Data and how we report

Identifying material sustainability issues

To make sure we report about the sustainability issues that matter most to our stakeholders, we ‎carry out regular materiality assessments.

‎2020 brought significant changes through the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic impacts, ‎as well as global social and political upheaval; for bp there were also significant changes in our new ‎strategy and sustainability frame.

With this context, we updated our view of bp’s material topics in ‎‎2020, revisiting steps in our materiality assessment process. This focused on uncovering and ‎identifying new and emerging ESG topics, which were validated through engagement with internal ‎stakeholders, including many environmental and social subject matter experts and presented to the ‎board safety and sustainability committee. 

We looked at sustainability frameworks, ratings and ‎standards, as well as relevant regulations across the markets in which we operate. We also reviewed ‎industry trends and media coverage from the past year.‎

As a result, we identified 19 key issues that are important to bp in 2020 and we mapped them to the ‎key areas of our sustainability frame.

ESG datasheet and HSE charting tool

We provide performance data online through our environment, social and governance (ESG) datasheet, aiming to deliver information that ‎is representative of bp’s sustainability performance. We want this information to provide useful ‎context in understanding bp’s progress on its sustainability journey.

The ESG datasheet is complemented by our health, safety and environment charting tool (HSE) charting tool, representing this information in an ‎accessible way.

Reporting standards and frameworks

Assurance

The data we report is subject to an internal verification process which includes data reviews by the ‎reporting business and subject matter experts, second line functional and group reviews.

In addition, we asked to subject several key sustainability metrics to assurance, to the ‎internationally recognized ISAE 3000 Standard. You can read more about the scope of Deloitte’s ‎work, including the sustainability metrics in scope of the assurance, on page 93 of the bp Sustainability report 2020.

We also publish a basis of reporting, with more information on each of the key performance indicators assured by Deloitte.