Sustainability assurance and non-financial risk, governance and controls improvement

As sustainability reporting becomes more integrated with wider corporate reporting and linked to material business issues, organisations are seeking assurance to support the credibility and reliability of their reported performance. The assurance can be public and designed to underline credibility to external audiences, or private and intended to give confidence to management and board that they are doing the right thing.

The issues

Unlike financial accounting, where companies have long-established processes and controls, the measurement and collection of non-financial data continues to evolve, so normal checks and balances may not be in place.

• Is the information reliable? Does the reporting present a fair picture?
• How can management be sure they are getting it right?
• Do stakeholders – internal and external – believe the reported sustainability performance or do they think it is "greenwash"?

The benefits of assurance include:

• Greater credibility both internally and externally.
• Feedback on efficiency and effectiveness of controls and processes and risks and exposures.
• Guidance on quality of internal and external reporting.
• Confidence in actions taken to reduce emissions.

How we can support you

Our market-leading team of sustainability assurance professionals offer services in four key areas:

Assurance: We carry out the full spectrum of assurance assignments from internal readiness assessments to external public assurance – for voluntary or regulatory purposes. The scope of the work can be sized to your needs and the level of assurance designed accordingly. We lead our profession by working closely with national and international standard setters and use the most widely recognised international standard, ISAE 3000.

Management information systems and processes: We help businesses understand what data is critical to enable strategic decision making and the systems they need to be able to do this effectively.

Governance, risk and compliance: We are a leading provider of integrated governance, risk and regulatory compliance services. We help deliver lasting change through understanding how sustainability and climate change risks impact the business model.

Sustainability & climate change reporting: We perform in-depth reviews ranging from measuring environmental footprint and social performance to assessing reporting effectiveness. We provide practical, pragmatic advice on the actions required to address gaps to leading practice.