One of the most common questions we hear from clients is: “What value do management systems really add to our organization?” The answer often lies not in what they track—but in what they can unlock.
Management Systems: A Strategic Lever for Sustainability
Organizations that already operate under management systems like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, or ISO 45001 often don’t realize they have a powerful advantage when it comes to Sustainability planning. These systems already require key activities—risk assessments, stakeholder engagement, compliance reviews, corrective actions, performance tracking—all of which align perfectly with the Materiality Assessment process.
What Is a Materiality Assessment— and Why Start Here?
A Materiality Assessment assists organizations with prioritizing which Sustainability issues matter most based on their impacts and the interests of key Stakeholders. It’s a foundational step in any strategic Sustainability Plan and associated Reporting. But getting started can feel overwhelming.
This is where your Management Systems step in.
Instead of starting from scratch, we encourage clients to leverage their existing systems—and we’ve created tools that make this easy.
How Management Systems Feed Materiality
Using our Sustainability Strategy approach, we map the process of identifying and prioritizing Sustainability issues to existing system elements. For example:
Risk and opportunity analysis from ISO14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 9001 directly feed into identifying environmental impacts as well as impacts related to occupational health & safety and customers, respectively.- Internal Criteria / Metric / Program Management Systems Implementation Status informs present and future priorities to ensure success.
- Legal registers and compliance checklists define obligations to consider.
- Non-conformance data shows where systems are stressed and opportunities for improvement lie.
- In addition to the above Impact / Risk and Opportunity (IRO) document review, Stakeholder Engagement not only assists in identifying internal and external issues and associated expectations and community priorities, it also assists with prioritization and validation of key material issues that result in a roadmap to inform Sustainability Strategy with short-, medium- to long-term actions.
The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t require a whole new process. It reframes what you already do—through a Sustainability lens.
From Data to Direction
By starting with familiar processes, you eliminate redundancy, reduce stakeholder fatigue, and create organizational buy-in. The output isn’t just a list of issues—it’s a roadmap built on real-world insights that are already vetted through your existing systems.
Your Next Step
Ready to turn Management Systems into strategic Sustainability insight?
Want to do it faster?
Contact Staarsoft® to learn how we contribute to a Materiality Assessment using your existing systems—and help you prioritize what matters most.
Sandra Tavares
Staarsoft® Founder
Entrepreneur, Strategist, Collaborator and Public Speaker with demonstrated experience building value and efficiency through ‘Simplified Sustainability Strategy’ development, implementation and reporting. Specializing in ISO 14001 Environmental, ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety and Drinking Water Quality Management Systems and Responsible Distribution.
Jessica Stark
Contributor
Dedicated Assistant to Sandra Tavares at Staarsoft®, specializing in content development, social media strategy, and project management. With years of experience working closely with Sandra, she provides strategic support in content creation and process optimization.
