Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability reporting, alternatively known as CSR reporting both fall under the acronym of CSR. CSR reporting is the process whereby companies - public, private; large and small - report on their non-financial performance. These reports allow organizations to demonstrate to stakeholders the impact their activities are having on the environment, society and sustainability. It is becoming increasingly understood that these issues underpinning the figures on your balance sheet are vitally important to your reputation and contribute to the overall success of your business.

How performance is communicated is important, especially with investment community interest in non-financial operating accounts. There has been a rise in triple bottom line reporting with organisations acknowledging the role of social, economic and environmental factors.

• Best practice - improved data and information accuracy means improved business decisions.
• Competitive edge - benchmarking against your competitors helps drive business improvement and stakeholder support.
• Minimise risk - independent verification gives confidence in legal compliance.
• Reduced costs - improved business decisions drive continual improvement, better use of resources and help reduce costs.

Verification of your Report, Information and Data by LRQA will give you the assurance that your report contains the right material and that the data systems on which your reports rely on are robust and reliable. We can customise our verification services to meet your criteria and required level of assurance and can verify your reports against a variety of assurance criteria, including AA1000 Assurance Standard and the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI).

From early stage gap analysis, to verification of environmental and sustainability data only, to full verification of all information in your report against a chosen criteria, LRQA CSR verification services will ensure your information is fit for purpose.

We were closely involved in helping develop the principles for the AA1000 Assurance Standard and our experts have participated in GRI’s working groups. We were part of the materiality working group whose output produced GRI’s Technical Protocol. This publication was created to provide process guidance on how to define the content of a sustainability report. This includes deciding on the Scope of a report, the range of topics covered, each topic’s relative reporting priority and level of coverage, and what to disclose in the report about the process for defining its content.

• Experience - LRQA works with organisations in all sectors and this experience combined with our Business Assurance approach mean our approach is tailored to your organisation.
• Proven track record - We have high-profile clients in the energy, shipping, food, aerospace, telecommunications, nuclear, finance, utilities, waste management and government sectors.
• Expert verifiers - Our verifiers have helped to develop the principles for the AA1000 Assurance Standard and participate with the GRI working groups which puts them in the best place to offer thorough and robust assurance.