IRCA & AccountAbility Sustainability Assurance programme
London, Tuesday, 16 November 2004
AccountAbility
and the International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA)
are delighted to announce, jointly, the launch of the world's
first individual certification scheme in the field of sustainability
assurance - "The
Certified Sustainability Assurance Practitioner Program".
There is an increasing need for assurance of non-financial
and financial information as part of an organization's performance
against sustainable development commitments, policies and strategies.
This is relevant to secure internal quality, and to provide
credible information to interested stakeholders externally.
This is important to those stakeholders concerned with specific
social and environmental aspects of an organisation's performance.
It will also be of interest to those concerned with the impact
of non-financial risks, which can affect financial performance
and valuations.
Commenting on this important step in sustainability assurance,
Maria Sillanp, Managing Director of AccountAbility, said,
"the challenge in delivering effective practitioner certification
in this field is considerable and the development of this first
iteration of the programme has been informed by an extensive multi-stakeholder
consultation process. What we have delivered is the first version,
created to enable structure dialogue: from this foundation we
anticipate that the programme will continuously develop as a result
of stakeholder feedback and our own experiences in running the
programme."
Simon Feary, Director of IRCA, added: "this programme represents
an exciting new activity for IRCA. We are pleased that we can
contribute our experience in personnel certification to support
the developing field of sustainability assurance." 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. It is increasingly used in conjunction
with related standards such as the GRI Sustainability Reporting
Guidelines and the ISAE3000 non-financial assurance guidelines
provided by the International Assurance and Auditing Standards
Board. This is a positive sign of standards convergence.
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.
Recognising this gap, AccountAbility and IRCA believe that
the programme, based on an AA1000 platform, will be successful
as they have brought together their respective expertise in
the fields of sustainability assurance and individual certification
to develop this international programme for practitioners. The
programme is intended for practitioners both internal and external
to an organization whose performance is being assured, including
but not restricted to those explicitly using the AA1000 AS.
This programme is has been developed for individuals, however,
it is understood that effective sustainability assurance often
requires multi-disciplinary teams as a result of individual
and wider organizational competencies.
It is anticipated that the programme will be subject to an ongoing
multi-stakeholder dialogue facilitated by workshops and an online
forum (www.accountability.org.uk)
and will be reviewed one year from its implementation.
Download the criteria for
certification as a Sustainabiltiy Assurance Practitioner or
go to www.accountability.org.uk
.
Please note that IRCA will accept applications for certification
to this programme from January 2005.