OCE-C.08.C - Stakeholder Engagement Response Disclosure
Does the company disclose its responses to issues raised during its stakeholder engagement process?
About the data
The WBA Ocean Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to halt and reverse nature loss in marine ecosystems, tracking how companies manage their impacts on ocean biodiversity, marine habitats, and the communities and workers dependent on healthy seas. The 2026 edition is WBA's first Ocean Benchmark, assessing 125 companies across key sectors dependent on oceans, including seafood, maritime transport, offshore wind energy, shipbuilding, port operations, apparel, and chemicals. Companies are assessed on 47 indicators across four measurement areas: governance, ecosystems and biodiversity, social responsibility, and core social indicators. The benchmark builds on WBA's Nature Benchmark and the former Seafood Stewardship Index, and its methodology was developed with input from more than 50 stakeholders including ocean communities, companies, scientists and civil society, with human rights and social impacts kept at its core alongside nature-specific concerns. More information can be found here.
Methodology
Meeting the interests of all stakeholders is essential for a business’s long-term success.
Regular engagement with stakeholders enhances the company’s understanding of diverse and often
conflicting perspectives, fosters innovation and facilitates the development of robust and inclusive
strategies. Companies are expected to undertake meaningful stakeholder engagement, which should
yield clear outcomes or actions, as well as transparently acknowledge how stakeholder inputs are
used.
Research Guidance:
The company should disclose at least two systemic actions taken in response to key issues raised by its stakeholders in the reporting year's engagement. Systemic actions refer to comprehensive and transformative measures that aim for a holistic and sustainable impact, such as actions that cover the majority of the company's locations or business activities, address the root causes of problems, or bring about changes in business models.
Providing only a general description of guidelines or a recap of the materiality assessment is insufficient. Disclosing only the output, such as the number of sessions held, without detailing the actual outcomes and actions, is also insufficient.
If the company links to the relevant chapters to signal their responses, and those responses are indeed systemic actions, it is considered sufficient. The responses must be explicitly linked to the corresponding issues in the appropriate report section.
Regular engagement with stakeholders enhances the company’s understanding of diverse and often
conflicting perspectives, fosters innovation and facilitates the development of robust and inclusive
strategies. Companies are expected to undertake meaningful stakeholder engagement, which should
yield clear outcomes or actions, as well as transparently acknowledge how stakeholder inputs are
used.
Research Guidance:
The company should disclose at least two systemic actions taken in response to key issues raised by its stakeholders in the reporting year's engagement. Systemic actions refer to comprehensive and transformative measures that aim for a holistic and sustainable impact, such as actions that cover the majority of the company's locations or business activities, address the root causes of problems, or bring about changes in business models.
Providing only a general description of guidelines or a recap of the materiality assessment is insufficient. Disclosing only the output, such as the number of sessions held, without detailing the actual outcomes and actions, is also insufficient.
If the company links to the relevant chapters to signal their responses, and those responses are indeed systemic actions, it is considered sufficient. The responses must be explicitly linked to the corresponding issues in the appropriate report section.
License
Topics
Framework Mappings
Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
No
Assessment
Steward Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report