Materiality assessment determines which environmental, social, and governance topics matter most to an organization and its stakeholders, balancing financial impact on the business with importance to external parties. The process typically involves stakeholder engagement, peer benchmarking, risk analysis, and strategic alignment to create a materiality matrix plotting issues by significance. Results drive sustainability reporting priorities, risk management focus, and strategic resource allocation. Evolving standards increasingly require double materiality, assessing both how ESG issues affect the company and how the company impacts society and environment. A beverage company's materiality assessment might identify water stewardship as highly material due to operational dependency, regulatory risk in water-stressed regions, and stakeholder concerns, resulting in watershed protection programs and disclosure in annual sustainability reports.