Our stakeholder engagement is in alignment with AccountAbility’s AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (2015) which is founded on the principles of:
- Inclusivity – People should have a say in the decisions that impact them.
- Materiality – Decision makers should identify and be clear about the sustainability topics that matter.
- Responsiveness – Organisations should act transparently on material sustainability topics and their related impacts.
- Impact – Organisations should monitor, measure and be accountable for how their actions affect their broader ecosystems.
The standard is an internationally accepted, principles-based framework and guidance that we use to identify, prioritise and respond to sustainability challenges to improve long-term performance.
It describes:
- how to establish commitment to stakeholder engagement;
- how to determine the purpose, scope and stakeholders of the engagement;
- how to integrate stakeholder engagement with governance, strategy and operations; and
- the processes that will deliver quality and inclusive engagement practice, and valuable outcomes.
AccountAbility Healthcheck
To ensure our stakeholder engagement continues to be fit for purpose, we ask AccountAbility to provide an independent annual audit of our strategy, governance and processes. The Healthcheck from AccountAbility is a robust and comprehensive assurance and accreditation programme. It involves measuring our performance against each of the core pillars of the A1000SES and industry leading practices.
SPEN consistently demonstrates a strong performance across the six pillars of AA1000SES. In 2025, with a total score of 93%, we continue to be placed within the Advanced stage of AccountAbility’s proprietary Stakeholder Engagement Maturity Ladder.
Enhancing our Approach
At SPEN, we continuously strive to develop and progress our approach to stakeholder engagement. Looking ahead, we remain fully committed to a continual cycle of reviewing and improving our engagement practices. Working with AccountAbility helps us to identify areas for learning, and with their recommendations we develop a programme of improvement - growing our skills and expertise and working together with our stakeholders to deliver meaningful engagement.