6 FACTORS INHIBITING ADOPTION OF SUSTAINABILITY ASSURANCE
1. Reporters complain of the time and cost involved in securing external assurance , which can be
signifucant for larger organizations such as MNCs
2. Other Sustainability reporting managers believe taht securing sustainability assurance will not add
any or little value. These managers express confidence in their unedrlying sustainability reporting
system and their published sustaiabbbility reports.
3. Managers perceived sustainability assurance as a challenging and difficult undertaking. These
managers beleived fact that their existing systems, processes and controls were veiwed as not robust
enough and incapable of supporting the rigors of external assurance.
4. The lack of regulation over sustainability reporting and sustainability assurance has also been cited
as one of the factors inhibiting the demands for sustainability assurance.
5. Environmental issues pointed out by De Moor and De Beelde such as the breach of environmental
legislation, raised by the sustainability assurance provider at the conclusion of the environmental
audit rasie possibilties of legal reputational risks for organizations and if such issues remain
unadressed, risk of liabilities increases further.
6. Sustainability assurance represents only one potential option or tool that a reporter can use to
improve stakeholders’ perception of disclosure credibility and managers can recourse to alternative
measures to enhancing the credibility of their sustainability reports.
SUSTAINABILITY ASSURANCE PROVIDERS (SAP)
Accounting Sustainability Assurance Providers ASAPs
ASAPs represents the the big four accounting firms which entered the market to supplement their
primary financial audit work. However, unlike financial statement audits, there is no regulation
protecting the accounting profession’s monopolistic positon and ASAPs have found themselves
competing against a range of different assurance providers.
Non-Accounting Sustainability Assurance Prividers NASAPs are diversed and constitute three main sub
groups of global engineering and certification providers, smaller sustainability consultancies and othe
practitioners such as stakeholders panels, NGOs universities and other academic institions, individual
assurance providers social and environmental experts and public opinion leaders.