Performed well, external assurance will help build awareness and support for your sustainability strategy and help demonstrate genuine commitment from your organisation.
So, in addition to assessing whether your reporting is balanced or the reported data accurate, the assurance provider should also look for evidence that policy ambitions are widely understood and being lived out on the ground. To achieve this, they should seek access to a cross section of senior executives in forming their opinion, not just focusing on the technical data owners.
Your assurance provider should also insist on undertaking well targeted site visits to understand operational impacts. Dialogue about your strategy between the assurer and your senior executives will yield useful insights into the full breadth of issues and impacts faced by your organisation.
Our assurance for a global telecommunications and media company includes site visits so we can assess what’s being planned at Corporate level is actually happening at a local level.