Sustainability Assurance Practitioner
There is an increasing need for assurance of non-financial
and financial aspects as part of an organization's sustainable
development performance, important to stakeholders concerned
with specific social and environmental aspects of performance,
as well as those more interested in the impact of non-financial
aspects on financial performance and valuations.
AccountAbility
developed the AA1000
Assurance Standard to provide a credible foundation
for sustainability assurance, combining the best from both traditional
auditing methodologies and leading edge practice in stakeholder
engagement and indicator development. Since its launch in early
2003, it has underpinned the external assurance of a growing
number of sustainability reports, as well as being used internally
for quality assurance. There remains a gap, however, in standards
governing the emerging profession of sustainability assurance
practitioners. There is growing confusion as to what experience
is relevant and how best to judge individual competence, often
as part of assurance teams. As a result, the growth of sustainability
assurance has been constrained, with corresponding damage to
quality and credibility.
Recognizing this gap, AccountAbility and IRCA have established
a partnership to provide a professional qualification in sustainability
assurance. The Sustainability Assurance Practitioner
programme is for practitioners in sustainability assurance,
both internal and external to the organization whose performance
is being assured, and aims to:
- Enable practitioners to develop, validate
and communicate their competence in a systematic manner.
- Make it easier for organizations to source
relevant and credible assurance expertise.
- Improve confidence for those seeking assurance,
such as organizations' stakeholders, in the expertise of
professionals engaged to assess and pass judgment on their
behalf.
- Develop a more systematic understanding of
key competencies for providing effective assurance, and
so a basis for informing this and other standards in the
future.
The Certified Sustainability Assurance Practitioner
programme is built on an AA1000
platform. The Competency Framework (IRCA/702
Appendix III) provides detailed competency requirements
and details of the training, qualifications, experience and
other evidence that practitioners may submit as evidence of
competence.
AccountAbility and IRCA appreciate the considerable challenge
in delivering effective personnel certification in this field
and so this programme is informed by an extensive multi-stakeholder
consultation process. The programme as it stands today is the
first version created to start a dialogue. From this foundation
we anticipate that the programme will continuously develop in
terms of sophistication and appropriateness and we are committed
to the ongoing development of the programme informed by stakeholder
expectations and our experiences in running the programme. It
is anticipated that the programme will be reviewed one year from
its implementation.