We perform External Assurance to ensure the transparency and validity of the information you make public
External assurance helps protect the interest of stakeholders and provides a level of comfort to key decision makers, allowing them to know that the information they are using for their business decisions are reliable and comply in all material aspects with the relevant reporting frameworks.
Benefits of Sustainability Reporting External Assurance
An external assurance performed on the sustainability report of any corporation/ organization can benefit them in many ways; proper and reliable financial/non-financial information as well as sound corporate governance are essential in order to experiment prosperity.
Audited reports prepared in compliance with sustainability standards provide more transparency to investors, suppliers and financial institutions on a company’s operating position. There are situations when financial institutions or investors may see businesses that have not been subject to external assurance as having a higher default risk, hence restricting their access to credit, which may impede expansion.
Why is ISOS different?
ISOS Group, a GRI Certified training partner for USA, provides sustainability reporting External Assurance measured against the Global Reporting Initiative’s Framework. Utilizing ISOS Group’s services sends a strong signal about your commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ensuring the transparency and validity of the information you make public.
ISOS generally recommends a two-stage review process for conducting External Assurance. The Scope of the assurance can be varied by either verifying all elements of a report or specific metrics as defined by the interested party. We will evaluate the adherence of the report to the Quality and Content Principles as defined by the GRI Framework and assess your current sustainability reporting processes through:
- an inspection of the documentation used for gathering, analyzing and aggregating the entity’s sustainability data,
- an investigation of the procedures in place for determining Materiality and stakeholder inclusiveness via random sampling and interviews, and
- inquiries of the central unit responsible for preparing the sustainability report as well as a select group of internal and external stakeholders.
Our assurance team will then assess the report’s accuracy and fulfillment of our specific sustainability criteria through our proprietary Credibility Check and Sustainable Action Balance.
The ISOS full assurance assessment will not only increase your chances of obtaining a GRI “+” level, but provide suggestions on how to enhance the quality of future reports. For those who have already issued their report, consolidated approach may be necessary.
What’s the final result?
The outcomes of our assurance evaluation will result in a Comprehensive Analysis based on our assurance checklist, our GRI Level suggestion and a summarized External Assurance Statement that can be issued to GRI, attached as an Appendix to your report or further summarized and added in the body of the report. Final assessments will also be crafted into an Individual Press Release for distribution throughout media, stakeholder, investor, and other outlets in order to build awareness around the company’s achievements.