There is an increasing need for assurance of non-financial and financial aspects as part of an organization's sustainable development performance, important to stakeholders concerned with specific social and environmental aspects of performance, as well as those more interested in the impact of non-financial aspects on financial performance and valuations.

AccountAbility developed the AA1000 Assurance Standard to provide a credible foundation for sustainability assurance, combining the best from both traditional auditing methodologies and leading edge practice in stakeholder engagement and indicator development. Since its launch in early 2003, it has underpinned the external assurance of a growing number of sustainability reports, as well as being used internally for quality assurance. There remains a gap, however, in standards governing the emerging profession of sustainability assurance practitioners. There is growing confusion as to what experience is relevant and how best to judge individual competence, often as part of assurance teams. As a result, the growth of sustainability assurance has been constrained, with corresponding damage to quality and credibility.

Recognizing this gap, AccountAbility and IRCA have established a partnership to provide a professional qualification in sustainability assurance. The Sustainability Assurance Practitioner programme is for practitioners in sustainability assurance, both internal and external to the organization whose performance is being assured, and aims to:

  • Enable practitioners to develop, validate and communicate their competence in a systematic manner.
  • Make it easier for organizations to source relevant and credible assurance expertise.
  • Improve confidence for those seeking assurance, such as organizations' stakeholders, in the expertise of professionals engaged to assess and pass judgment on their behalf.
  • Develop a more systematic understanding of key competencies for providing effective assurance, and so a basis for informing this and other standards in the future.

The Certified Sustainability Assurance Practitioner programme is built on an AA1000 platform. The Competency Framework (IRCA/702 Appendix III) provides detailed competency requirements and details of the training, qualifications, experience and other evidence that practitioners may submit as evidence of competence.

AccountAbility and IRCA appreciate the considerable challenge in delivering effective personnel certification in this field and so this programme is informed by an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process. The programme as it stands today is the first version created to start a dialogue. From this foundation we anticipate that the programme will continuously develop in terms of sophistication and appropriateness and we are committed to the ongoing development of the programme informed by stakeholder expectations and our experiences in running the programme. It is anticipated that the programme will be reviewed one year from its implementation.