Developing a strategy for reporting on ESG is critical for companies to demonstrate credibility to key stakeholders, meet investor expectations, and lead among their peers.
As you focus on delivering long-term value to all of your stakeholders, KPMG is committed to joining you on your ESG and impact reporting journey. We’ll leverage our multidisciplinary expertise, global network, and proud audit culture rooted in independence, integrity, and quality, to effectively devise and execute a strategy fit for your business, industry, and stakeholders.
In an Accounting Today byline article, KPMG Audit Partner, Maura Hodge, discusses the commitment by businesses to support stakeholders and what their actions around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) are and how they’re being held accountable.
How the world's biggest companies report on climate risk and decarbonization.
KPMG IMPACT and legal firm Eversheds Sutherland launch the comprehensive report, “Climate change and corporate value: What companies really think” that seeks to uncover the barriers and opportunities in the global corporate response to climate change.
Investors and other stakeholders are showing a growing interest in environmental, social and governance reporting, according to KPMG partner Maura Hodge, and there's a major role for auditors in serving that interest.
Tune in to the first of the KPMG ESG podcast series to hear a discussion with Maura Hodge and John Capone for an overview on ESG.
Read more about why ESG is important, the critical components and the role of the auditor in helping you demonstrate credibility to your stakeholders.
Read the World Economic Forum whitepaper prepared in collaboration with the Big 4 for information on how to build resilience through a commitment to long‑term, sustainable value creation.
The role of the auditor in assurance
Auditors are independent—serving and protecting the capital markets—and skeptical, bringing systems of quality control, experience in evaluating internal systems for processing data, and credible reporting methods.
Auditors are experienced in evaluating whether reported data provides reliability, comparability, and relevance. The auditor is determining whether the company’s criteria for the ESG metrics as well as whether the numbers were determined in accordance with stated criteria. Auditors are not offering an opinion on whether it’s the right data to report.
The auditor reviews whether the metrics have been prepared in accordance with criteria that has either been developed by an external standards setting body or by the company itself. Based on extensive experience, auditors are able to objectively highlight gaps in the process for collection and preparation of data whereby discipled and rigorous policies and procedures may not be consistently followed throughout the organization.
As you focus on delivering long-term value to all your stakeholders, KPMG is committed to joining you on your ESG and impact journey by leveraging our multidisciplinary expertise, global network, and proud audit culture rooted in independence, integrity, and quality to effectively devise and execute a strategy fit for your business, industry, and stakeholders.
In particular, external assurance of your ESG reporting is critical to helping you demonstrate your commitment to rigor, transparency and reliability to key stakeholders, meet investor expectations, and lead among your peers.
Maura Hodge
Partner, Audit, U.S. Sustainability (ESG) Practice Leader, KPMG US
The journey to a sustainable business model, that is responsive, adaptive and resilient to change can be challenging.