Manchester Airports Group’s double materiality assessment and sustainability strategy
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is the UK’s largest airport operator – owning Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, and its global travel services business, CAVU. As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, MAG was looking for support to update its Sustainability Strategy for 2025-2030 and to align its materiality assessment with regulatory best practice, specifically the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Whilst MAG does not fall into the scope of CSRD it is committed to ensuring best practice at every stage of its sustainability journey.
At Simply Sustainable, we support businesses in conducting robust and thorough double materiality assessments and developing effective sustainability strategies aligned with international best practice.
As part of our ongoing relationship, in 2024, we partnered with MAG to conduct its CSRD-aligned double materiality assessment, which formed the foundation of the update to its sustainability strategy. Our structured approach ensured MAG had a clear roadmap for sustainability progress across each of its business areas – the airports and CAVU.
The impacts and benefits
Clear focus on material priorities: MAG gained a robust understanding of its most significant sustainability impacts, risks and opportunities, following best practice with CSRD and enabling informed decision-making throughout the development of its sustainability strategy.
Strategic clarity and direction: The new sustainability framework provides a structured approach that aligns with MAG’s long-term business objectives and delivers guidance for each of its business areas – the airports and CAVU.
Understanding stakeholder perspectives and reinforcing trust: Deep engagement with 125 stakeholders ensured the double materiality assessment and strategy reflects the diverse perspectives of stakeholders and enhances the credibility of MAG’s strategy.
Improved accountability and progress tracking: Measurable targets and performance indicators, enabling MAG to monitor sustainability performance effectively, to demonstrate leadership against industry benchmarks and ensure transparency in their reporting.
“At MAG, sustainability is central to how our business operates. Earlier this year, we were pleased to publish our Sustainability Strategy ‘Creating a sustainable future for all’. Our Strategy builds on MAG’s legacy of delivering sustainability initiatives over more than two decades. With the support of Simply Sustainable, we ensured that the focus of our new Strategy remains on the issues which matter most, both to our business and our stakeholders.”Neil RobinsonChief Sustainability Officer, Manchester Airports Group
The story
Between January and July 2024, Simply Sustainable worked closely with MAG to conduct its double materiality assessment. MAG decided to conduct the assessment in alignment with CSRD to ensure its approach to sustainability continued to aligning with best practice. The materiality assessment provided MAG with a comprehensive understanding of its key sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities, helping the business prioritise its sustainability focus areas, which was a vital exercise for the update of its sustainability strategy.
Double Materiality Assessment:
The process was structured into four key phases:
Identification of sustainability topics: An extensive desktop review, competitor benchmarking, and analysis of ESG ratings and industry standards, including Airports Council International (ACI), Sustainable Aviation, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and CSRD, ensuring MAG’s assessment was comprehensive and aligned with best practice.
Stakeholder engagement: Insights were gathered from 125 internal and external stakeholders through surveys, over 20 interviews, and four focus groups – including engaging with local community members and MAG’s Youth Forum amongst other key stakeholders. This engagement provided a diverse and credible evidence base for the assessment and prioritisation of sustainability topics.
Materiality assessment: A longlist of relevant impacts, risks and opportunities was assessed using a CSRD scoring methodology and finalised via a series of collaborative workshops – enabling MAG to confidently determine its most material sustainability priorities.
Materiality visualisation: Material topics were then mapped onto a matrix to highlight priority issues, supporting clear communication and strategic alignment across the business.
Sustainability and strategy development:
Following the double materiality assessment, Simply Sustainable worked with MAG to support the development of its sustainability strategy, ensuring the strategy reflects its business priorities and responds to the different nature of MAG’s businesses, including airports and CAVU.
The strategy was informed by a series of structured analyses:
PESTLE analysis: Identified the external drivers shaping MAG’s sustainability approach, ensuring the strategy is grounded in a clear understanding of the broader political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental context.
Competitor benchmarking: Examined how peers and competitors structured their sustainability strategies to inform MAG’s industry positioning and ensure alignment with evolving market expectations.
Maturity assessment: Assessed MAG’s current sustainability performance against industry standards and best practices to highlight areas of strength and identify key opportunities for improvement.
SWOT analysis: Explored MAG’s internal capabilities and external factors through a structured analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, providing a focused foundation for the development of a strategy framework.
Based on these insights, a strategic framework for MAG’s new strategy was developed, featuring core pillars and focus areas aligned with MAG’s long-term business goals with a specific focus on ensuring it encompasses the entire business. Subsequently, Simply Sustainable collaborated with MAG to establish targets and performance indicators (KPIs) for each sustainability topic, ensuring alignment with best practice standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The targets and KPIs were also benchmarked against industry peers to ensure competitiveness and ambition.
Next steps
With the new Sustainability Strategy in place – launched in May 2025, backed by a CSRD-aligned double materiality assessment, MAG is positioned to take meaningful steps towards achieving its sustainability objectives across its airports and CAVU.
To find out how Simply Sustainable can bring your ESG strategy to life, request a call-back from one of our team of experts.
