On April 29, 2021 at 11:00 - 12:30 CET, the ACCA, ECIIA, Deloitte and AccountancyEurope are holding an event "Working Together for the planet: Audit & Assurance of sustainability Information".
Driven by the renewed political focus on combatting climate change around the world and the Green Recovery, sustainability reporting is gaining momentum, pushed by stakeholders’ ever-rising demands for more transparent and better communication regarding the sustainability practices, initiatives, and performance of companies and organisations. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information is becoming as important for investment decisions as financial information to understand a company’s resilience, and there is a growing demand for relevant and trustworthy integrated information.
However, issuing a sustainability report is not always enough if an organisation wants to gain credibility and trust, and attract investors. Therefore, generally accepted audit and assurance on high-quality non-financial information (NFI) is a must. Further, this NFI must also be based on similarly generally accepted holistic corporate reporting standards. This is an essential step in enhancing relevance, reliability, comparability, and therefore confidence and trust in an organisation’s sustainability content, data, and processes portrayed in both internal and external reports, thereby also ensuring progress on the global sustainable finance objectives. The event will also launch a guide for internal auditors and external assurers, resulting from the collaboration of the organisers and a vast range of stakeholders.
