, context and regulatory changes. The Sustainability Report 2024 is the first reporting cycle in which a DMA was conducted. The report describes these topics in accordance with the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, as well as that of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
4.1 Stakeholder Engagement
GRI 2-29: Approach to stakeholder engagement
GRI 3-1: Process to determine material topics
As a key component of the Company’s double materiality assessment, Cicor focussed on an internal stakeholder engagement process by identifying employees who have a strong knowledge of affected stakeholders, and users of sustainability statements were appointed to act as stakeholder representatives. Their role was to address stakeholders’ expectations on sustainability matters and to identify and score the impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) along the defined stakeholder groups. An internal workshop was used to share the goal of the double materiality assessments. Interviews with the stakeholder representatives were used to evaluate substantial topics and expectations for this DMA. This was a key assumption in the DMA process. This included taking these stakeholder representatives inputs into account to examine each sustainability matter and identify IROs at a sub-topic level. The feedback from the Company Group Compliance Officer, the VP Purchasing, the VP Sales, the VP Human Resources and the Head of IT were taken into consideration. Additionally, the analysis also considered whether any risks and opportunities could derive from the financial effects of any of the impacts or dependencies identified. The stakeholder groups were defined across the categories employees, customers, investors, suppliers and communities.
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Stakeholder |
Definition |
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Employees |
People are the heart of the Company’s business. Cicor is committed to providing a safe, engaging and meaningful workplace for the Company's employees where collaboration can thrive. |
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Customers |
As a company, Cicor focuses on customers’ needs. Engaging with its customers on a continuous basis to understand their perspectives and needs is an embedded part of the Company’s business model. |
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Shareholders |
Cicor is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange and engages with its shareholders on a regular basis to ensure efficient financial allocation and to understand the shareholders’ interests. This is done by the Company’s Marketing and Communications department, management participation in investor roadshows and on conference calls, at briefings with analysts and at the Annual General Meeting. |
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Suppliers |
The company engages in dialogue with its suppliers, focusing on developing long-term partnerships to achieve a reliable, responsible and sustainable supply chain aligned with the Company’s goals. |
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Communities |
The company aims to support local communities wherever Cicor has operations. Responsible business practices and engaging in dialogue are linked to the Cicor core values. |
Double Materiality Analysis
GRI 3-2: List of material topics
4.2 Integration, Monitoring and Review
GRI 2-23: Policy commitments
GRI 2-24: Embedding policy commitments
GRI 3-3: Management of material topics
Sustainability reporting is subject to the risk of misstatement due to human error or incomplete data. In order to manage these risks, the Company has implemented several processes. The Company strengthened its reporting system during 2024 with the support of the external provider Banyan.eco to ensure full alignment with the standards data reporting aligned with the GHG protocol and ESRS, enabling Cicor to share accurate data along its emission journey. Measuring the Company’s impact frequently and ensuring that Cicor aligns with the Company’s goal have become more crucial. As part of the Company’s digital risk management system, environmental risks have been identified and aligned, also on Company level. Cicor is aiming to improve this risk management system in 2025.
Like the environmental data reporting, the social data is closely monitored and evaluated together with HR leaders at each entity, including internal assurance checks by Compliance. An important improvement was implemented already in late 2023 together with Integrity Next, including the evaluation risks on environmental, social and governance topics along the Company’s supply chain. With Integrity Next, Cicor aims to evaluate the Company supply chain impacts more closely, creating an overview with three risk levels defined as
- Country and industry risk based on the supplier location and its industry code
- ESG Risk Level based on existing information for the supplier’s location and industry
- Assessment status risk level based on the supplier’s self-assessment.
Additionally, an internal ESG scoring ensures that the Company is able to identify gaps relating to environmental, social and governance topics at an early stage. By evaluating an improvement pathway together with the Company’s local sites, Cicor ensures further improvements to stay compliant with regulations and stakeholder needs. The ESG Scoring card is implemented into the Company’s compliance management system, enabling annual checks on entity level for the topics and performance indicators:
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Environmental |
Environmental management system |
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Management of materials of concern in its own operations and in the supply chain |
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Social |
Human rights and child labour practices, including alignment with ILO Standard practices |
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Responsible supply chain approaches and processes |
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Governance |
Alignment with Cicor core values and standards |
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Risk management and process alignment for general due diligence |
The company has adapted an ESG scoring mechanism as an on site audit to incorporate the DMA findings and its ESG performance indicators such as the renewable energy ratio, the total energy consumption or the accident incident rate for each Cicor Company, into its management structure under Cicor Group Compliance. This structure has been added up in a set of group-wide guidelines defining the Cicor approach for each workstream. This includes the following guidelines:
- Environmental Reporting Guideline
- Social Own Workforce Reporting Guideline
- Responsible Supply Chain Guideline
- Customer Due Diligence Guideline
- Guideline for Substances and Materials of Concern
The ESG scoring mechanism including the on site audit aims to create a continuous improvement journey for each Cicor related entity and also supports the integration of new Cicor company’s as part of its M&A strategy.