Our material topics

We regularly reassess the priorities of our Sustainability Plan to ensure that we focus on the topics that are most critical to the societies, environments, and economies in which we are present. To this effect, we conducted a Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) in 2022 to identify material topics relevant to Lindt & Sprüngli. This Double Materiality Assessment considered both the company’s impact on people and the environment, as well as external factors impacting our business.

Our DMA was performed in line with the exposure drafts of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) from January 2022. This represents a first step towards implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which came into force in the EU on January 5, 2023, and will apply to several Lindt and Sprüngli subsidiaries as of 2025. We aim to report in accordance with the ESRS from the financial year 2025 onwards for the whole group to exempt individual subsidiary reporting. The results of our DMA were approved by the Board of Directors in 2023 and the DMA will be reviewed annually. Our DMA results will also serve as the basis for our post-2025 sustainability strategy, which will be rolled out as of 2026 following the expiry of our existing strategy. We already have a strategy in place for most topics from the new assessment (see mapping of topics in the materiality matrix). All topics coming out of the DMA will be addressed in strategy development and considered going forward.

The Lindt & Sprüngli Sustainability Plan will continue to apply until the end of 2025 and forms the basis of the structure of our Sustainability Report. All material topics identified in the 2022 Double Materiality Assessment have been mapped to the topics defined in the Sustainability Plan. The corresponding DMA topics are stated at the beginning of each chapter. 

Our Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) process

Materiality matrix

Our latest materiality assessment identified some new material topics: Regulatory environment, Employment and labor relations in the supply chain, Employee health, safety and wellbeing in the supply chain, Equality, diversity and inclusion in the supply chain, and Consumer health and nutrition. All of these are now being fully integrated into our strategy development, including the definition of explicit metrics as stipulated by the Swiss Code of Obligations (Swiss CO) for Swiss CO relevant topics. Although this report cannot yet contain comprehensive concepts for these topics, some aspects of them are already addressed in the chapters on Strategy and governance (for Regulatory environment), Improving livelihoods (for Employee health, safety and wellbeing in the supply chain, Equality, diversity and inclusion in the supply chain and Employment and labor relations in the supply chain), and Transparent and responsible communication (for Consumer health and nutrition). Find more information on the relevant topics according to the Swiss CO in the Disclosures in accordance with Art. 964b Swiss Code of Obligations in the Appendix.