Material Topics
Identification and Responses to Material Topics
THSRC continues to pay attention to the international sustainability development trend and sustainability disclosure standards, and refers to the material issues of international benchmark enterprises. The THSRC Sustainability Report follows the GRI General Guidelines 2021 "GRI 3: Material Topics" issued by the Global Sustainability Standards Council to identify material topics and carries out a major thematic analysis based on the following steps to assess the significance of the positive and negative impacts of Material Topics in terms of economy, environment and human rights, so as to confirm the scope of the report's disclosure and review the effectiveness of sustainable business, and respond to the needs of multiple stakeholders.
| Analysis Steps | Description | Stakeholder and Expert Opinion Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| Identify the organization's context |
In order to ensure the material topics keep pace with the times, it also covers the material topics of focus of the railway transportation industry. Based on the list of 13 sustainability issues identified in 2022, THSRC refers to the major themes of the railway transportation industry listed by the domestic and foreign regulations and trends and the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the sustainability requirements of international sustainability evaluation such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), domestic regulations and trends, and the major themes disclosed by international railway transportation benchmarking companies, and confirmed that these 13 sustainability issues are still in line with the industry and global sustainability trends. | External expert sustainability consultants review sustainability issues and advise on how to define the economic, environmental and social impacts of the issues |
| Review the definition of actual and potential impacts |
Re-examine the 13 sustainability issues and refocus them according to their substance and potential positive and negative impacts. After refocusing in 2023, the list of 13 issues defined 12 positive influences and 10 negative ones, total 22 positive and negative ones were separately identified. | |
| Assess and prioritize the most significance of the impacts |
Through the THSRC Sustainability Group, the impact questionnaire was distributed to internal and external stakeholders to collect the materiality ranking of positive and negative impacts of stakeholder groups, so as to subsequently adjust the positive impact and the degree of negative impact. The magnitude of the impact is based on the significance and scale of the impact of the issue on the economy, the environment and people (including human rights). At the same time, the feedback from internal due diligence channels is incorporated to complete the assessment of the probability of occurrence of actual and potential impact issues, and adjust the probability of occurrence of positive and negative impacts. |
Through the stakeholder impact questionnaire, due diligence channels and the opinions of stakeholders in daily engagement, the significance of sustainability issues is comprehensively assessed and adjusted. Including, but not limited to: ・Travelers: refer to customer satisfaction survey to confirm whether related rights and interests, such as privacy or other customer rights and interests; ・Employees: refer to their opinions and complaints to confirm whether they have been involved in human rights violations in the workplace; ・Suppliers: Refer to their opinions, complaints, and audit results to determine if corporate governance, environmental pollution and labor human rights violations are involved; ・Regulator: Adjust the importance of the issue in light of sustainability and corporate governance relevant assessment or sanctions, as well as policy intentions (such as committing to net-zero emissions by 2050, promoting local manufacturing of the railway transportation industry, local procurement, labor human rights etc.) |
| Adjust and determine material topics for reporting |
Comprehensively considering the results of the questionnaire and due diligence, the ranking of materiality was appropriately adjusted, and it was divided into key topics (6 items), important topics (5 items) and continuous focus topics (2 items) in order. A total of 13 Material Topics were selected. Among them, "key topics" and "important topics" form the scope of materiality disclosures in this report. On the other hand, items in "topics of continuous concern" are regarded as non-material topics, where in principle, these items will not be disclosed in this report. However, non-material topics which significantly impact material topics will still be properly explained and disclosed in this report. |
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| Approval and determined material topics |
Submit the results of the analysis to the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee and, ultimately, to the Board of Directors to identify the key themes of this year's Sustainability Report. |
Major analysis results and major thematic matrices
Based on the results of the 2023 assessment, a total of five positive impacts are key issues, five impacts are important issues and two impacts are rated as ongoing concerns; for negative impacts, a total of five are key issues, one is important issue and four are ongoing concerns. Regardless of whether the topic is positive or negative, as long as one impact is a key topic, the topic will still be identified as a key topic.
In the major theme analysis process, the THSRC has taken into account suggestions from stakeholders and external experts that the sustainable issues above the material topics (including) should be identified as the topics to be disclosed in this annual report. This year, there are 6 key topics, 5 material topics and 2 topics of continuous interest, as shown below.
For an explanation of the changes in the topic of sustainability compared with last year's analysis is given in the table below.
Materiality Matrix (integration of positive and negative impact)
List of Material Topics and Impact Description
