Defining what truly matters

FROM CONVICTION TO PRIORITISATION

In 2025, SSE Group conducted its first Double Materiality Assessment. Not as a compliance exercise, but as a strategic discipline guiding how sustainability priorities are integrated into decisionmaking.

As RESONANCE evolves from ambition to structured execution, we asked a simple but fundamental question:

Where does sustainability matter most — both for SSE’s impact on society and for the long-term resilience of our business? The Double Materiality Assessment provides a clear, evidence-based answer.

Structured Dialogue Across Our Ecosystem

The assessment was built through a structured dialogue across SSE’s ecosystem. The process began with a strategic workshop bringing together 12 senior leaders and a shareholder representative, who identified an initial set of 16 sustainability topics based on SSE’s business model and strategic exposure.

The assessment was then expanded toinclude:

40 employees across business units and functions
17 external stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, regulators, ESG experts and community representatives

This layered approach ensured that operational realities, strategic oversight and external expectations were fully reflected in the assessment. Each topic was evaluated through two complementary lenses:

Impact materiality
How SSE’s activities affect people, society and the environment.
Financial materiality
How sustainability factors influence SSE’s financial performance, risk exposure and long-term competitiveness.y.

By combining these perspectives, the Double Materiality Assessment transforms sustainability insights into a structured decision framework supporting governance and strategy.

DOUBLE MATERIALITY MATRIX SSE GROUP STAKEHOLDERS (INTERNAL-LEADERSHIP-EXTERNAL)

X-axis: Financial importance
Y-axis: Impact significance (people & environment)
Bubble size: Intensity of perceived risks & opportunities

Opportunity-driven topics
Risk-driven topics
Score ranges: Min-max values across employee & leadership ratings

The DMA confirms the strategic relevance of all five RESONANCE pillars and highlights three priority domains where SSE should reinforce its action: climate & pollution management, innovation, and governance transparency.

A CONSOLIDATED STRATEGIC LANDSCAPE

The assessment reveals a strong convergence across leadership, employees and external stakeholders. Among the 16 topics assessed, five consistently emerge in the highest materiality tier, combining both strong societal impact and financial relevance:

Climate transition & pollution management
Worker health, safety & wellbeing
Governance, integrity & compliance
Innovation & green markets
Resource efficiency & circular economy

Key outcomes:

Climate transition and pollution management clearly dominate across stakeholder groups, reflecting operational exposure, regulatory expectations and long-term competitiveness pressures.
Innovation emerges as a key opportunity lever, closely linked to efficiency, differentiation and future market positioning.
Governance and data integrity are recognised as essential enablers of credibility, access to financing and CSRD readiness.

Together, these priorities define the areas where SSE must focus its efforts to strengthen resilience, create value and deliver meaningful impact.

Pillar 1: Unlock innovation

We believe that innovation is a game Changer to build efficient and Sustainable solutions in the civil Explosive and fine chemicals Sectors

«Together with my team, we implement and use drilling and blasting technologies in our everyday work to operate more safely and smartly. An important part of this development is the SSE Science Academy – a platform where employees expand their knowledge and skills, supporting safe and efficient work. Being a parent, reminds me that innovation is also a responsibility for the world we leave behind for the next generation”.

Zbigniew Cichocki
Blasting Engineer, Area Manager, SSE Polska

UNLOCKING INNOVATION IS CENTRAL TO SSE’S LONG-TERM COMPETITIVENESS AND RESILIENCE.

The Double Materiality Assessment confirmed innovation and green markets among the most material strategic topics for SSE. Stakeholders expect industrial companies to develop more efficient processes, advanced technologies and solutions supporting the transition toward lower-carbon and resource-efficient systems.

Operating in energy-intensive and highly regulated sectors, SSE must continuously improve operational performance while adapting to evolving technological and environmental challenges.

Innovation therefore plays a key role in enabling SSE to strengthen operational excellence while preparing its activities for future industry developments.

Three drivers of innovation
at SSE

Science Academy
Artificial Intelligence
Big Deal

FROM EMERGING INITIATIVES TO A STRONGER INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

In 2025, SSE strengthened several innovation initiatives launched in 2024, contributing to the development of a stronger innovation ecosystem across the Group.

The SSE Science Academy evolved into a competence development platform supporting both business units. It provides engineers, operators and specialists with digital learning modules, mentoring programmes and shared knowledge resources that support collaboration and technical excellence across markets.

At the same time, SSE expanded the exploration of Artificial Intelligence applications to improve operational efficiency, safety and service optimisation, with pilot projects launched across production, maintenance and service activities.

In parallel, the Group initiated Big Deal, a Business Intelligence programme designed to centralise data, strengthen reporting capabilities and support real-time decisionmaking across the organisation.

Together, these initiatives strengthen expertise, digital capabilities and datadriven decision-making across SSE.

“In an industry shaped by technological progress and rising sustainability expectations, innovation must be built on strong capabilities.

In 2025, SSE strengthened the foundations of its innovation ecosystem.
Through the SSE Science Academy, the exploration of Artificial Intelligence applications and the development of advanced data intelligence tools, we are equipping our teams with the knowledge, technologies and insights needed to continuously improve our operations and better support our customers. By combining human expertise with digital innovation, we are strengthening our ability to deliver more efficient processes, smarter solutions and long-term value for the industries we serve.”

Gilles de Preux
CEO SSE Group

SSE Science Academy

Developing expertise and innovation across SSE The SSE Science Academy is a key initiative of the RESONANCE programme, designed to strengthen expertise, accelerate knowledge sharing and support innovation across the Group.

AI-based solutions

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to improve operational and sustainability performance

BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR DATA-DRIVEN DECISION-MAKING

Turning data into smarter decisions

Convergence & Strategic Interpretation

he Double Materiality Assessment provides SSE with a clearer understanding of how sustainability priorities are perceived across its ecosystem.

While each stakeholder group approaches ESG through a different lens, their perspectives ultimately converge around the factors most critical to SSE’s long-term performance.

Employees highlight operational realities, including safety culture, pollution prevention and regulatory compliance. Leadership focuses on strategic exposure and long-term competitiveness, particularly climate transition, reputation and governance. External stakeholders evaluate SSE primarily through its climate performance, innovation capacity and transparency.

Together, these perspectives provide a balanced and robust view of SSE’s sustainability priorities.

FROM MATERIALITY TO STRATEGIC INTEGRATION

2025–2027 Implementation Focus

Beyond identifying priorities, the Double Materiality Assessment provides a clear direction for action.

Over the coming years, SSE will focus on strengthening the integration of sustainability across its operations and decision-making processes. Key areas of focus include:

Integrating climate, pollution and carbon considerations into investment decisions, procurement and operational planning
Embedding ESG and circularity indicators into innovation and R&D processes
Strengthening ESG data governance and reporting readiness, starting with carbon footprint tracking and decarbonisation monitoring
Reinforcing safety leadership and workforce development initiatives across sites
Enhancing environmental transparency and stakeholder dialogue

Through this structured approach, the Double Materiality Assessment acts as a bridge between RESONANCE’s strategic ambition and its operational execution. It ensures that sustainability priorities are systematically embedded into decision-making across the Group.