Sustainability
Bursa Malaysia has always advocated corporate responsibility as key to sustainability. Today, sustainability, which supports stakeholder value creation, should be the main focus of every responsible company.
Tip of the Week: Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.
Measuring & Reporting
- Overview
- Process and Impact Measures
- The Impact of Sustainability on Financial Valuation
- Accounting for Sustainability
- Current Industry Practices
- Maturity of Sustainability Reporting
- Overview of Sustainability Reporting Process
- Sustainability Reporting
- Regulatory-Driven Sustainability Reporting
- Role of External Assurance Providers
- Assurance Standards
- Role of Stakeholder Panels
- Case Studies
- Questions for Management
- Role of the Board
Role of External Assurance Providers
As a company's economic, social and environmental performance attracts increasing attention from a wide range of stakeholders, credible sustainability reporting has become increasingly important as a source of information.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, covering 50 companies, representing 12 different industries across 18 different countries identified that more than 75% of companies seek assurance on their CR reports to increase its credibility.
Reasons for Seeking Assurance1
Definition of Assurance
Based on the definition used in the International Framework for Assurance Engagements, "an assurance engagement is an engagement in which a practitioner expresses a conclusion designed to enhance the degree of confidence of the intended user other than the responsible party about the outcome of the evaluation or measurement of a subject matter (e.g. sustainability data) against criteria"2.
Broadly, there are three levels of assurance in sustainability reporting3:
"The assurance or verification process should be kept separate from the actual writing and documenting of the report, in order to keep it independent and free from bias and conflict of interest. To put it clearly, the same consultant that helps you write the report should not be engaged to verify the report"Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar,
Chairman, Securities
Commission Malaysia
Levels of Assurance
| Levels of Assurance | Description |
|---|---|
| Individual business unit | Sustainability information is verified within the compiling division's unit e.g. by Head of Department |
| Internal assurance | Sustainability information is verified internally by a group of individuals / committee (e.g. internal audit) which is independent of the compiling division's business unit |
| Sustainability assurance (global audit firm) | Assurance from a globally recognised audit practitioner lends greater credibility due to the firm's experience and reputation. More relevant for companies with greater stakeholder demands and regional / global brands |
1 PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Right Combination, 2007
2 International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board , www.ifac.org accessed March 2010
3 PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis