ISSA 5000: New standard for sustainability audits

The previously used ISAE 3000 (Revised) standard had been designed for voluntary audits of non-financial information, but not specifically for sustainability reports. ISSA 5000 closes precisely this gap. For the first time, the standard provides a uniform, principles-based assurance system that clearly structures both limited assurance and reasonable assurance.

ISSA 5000 focuses on the audit of so-called dual materiality which considers both the financial and non-financial impacts of the company’s activities – a decisive criterion for the informative value of sustainability reports.

However, ISSA 5000 does not currently contain any detailed specifications regarding the specific requirements of the CSRD, ESRS and the EU Taxonomy Regulation. In order to counteract the risk of incorrect assessments or greenwashing, further EU-specific application notes and supplementary guidelines are therefore to be expected.

In addition, increased cooperation between auditors and specialized environmental auditors could also be possible in the future in order to ensure the specific requirements for the assessment of complex environmental information.

ISSA 5000 offers great potential to further improve the quality and comparability of sustainability information. However, this requires additional specifications and an intensive exchange between auditors, companies and regulatory bodies. Companies should take note of the new requirements at an early stage and develop specific expertise in order to document the information in their sustainability reports in a transparent and verifiable manner.

The full article has been published in the current issue of DER BETRIEB,  issue 17.