Why Reassurance?
Trust in business has never been lower. Good performance and great products all play a part in building trust, but it is communications, with their unique ability to reassure, which form the front line in winning stakeholders' hearts and minds. The role of non-financial reporting in deepening trust has been increasingly recognised with mandatory elements being introduced across the EU. The clear challenge is for reporters to embrace independent assurance processes and so demonstrate the credibility of their data and claims to readers.

What Reassures?
Reassurance can take many forms. For most companies, audit-based verification of reporting data and systems provides a high level of client value. For example, errors uncovered at this stage could otherwise lead to embarrassing miss-statements and skewed management decision making. To particularly inspire reader confidence there is no substitute for including managed stakeholder engagement in report assurance processes. Other assurance approaches include statements from experts, community advisory panels and of course internal audit functions.

Who's using Reassurance?
In 2005, 48% of the top UK Companies used external assurance in their non-financial report. In the same survey Sd3 found this compared with just 9% in 2001. But it is not only large listed companies that are harnessing assurance to add value to reports and performance management. Many unlisted companies, government and non-government organisations, for example the UK Ministry of Defence, Thames Water, Heathrow Airport, WWF and Royal Mail Group all used external assurance in their 2005 reports.

Is it independent?			Using your reporting consultant or internal team does not add the vital check that only an independence assuror brings. Sd3 don’t mix assurance with consultancy
Is it objective?			Long-term relationships with assurors can give undue confidence in the objectivity of your assuror. Sd3 take our lead from the UK Accountancy Practice Board’s Ethical Code which considers long auditor association to jeopardise assurance effectiveness
Are your assurors competent?			Sd3’s assurors have worked on over 10 sustainability assurance engagements and will be some of the first Certified Sustainability Assurors through the recently launched International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) certification programme
Are your assurors at the heart of best practice and training?			As long-term members of AccountAbility and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), our team has been participating in the assurance debate for many years. We know the AA1000 Assurance Standard; and provides expert training for assurors
Are your assurors sustainability experts?			Have your assurors ever written a non-financial report? Do they understand business sustainability issues? Sd3 only work in business sustainability. Our team has produced over 30 non-financial reports since 1996
Does your assurance statement tell your readers what they want to know?			Bland or over positive statements do little to reassure readers. Sd3 always write in plain English and give a balanced statement with definitive conclusions

How We Can Help
We offer tailored assurance projects to meet your needs such as compliance against government guidelines, sectoral initiatives and against the Global Reporting Initiative using bespoke criteria or those of the AA1000 Assurance Standard. To meet the growing demand for AA1000AS projects, Sd3 has developed tools to ensure the standard's materiality, completeness and responsiveness principles can be robustly applied to reporting processes. As well as an assurance statement, we often provide a management report on broader findings at the project's conclusion. For those organisations making first steps to assurance; we are able to advise on the different approaches available including a 'dry-run' assurance for internal purposes only.

Click here to view our independent Assurance Code of Conduct

Projects include:

Samsung SDI
Assurance to AA1000AS and GRI for the Korean company's sustainability reporting - please contact Sd3 for details

Balfour Beatty
Assurance for Environment, Safety and Society Report

Royal & SunAlliance
Assurance of CR Report for four years

Royal Mail Group plc
Assurance to AA1000 AS and GRI for the CR Reporting this of publicly owned enterprise

General Motors
Advice on assurance approach as part of reporting based package


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