Campaigning for better sustainability assurance
This year Carbon Smart has revealed its second groundbreaking report on the state of sustainability and carbon assurance within the FTSE 350.
The Carbon Smart report, ‘Stuck on the starting blocks: the state of sustainability assurance in 2010’ reveals how companies view assurance, and finds that many statements fail to meet minimum requirements that would render them accessible and useful to readers.
Of greater concern, however, is that Carbon Smart’s report shows the majority of claims listed in the sustainability reports of the FTSE 350 are not supported by any verification or assurance. It further shows there has been little positive momentum on the issue in the last year.
While we appreciate there are many methodological approaches to sustainability assurance, we believe that there are six key components of a robust assurance statement (as agreed by a broad group of industry stakeholders and reported in our 2011 report). These components are listed below, and we encourage organisations to adopt them in their sustainability reporting.
Sustainability assurance should:
• Clearly reflect the scope of matter material to both the company and its stakeholders
• Transparently review the quality of reporting
• Provide clear conclusions on data quality
• Be conducted by a qualified, independent third party reviewer
• Meet the requirements of a recognised standard
• Be easily understood and jargon free.
We believe that by seeking best practice assurance and verification of sustainability reporting, companies will improve their ability to communicate in a transparent and open manner, giving stakeholders greater confidence in reported claims. We are more than happy to provide assistance and advice on the guidelines produced by the panel. You can request information from the report and receive support by emailing info@carbonsmart.co.uk through which one of the consultants who was involved in the report will respond.
Our work over the last two years has involved discussions with a wide range of stakeholders and the idea of encouraging businesses to seek assurance was supported by many amongst them. Stakeholders would not rely on an unaudited financial statement so neither can they be expected to rely on sustainability data without independent assurance. We believe that assurance and verification of reported sustainability data is not only desirable, but a vital component of a responsible reporting approach.
We are therefore launching a campaign to improve the state of sustainability assurance in the FTSE 350 by sending an open letter to those companies not assuring their reports. In addition, we will publicise this call as widely as possible, by sending copies to global investor forums, the media, and the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills.
If your organisation would like support this campaign, please email info@carbonsmart.co.uk including a copy of your logo. If you would like to find out more please call Karen Mecz on 020 7940 8278.