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Assurance Services for Sustainability Reports: Standards and Empirical Evidence

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Abstract

This article contributes to the growing scholarship on the topic of assurance services for sustainability reports. We first synthetically illustrate the main international standards for the implementation of assurance services regarding the subject documents. The second part of our article is an empirical analysis of reports drawn up on the basis of the current Global Reporting Initiative 2006 guidelines, and looks at how effectively these standards have been implemented, analyzing the different typologies of assurance statement.

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Abbreviations

AA1000 AS:

Accountability 1000 Assurance Standard

FEE:

Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens

GRI:

Global Reporting Initiative

G3:

Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Version 3.0

IAASB:

International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board

IFAC:

International Federation of Accountants

ISA:

International Standard on Auditing

ISAE 3000:

International Standard on Assurance Engagement 3000

ISEA:

The Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Giacomo Manetti

  2. Department of Business Administration, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Lucia Becatti

Authors
  1. Giacomo Manetti
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  2. Lucia Becatti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giacomo Manetti.

Additional information

Their research interests are in the field of corporate social responsibility and management accounting for not for profit organizations. Although this article is the result of a joint effort, Sections “Introduction, Essential elements of assurance services according to the ISAE 3000 and Criticisms regarding future assurance standards” has been written by Giacomo Manetti, Section “Empirical evidence from GRI reports” by Lucia Becatti, and Section “Conclusions” jointly by both authors.

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Manetti, G., Becatti, L. Assurance Services for Sustainability Reports: Standards and Empirical Evidence. J Bus Ethics 87 (Suppl 1), 289–298 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9809-x

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