The Expanding Use of Sustainability Reporting

In today's global business environment, external pressures -- such as climate change, it source scarcity, population growth, and worldwide economic development -- drive businesses to focus on more than just financial reporting. In the US and throughout the world, companies spend increasing amounts of time and money dealing with issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR), such as implementing sustainability initiatives and reporting the results of their efforts to stakeholders. Sustainability performance can be defined as a corporate focus on how a business interacts with its supply chain, the environment; and society at large in order to optimize resource allocation while creating long-term value. CSR reports (including sustainability reports) can be issued as standalone reports, as part of an annual report; or as an integrated portion of a company's Web site. reported financial information. CPAs already provide assurance services for financial information; thus, they represent natural candidates to provide assurance services for nonfinancial CSR information.