As the support for sustainability reporting spreads throughout corporate, public, and industrial sectors, so too has the interest in seeing ESG reports that are accurate, informative, and comprehensive.
ESG assurance is a process whereby reporting entities ensure that their ESG disclosure reports meet high standards in order to help them gain the trust of the public and other stakeholders. Take a closer look at what ESG report assurance means, its benefits, and how you can meet assurance standards using ESG software.
What is ESG Assurance?
As the name implies, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assurance is a measure of credibility granted to a company’s ESG reports through the supervision of an independent advisory body. Whereas achieving the necessary credibility could be done through the establishment of internal policies, assurance offers a shortcut to consumer and investor trust.
In practice, ESG assurance comprises a battery of checks and verifications carried out by independent agencies using the latest reporting frameworks and standards as references. Non-financial information is reviewed to ensure it’s clear, meticulous, and adheres to the stipulations of your chosen reporting guidelines.
How ESG Compliance and Assurance Can Benefit You
The foremost advantage of ESG report assurance is the trust that it can secure from stakeholders and the public on behalf of the reporting entity. Even well-established or leading firms may face difficulty in getting stakeholders to believe that their ESG reports are as accurate and trustworthy as possible.
Even companies that have a reputation for precision in ESG reporting can benefit from the additional guarantee of quality granted by independent ESG assurance services. This can increase stakeholder engagement and even help you set new benchmarks that your competitors may enlist to follow your example.
In addition, ESG assurance guarantees that reports align with the most widely used ESG reporting guidelines. Sustainability reporting is constantly improving. With that evolution comes the risk of submitting reports which fail to meet the latest framework criteria, local and international laws, and internal policies.
Consequently, independent ESG assurance services can help you prepare for new developments in sustainability reporting by future-proofing your reports against legal and regulatory changes. Ensuring your reports satisfy the latest criteria will simplify updating reporting policies and records, enabling you to present transparent, precise data to regulatory bodies.
Steps to Ensure Your Reports Are Assurance-Ready
ESG report assurance is more effective when you incorporate practices to produce the most accurate data possible into your reporting policies. There are several key steps you can take, including:
Establishing Credibility Checks and Data Verification
You can smooth the path to rigorous reporting by setting up internal policies against which teams within your company can check their ESG data. Such policies can be based on existing sustainability reporting guidelines to simplify ESG assurance and compliance and shorten processing times.
Similarly, you can reduce the risk of errors and inaccuracies by setting up data verification checks and analysis systems to ensure non-financial data is as meticulous as possible when collected. This can be an internal effort, or it can be carried out by an independent auditor.
Using ESG Software
The best ESG software programs offer a valuable secondary function that incorporates a range of data verification tools to assist with ESG assurance. You can plug information into an ESG software platform to ensure that it’s calibrated according to relevant reporting guidelines. ESG software will also guarantee accuracy when checked against internal datasets and independent metrics.
Working with External ESG Assurance Services
Comprehensive ESG assurance can be completed by an accredited independent auditing service. By combining internal practices designed to eliminate factual inaccuracies and omissions along with a verified assurance service, you can rest easy knowing every report will be precise, dependable, and informative for all stakeholders.
Achieving ESG Assurance with Convene ESG
When you’re ready to take your sustainability reporting to the next level, turn to Convene ESG. This innovative suite includes several features tailored to guarantee that non-financial data is as accurate, transparent, and reliable as possible, including:
- Audit Trail — This enables tracing and tracking of all activity and data collection.
- Evidence Uploads — Here, the program facilitates the uploading of supporting documentary evidence during the data collection stage.
- Data Verification — This ensures submitted information is verified in real-time through optical character recognition (OCR) technology.
- Anomaly Detection — It automatically alerts users to data anomalies as soon as they’re detected.
Want to find out more about how Convene ESG can help? Then contact us to request a free product demo, and review the valuable features of an ESG reporting platform here.
