Assurance is often misunderstood and I’m concerned that a new study of the market for assurance of sustainability and corporate responsibility reports compounds the problem by painting a skewed picture of where the market is going and even what assurance is.
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Posts Tagged ‘aa1000as’
Study of assurance market paints a skewed picture
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011Should I keep my 1960s VW camper?
Monday, July 20th, 2009I own an old VW camper. It’s red and white and full of real wood and character. When I drive along the road, people smile. But it’s an inefficient, polluting old banger. So should I keep it? (more…)
What is it with this ‘Is CSR over?’ question?
Monday, June 15th, 2009If you put your head above the parapet at any conference or in the media nowadays, it seems the only question being asked is whether CSR was just a fad. The expected answer is that all corporate social, environmental and ethical activity was just cynical PR – and in the midst of the recession will be abandoned in the name of short-term profit.
The question amazes me. For sure, when times are hard, budgets get stretched and priorities change. But why does it have to be all or nothing? As I explained to Richard Northedge at the Independent on Sunday this week (see the resulting article ‘Recession is excuse for companies to ignore community conscience’), the question isn’t good enough if we are to draw useful conclusions.
It’s time for companies to get their act together on AA1000AS (2008)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009The new AA1000 Assurance Standard was launched late last year, but many companies are yet to appreciate its full implications, and are tending to dive into their reporting and assurance programmes without this understanding.
Instead, they seem to expect their assurance provider to interpret the requirements and inform them of the implications once the assurance process is under way. This is almost certain to lead to problems further down the line for companies seeking to have their reports assured against AA100AS. (more…)
