Dual Materiality (DM), with its associated concepts of Simple Materiality and Impact Materiality, has recently become one of the major, and most discussed, issues in sustainable reporting and finance, and more generally on the integration of ESG criteria into economic and financial decision-making. The European Union has therefore decided to guide the integration of its extra-financial standardization work according to this vision (EFRAG, 2021): it is established as a principle of sustainability communication in ESRS 1 (European Sustainability Reporting Standard — CE — CE, 2022, p.10). In addition, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), an organization created in 2021 by decision of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, puts forward its own interpretation of Dual Materiality, which is very similar to Simple Materiality. The result is a fundamental opposition between regulatory and standardization advances on sustainability reporting on the side of the European Union and on the side of the ISSB. This difference has implications in terms of the information to be produced for companies and the alignment of the economy with ecological issues, but also in geopolitical terms, in terms of the construction and the imposition of international rules that countries will adopt in the future on the issue of sustainability reporting.

The Chair's three main areas of study are as follows:

Axis 1: To study in a scientific way the concept of Double Materiality (hereinafter referred to as DM), which implies:

Contribute to the conceptual and operational exploration of DM;

Approach this exploration from a highly transdisciplinary angle (connection in particular between ecological sciences, bioeconomy and management/accounting)

Open a dialogue and collaboration between scientists and practitioners (including accounting standardizers), through research and development programs, seminars, notes, lessons, or other materials and means deemed relevant

Axis 2: Mobilize all the areas that have already established certain aspects of DM in order to make progress in the structuring of usable tools for DM, which implies

A systematic review of the tools and instruments available to address DM

Axis 3: Structuring and managing the data necessary for DM, which involves

Collaborate with European organizations to define appropriate databases

Explore how accounting can capture this new data

Design operational systems for managing this data

‍