Materiality

Materiality matrix 2013

To gain insight into the most important relevant topics, in 2010, we started a workshop with external experts, the members of the Executive board and representatives from senior management. Based on this and using internal and external sources, we drew up a materiality matrix in 2012. This was supported by the five pillars of Quintessence, the GRI 3.1 guidelines and the Accountability Principles standard (AA1000).

After the G4 guidelines were launched in 2013, we decided to fully switch. G4 places the emphasis on what is material to us, our market and our stakeholders. To identify these aspects, the Executive board sent questionnaires to the shareholders, Supervisory board members and our financial partners, and the CSR management team sent questionnaires to various other stakeholders within the target groups they selected. Not everyone responded, but we drew up the matrix based on the responses. In the questionnaire we not only requested their opinion about what is material, we also gave respondents the opportunity to give a mark to the aspects chosen.

Based on this, we now know what is material to our stakeholders and on which GRI indicators we should be reporting. The material aspects are shown in the materiality matrix. The size of the text indicates the impact for Q-Park.

The materiality analysis also shows that we are already reporting on the right topics, either in the Annual report or in our Responsible Parking report. We see that the Quintessence policy in the ‘society’ pillar can be expanded with topics such as being a good employer, anti-corruption and customer data privacy; topics on which we are currently reporting are shown in the GRI overview.

By adding these topics to Quintessence we can manage them in conjunction with other aspects. We can therefore create an integrated view of our policies and their performance. Preparations for this will take place in 2014. In Responsible Parking we give a brief explanation of the financial results in the ‘economy’ pillar. Naturally, this is the main theme of our Annual report.

In 2014 we will start expanding our dialogue with stakeholders. Furthermore, we will refine the materiality matrix so that it will serve us well in the next few years.