In an interview with BCG and an opinion on Forbes published 19 April, Oxford Professor Bob Eccles discusses the meaning of dynamic materiality in COVID times. He describes COVID in terms of boosting the salience of certain topics (e.g. employee health & safety) and illustrating event-driven materiality. While he supports the SASB approach of determining materiality on an industry sector basis, the global pandemic has demonstrated the impact of a shock event with implications across all sectors. “When something universally cataclysmic happens in a very concentrated period of time, an issue can become material to every company in every industry, for better or worse. In the case of COVID-19 it is largely for the worst. With COVID-19 there is no debate about its materiality. The question is in what ways its impact is being felt and what can be done about it,” writes Eccles.
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