Going beyond assurance for individual KPIs, whole or full report assurance provides comfort to stakeholders that disclosures throughout your reporting are justified and accurate.
As sustainability considerations become increasingly central to organizations' potential for commercial competitiveness and longevity, the benefits of integrating sustainability performance across all aspects of reporting are clear. Reports that integrate sustainability performance across an entire report, and not just individual sections, require a different approach to assurance. Whole report assurance is designed for this purpose.
For whole report assurance, ERM CVS not only assesses whether what our clients are reporting is accurate and reliable, but also whether the focus of their reporting is appropriate and sufficient. To assess this aspect of reporting thoroughly, whole report assurance involves assuring a report’s wider content, as well as the data underlying it. This means assuring text such as narrative, claims and assertions, as well as data.
Whole report assurance can be offered on its own or in conjunction with assurance of specific indicators. In any case, the purpose of whole report assurance is to evaluate whether the report in question presents a complete and balanced presentation of sustainability activities and performance in the reporting year in accordance with the specific standards, guidelines and/or requirements against which it is reported. In the case of whole report assurance, these commonly include:
- Standards: GRI, SASB, GHG Protocol
- Guidelines: broad (e.g., IIRC), sector (e.g., IPIECA)
- Commitments/membership: WBCSD, UNGC (COP), PRI, ICMM, RGMP (WGC)
- Regulations: EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), EU Taxonomy