Reporting process and materiality

At the root of reporting is understanding what is relevant to the reader. Deloitte’s annual reporting process is grounded in addressing the interests and concerns of our stakeholders. Deloitte identifies key stakeholders as those who:

• Help influence Deloitte’s success; 
• Are highly affected by what Deloitte does; 
• Affect the markets, regulations and industries in which Deloitte operates; or 
• Affect the supply of resources that member firms need to serve our clients, talent and society.

As part of our FY2017 reporting process, Deloitte Global engaged with stakeholders to understand what matters they viewed as material. The FY2017 analysis built on stakeholder engagement conducted in previous years, as well. Please see the “Basis of reporting” section for additional details on the materiality assessment process.

In the context of this report, material topics are those that reflect Deloitte’s significant economic, environmental and social impacts, or substantively influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders. Topics were classified into three categories according to their relative rankings on a materiality matrix.

Topics can be material either within the boundaries of Deloitte, outside of Deloitte, or both. They also can be geographically bound. Except as noted below, all topics shown in the matrix are material to Deloitte Global, the member firm network, or both. Client satisfaction is clearly a topic of importance to clients. Other topics material to regulators, suppliers and member firm clients include privacy and data security, ethics and integrity, supply chain management, and labor conditions. Several issues are also material to society at large, such as community engagement, public policy engagement and greenhouse gas emissions. Water is predominantly material outside of Deloitte (water used by suppliers in producing products or services Deloitte consumes) and is primarily material to society in geographic locations with water scarcity issues.