Internal Assurance |
S&CC Internal Assurance service offering is an objective activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s environmental, social, and governance initiatives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs) and support improvement in the effectiveness of risk management, controls, and governance processes.
Although most companies have internal audit departments, many are not set up to examine economic, environmental, and social S&CC initiatives. As companies work to bring sustainability transparency to their decision-making processes, internal assurance activities must shift from a traditional financial perspective toward integration with the organization's overall enterprise governance activities.
Opportunities to profitably improve an organization’s sustainability performance are increasing in areas such as facility efficiency, supply chain management, employee motivation and retention, and risk management. To effectively execute on those opportunities – and invest in them properly – business leaders need to develop a measurable and definable internal assurance program. Internal assurance on S&CC activities can improve the quality and reliability of reported data as well as management's ability to make good decisions. Additional benefits of internal assurance include:
- Reduced enterprise costs related to energy waste management, office greening and other operational costs.
- Improved monitoring of controls and processes related to environmental, social, and governance metrics.
- Improved ability to maintain or achieve a sustainable business model.
- Increased awareness and visibility into the contribution of sustainability activities to enterprise value.
- Improved decision making with integrated S&CC considerations.
- Enhanced corporate reputation with employees, business relationships, and government regulators through the ability.
Help clients across the lifecycle of sustainability activities, from defining the scope of sustainability efforts to measuring the impact on enterprise value to prioritizing how and when to invest in sustainability programs and initiatives. Specifically, Deloitte member firm professionals can help organizations in their efforts to:
- Create a holistic plan for measuring environmental, social, and governance KPIs.
- Provide S&CC-related risk assessments including process and control design, framework development, and policy analysis.
- Develop an internal assurance program that aligns with S&CC regulatory, compliance, and disclosure initiatives.
- Perform internal assurance activities, including planning, managing, executing, analyzing, monitoring, and communicating.
- Identify and understand industry benchmarks and gap analyses to leading practices.
- Understand the impact of sustainability projects.
- Assess the effectiveness of corporate responsibility and sustainability activities.
Deloitte member firm clients could potentially benefit from:
- Reduced enterprise costs related to energy waste management, office greening and other operational costs.
- Improved monitoring of controls and processes related to environmental, social, and governance metrics.
- Improved ability to maintain or achieve a sustainable business model.
- Increased awareness and visibility into the contribution of sustainability activities to enterprise value.
- Improved decision making with integrated S&CC considerations.
- Enhanced corporate reputation with employees, business relationships, and government regulators through the ability to provide more reliable information and greater transparency.
