Free materiality assessment course for sustainability reporting
NetNada's Materiality in Sustainability Reporting is a free, self-paced online course. Across 27 lessons and 6 quizzes it explains what a materiality assessment is, how to assess materiality from an impact and a financial perspective, what double materiality means, and how to engage stakeholders to decide your material topics. You receive a certificate when you complete it.
- Price
- Free, certificate included
- Format
- Online, self-paced
- Lessons
- 27 lessons and 6 quizzes
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Impact, financial and double materiality
- Credential
- Certificate of completion
How this course compares
The questions people ask when choosing a course like this, answered honestly, including where this course stops.
- Which frameworks does it cover?
- Yes
- It explains the role of materiality across disclosure frameworks and in legislated sustainability reporting, and covers impact, financial and double materiality, the three approaches those frameworks use.
- Is it practical, or theory only?
- Yes
- Each perspective comes with a simplified step-by-step assessment process and a worked scenario, and there is a scenario for stakeholder engagement too.
- Do you get a certificate, and is it accredited?
- Partly
- You receive a digital certificate of completion from NetNada that you can share on LinkedIn. It is not a university award or an accredited professional qualification.
- What does it really cost?
- Yes
- Nothing. Enrolment and the certificate are free, and no credit card is needed.
What you'll learn
- Explain what a materiality assessment is and the role it plays in different disclosure frameworks and legislated reporting
- Understand why materiality is entity-specific and extends along your value chain
- Run an impact materiality assessment using a simplified best-practice process
- Run a financial materiality assessment of sustainability-related risks and opportunities
- Explain double materiality and when it applies
- Engage stakeholders to determine impacts, risks and opportunities
- Manage your material topics and decide how often to repeat the assessment
Curriculum
Welcome
- Introduction
- Chapters overview
Chapter 1: What is a materiality assessment? What it is, where frameworks and legislation require it, and why it differs for every organisation.
- What is a materiality assessment?
- The role of a materiality assessment in different disclosure frameworks
- The role of the materiality assessment in legislated sustainability reporting
- Materiality is entity-specific
- Materiality along an organisation's value chain
- Chapter 1 quiz
Chapter 2: Understanding the concept of materiality
- Is it material?
- Materiality in an ESG context
- Chapter 2 quiz
Chapter 3: Materiality from an impact perspective Your organisation's impacts on people and the environment, with a worked scenario.
- Materiality from an impact perspective
- The primary audience of information about impacts
- Guidance when conducting impact materiality assessments
- A simplified process for a best-practice impact materiality assessment
- Scenario
- Chapter 3 quiz
Chapter 4: Materiality from a financial perspective Sustainability-related risks and opportunities that affect enterprise value, with a worked scenario.
- The financial perspective
- The primary audience of information about ESG risks and opportunities
- Guidance when conducting financial materiality assessments
- A simplified process for a best-practice sustainability-related financial materiality assessment
- Scenario
- Chapter 4 quiz
Chapter 5: Double materiality
- Double materiality
Chapter 6: Methods of stakeholder engagement Using stakeholders to identify impacts, risks and opportunities.
- Stakeholder engagement
- Engaging stakeholders to determine impacts
- Engaging stakeholders to determine risks and opportunities
- Scenario
- Chapter 6 quiz
Chapter 7: You've determined your list of material topics, now what?
- Managing your topics
- How often to repeat the materiality assessment
- Final quiz
Conclusion
- Final takeaways
Who this course is for
Sustainability and ESG leads
You need a defensible list of material topics before you write your sustainability report or strategy.
Reporting and finance teams
You are preparing disclosures where materiality decides what goes in, and need to know how to evidence it.
Consultants and advisers
You run materiality assessments with clients and want a shared, structured approach.
Stakeholder engagement teams
You run the surveys and interviews that feed the assessment and want to know how the results are used.
About your certificate
Finish every lesson and quiz and you receive a digital certificate of completion from NetNada, which you can add to your LinkedIn profile or share with your employer. It shows you have worked through impact, financial and double materiality assessments. It is not an accredited qualification.
Who's behind the course
Co-Founder & Co-CEO, NetNada
Built by the NetNada team that measures and reports emissions for Australian businesses every day.
Page last reviewed 30 October 2026
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