The revised corporate accountability assurance standard (AA1000AS 2008), which would likely set the practice benchmark for sustainability reporting for the next four to six years, was launched by AccountAbility on Monday.

The standard was viewed as a step forward in the alignment of financial and non-financial reporting. In contrast to providing financial assurance, sustainability assurance needed adherence to certain principles – often intangible and difficult to quantify.

Owing to the growing distrust in corporations, credibility was important for sustainability reporting, and was said to be enhanced through independent external assurance, using accepted professional standards. Reporting organisations and their stakeholders increasingly accepted that robust assurance increased the credibility and effectiveness of their reporting, and ultimately their performance.

AccountAbility also launched the AA1000AccountAbility Principles Standard, which could be used as guidelines. He added that these could be used in conjunction with other existing guidelines, as the organisation tried to ensure compatibility with other standards.

A major difference with this standard was the support information, and training which was provided. Knight said that a five-day training programme had been established, so that there was a professional qualification for quality assurance providers.

AccountAbility head of standards Dr Alan Knight noted that the number of sustainability reports being produced by companies had increased from about 27 in 1992, to over 3 000 today, and emphasised that external assurance enhances the quality of a report. However, the use of external assurance was still inconsistent.

“The value of the principles is in the flexibility they offer. The document can be used to develop responsible business strategies, and can be used as a framework to identify and act on opportunities,” added Knight.

It was highlighted that companies needed to develop sustainable strategies, and that these must be embedded in strategic decision making. Knight said that an accountable organisation would set up a sustainability strategy and establish goals and targets to manage and judge achievement of the strategy.

Incite Sustainability associate William Frater praised the flexibility of the standard, as well as the principles approach, which he said moved assurance away from “tickboxing”.

AngloGold Ashanti community relations and social development manager Prishani Satyapal noted many of the difficulties with regard to producing sustainability reports and reminded delegates at the launch that companies were faced with so many standards and assurance standards to adhere to, that they should be aware not to replicate standards.

Besides often identifying areas in a business where money can be saved, sustainability reports were said to be valuable in that they stimulated communication both internally and externally in a company. The glossy report was an end product that people could then refer to, however, beyond that, it was hoped that reporting could lead to more sustainable companies, taking responsibility for their impact on the earth and people.

The AA1000AS 2008

The AA1000AS (2008) was internationally accepted, and freely available through the AccountAbility website.

The revised standard was said to provide a means for assurance providers to go beyond mere verification of data, to evaluate the way reporting organisations manage sustainability, and to reflect that management and resulting performance in its assurance statements.

“AA1000AS (2008) assurance provides a comprehensive way of holding an organisation to account for its management, performance and reporting on sustainability issues by evaluating the adherence of an organisation to the AA1000 AccountAbility Principles and the quality of the disclosed information on sustainability performance,” said AccountAbility.

Using the standard also allowed assurance providers to capture and contextualise a range of other verification and certification schemes that deal with specific dimensions of sustainability such as those for greenhouse gas emissions, environmental management systems, sustainable forest management or fair trade labelling.

The information found in sustainability reporting provides the starting point for AA1000AS (2008) assurance, as sustainability reporting was designed to provide stakeholders with sufficient information to understand the sustainability performance of an organisation and to make informed decisions.