Sustainability Assurance and Reporting

AccountAbility develops tools and standards for organisational accountability which drive performance and enable people to have a voice in the decisions that affect them.

Businesses and other powerful organisations face ever growing calls to be accountable to their stakeholders; including customers, employees, local communities as well as investors. Companies seeking to navigate and negotiate these evolving demands and  demonstrate their performance have responded with an explosion of  metrics, reports and assurance mechanisms. Over three quarters of the S&P 100 Index companies, for example, now produce a social and environmental report.

Reporting organisations and stakeholders alike have sought standards to assure the quality, comparability and usefulness of these disclosures. There are now over 300 standards aimed at assisting businesses in meeting the goal of sustainability. Convergence towards a global architecture of standards that are not just compliance or risk management mechanisms is crucial. Standards which enable organisations to use stakeholder engagement to drive learning and influence decision making are crucial to moving corporate responsiblity beyond compliance towards business strategy, innovation and performance.

Our work

• Developing the AA1000 Series of Standards for Organisational AccountAbility.  It has been used worldwide by leading businesses, NGOs and public sector bodies.
• Launching the Certified Sustainability Assurance Practioneers Program in partnership with the International Register of Certified Auditors
• Developing the AA1000 Assurance Standard, the world’s first comprehensive, open source, assurance standard for use with social and sustainability reports.
• Developing the AA1000 Standard for Stakeholder Engagement, to offer a clear basis for designing, implementing and assessing effective stakeholder engagement processes.
• Catalysing the development of the Keystone Model, a reporting standard for civil society organisations.
• Researching developments at the cutting-edge of reporting and assurance to provide practical briefings and guidance on best practise in areas such as stakeholder engagement, assurance panels and materiality determination.
• Supporting member organisations in implementing credible and useful stakeholder engagement, strategic alignment, reporting and assurance processes through the practical application of the AA1000 Series.
• Influencing the ongoing development of global standards architecture, such as through our collaboration with the Global Reporting Initiative, Transparency International and the ISO Social Responsibility Working Group, to ensure that these standards take a stakeholder focused approach and to advance convergence.

Partners

• We work with a large number of our members to support them with reporting and assurance. >>Advisory Services
• Standards are developed through wide consultation with members, practitioners and other interested individuals . >>AA1000 Consultations
• Sponsors of our work on standards includes Camelot, The Co-operative Bank, The Co-operative Group, Diageo, Ernst & Young, CIS, Novo, URS Verification, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The Reuben and Elizabeth Rausing Trust, LRQA, Microsoft, BT Group, Telefonica, EDF, Areva, Veolia, SFR, Ava and Gaz de France.
• A technical committee of members oversees the development of the AA1000 Series.

Contact

For more information contact Alan Knight +44 (0) 20 749 0400