GN has identified two negative impacts related to pollution: 1) The use of substances of concern during production processes within own operations, affecting human health and ecosystems. 2) The release of harmful substances during raw material extraction and transportation in the upstream value chain, polluting water, soil, and food. Actions include substituting hazardous substances, auditing suppliers for compliance, and phasing out specific substances in outsourced manufacturing.

To assess the materiality of IROs in terms of financial risks or opportunities, we used the same prioritization in terms of value chain industries and economic activities in our own operations as impact scoring. We used our existing enterprise risk management mechanism to score risks on a 0-5 scale, meaning we gave equal weight to likelihood and two factors constituting magnitude combined: revenue impact and reputational risk. For revenue impact, we used the same thresholds as for other risks to score risks between minor and critical, thereby giving equal weight to sustainability-related risks as to other risks. Our double materiality process is aligned with our enterprise risk management and overall business strategy processes, as we use the insights gathered in the double materiality assessment to improve our assessment of the relative financial risk materiality of ESG topics to inform business decisions related to risk mitigation in accordance with the overall enterprise risk management process. For opportunities, we apply the same process where instead of financial risk we assess the relative financial upside.