Abstract
Due to ever increasing EU-wide and national Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) regulations, the formulation of a robust sustainability strategy is a major challenge, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. The obligatory double materiality assessment very often represents a major obstacle in the initial phases of defining a company specific sustainability strategy. Its major objective is to develop a company-specific sustainability target system based upon a consensual ranking by the stakeholders. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is a widely accepted tool, that can be utilized to generate such a prioritized target system, ensuring that resources and efforts are directed towards the most critical objectives. This paper outlines a concept to conduct the double materiality assessment through the synergistic use of Generative AI and the AHP method. In the first step, we employ interactive, moderated workshops as our chosen methodology to create a tailored set of sustainability target criteria. This process is enriched by the inclusion of Generative AI. The outcome is a comprehensive set of company-specific sustainability target criteria. In the second step, we continue to use interactive, moderated workshops to prioritize the company-specific sustainability target system with the AHP Method. In the third and final step, we rely on a workshop for deriving company-specific measures to achieve the sustainability targets. Finally, the results of a first validation of the process in a medium-sized manufacturing company are presented, discussed as well as future arising research questions are outlined.
Presenters
Benedikt LatosProfessor for Production Management, Economics, Technische Hochschule OWL - University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Sustainability Strategy, ESG, Double Materiality Assessment, AI, Analytic Hierarchy Process
