Materiality analysis

Listening to our stakeholders

Our Company, corporate areas, and business units have identified their stakeholders and have permanent and transparent channels and mechanisms for dialogue with them.

We structure our relationship with our stakeholders at a global level. Our relationship at each of these three levels requires specific mechanisms adapted our context in order to adequately identify their needs and expectations in relation to our ethical, social and environmental performance.

Additionally, we work to proactively and systematically identify and understand their expectations in relation to our sustainability performance as well as in order to integrate them into our internal decision-making processes.

How do we do it?

With materiality analyses. Our objective is to integrate the materiality process into the company by involving all areas that interact with stakeholders and incorporating the results as key input into the Sustainability strategy. These are the phases of the process:

Relationship analysis. Identify the key stakeholders and classify them based on their impact and dependence on the company.
Identify possible matters. Create a long list of potentially material matters.
Prioritize matters. Assess and prioritize the material matters based on the importance for stakeholders and on the analysis of the social, economic, and environmental impact of each matter for the company.
Select matters. Map the matters on a materiality matrix and define the decision areas: material matters, relevant matters, and non-material matters.

The process of materiality, step by step

At Repsol we interact with a wide variety of stakeholders on a daily basis. Dialogue and transparency are essential to sustainably creating value and take on challenges and opportunities. Some of our stakeholders participate directly in our value chain. Others influence the way we do business by establishing laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate.
The company's stakeholder map is defined by the different areas in charge of its management. At Repsol we evaluate the channels and frequency of communication as well as their expectations for information regarding our management to ensure that the relationship process is adequate. The identified stakeholders are shown below:

Stakeholders (Level I)	Stakeholders (Level II)
Shareholders, investors, and financial institutions	Shareholders, Investors, and credit rating agencies; Consultants, advisors, and proxy advisors; Financial analysts; Market analysts
Customers	Service stations, Lubricants, Asphtalts, and Specialized Products, Chemicals, Direct Sales and Aviation, Electricity and gas, New mobility businesses
Society	Union organizations, Local communities, Indigenous communities, nonprofits, Academia, Civil society observatories, R&D+i, Citizens
Public institutions and organizations	International bodies and institutions, State bodies and institutions, Local bodies and institutions, Authorities, and other public agencies and Governments
Employees	Management, Leaders, Professionals, Administrative/ Operational/ Junior/ Other Staff
Media	General Journalists (Digital, traditional, and social media formats) Specialized journalists (Digital, traditional, and social media formats)
Partners, competitors, and business associations	Joint operation / activity partners, Active partners not operated by Repsol, Chambers of commerce and other business associations, Competitive companies in the sector, Companies in other sectors
Suppliers and contractors	Goods suppliers and services suppliers

Drawing up a base list of sustainability issues with the potential to generate challenges and opportunities in the short/medium/long term, which may impact both the interests of the company itself and those of our stakeholders (susceptible to being affected both by issues generated by external actors and by impacts derived from the company's own actions) in the short/medium/long term.

Based on documentary analysis of internal and external sources, as well as interviews and meetings with corporate and business areas and the preparation of a materiality benchmark of other companies, we drew up a base list of 34 potentially material issues, grouped into 10 pillars that specifically contribute to the SDGs:

Environment: SDGs 6, 12, 14, 15
Climate change and energy transition: SDGs 7, 9, 13
Safety: SDGs 3, 8
Human Capital: SDGs 3, 5, 8, 10
Value chain management: SDGs 8, 12, 16, 17
Human rights and community relations: SDGs 8, 10, 11, 16
Good corporate governance and transparency: SDG 16
Ethics and compliance: SDG 16
Innovation and technology: SDGs 9, 13, 17
Products and services: SDGs 7, 8, 16

In this report you can see how the SDGs relate to material issues.

Internal prioritisation (Importance for Repsol) is carried out through consultations with the heads of the business units and corporate areas, considering the businesses and different countries where the company is present. External prioritisation (Importance for stakeholders) is carried out based on consultations with stakeholders and the areas of the company responsible for their management.

Two standard questionnaires were drawn up to evaluate the list of potentially material issues: the questionnaire that evaluates the importance for stakeholders and the questionnaire that evaluates the importance for Repsol. Both questionnaires include the final list of 34 material issues and their 10 main pillars to be evaluated according to the importance variable, assigning each issue a value from 1 to 5 in accordance with the established criteria:

Insignificant
Not very significant
Significant
Very significant
Critical

In 2020, more than 5,000 interviews and surveys were conducted with a participation rate of 74%. In addition, an artificial intelligence tool was used to globally compare our material issues with other companies in the sector, current legislation and thousands of news items in the media and social networks. Finally, more than 100 documents were analysed that reflect the needs and demands of stakeholders obtained through consultations, initiatives, analyses and other projects derived from direct dialogue with stakeholders.

Based on the assessments obtained in the previous point, materiality matrices are calculated and thresholds are designated on the basis of which the most significant or material issues are determined. After applying these thresholds in 2020, 24 material issues were identified. A global company matrix and 8 specific stakeholder matrices were obtained.

Why do we do it?

The results of the materiality analysis are integrated into the Sustainability Strategy and deployed through the Global Plan and Local Sustainability Plans. In this way we ensure that our strategy focuses on the areas that are most relevant to our stakeholders and to the company, adapting to a rapidly evolving environment with respect to sustainability issues. The actions set out in these Plans, both locally and globally, aim to improve performance and minimise the impact of identified sustainability risks. This allows the company to make strategic reflections and decisions that evolve the business model to ensure its economic, environmental and social sustainability.

In addition, the materiality analysis helps us identify the most relevant issues for Repsol and our stakeholders with the aim of reporting this information in the company's Integrated Management Report.

Conducting studies to identify expectations

These studies allow us to know the issues that are of most interest, both internally and externally, and are used to establish actions to improve our risk management and sustainability performance and to report on the company's performance in the aspects identified.

This systematic process is completed with the different communication channels that the business units establish with their stakeholders, through dedicated channels on the company's website, launching surveys, organising conferences to exchange good practices or disseminate issues of interest, as well as sending out communication bulletins, among others.

Once the expectations of each stakeholder have been assessed, we analyse the results in order to take them into account in our decision-making processes.

More information about sustainability at Repsol