Deloitte & Touche LLP and AuditBoard have announced their strategic business partnership expansion. This will make it easier for companies to report on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, unify their ESG data, speed up the collection of evidence, and automate ESG activities to make them more visible.

By using AuditBoard's innovative cloud-based platform for audit, risk, and compliance management in combination with Deloitte's Sustainability, Climate, and Equity services, companies can take care of their ESG initiatives.

Deloitte helps companies become leaders in the emerging low-carbon economy by integrating sustainability into their operations, meeting tax, disclosure, and regulatory requirements, navigating risk and speeding up their sustainability, climate, and equity transformations.

In particular, this extension of the Deloitte-AuditBoard partnership lets companies streamline and centralise ESG programme management and reporting using visual AuditBoard intelligence dashboards that are built right into the platform, see the overall health of their ESG programme in real time, and create custom audit-ready reports.

Also, companies can use AuditBoard's materiality assessment builder to find ESG topics that are important to their stakeholders and put them in order of importance. They will also be able to use adjustable rating scales to track their progress toward ESG goals.

Moreover, ESG metrics can be mapped to standards and frameworks such as The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), allowing businesses to easily identify gaps and overlaps to help improve credibility.

Also, the extension of the partnership between Deloitte and AuditBoard can help organisations improve the quality, timeliness, and availability of ESG data when responding to rating agency questionnaires.

Kristen Sullivan, Audit & Assurance Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP and Global Audit & Assurance Climate Services Leader, said:

"As companies navigate changing stakeholder expectations and a rapidly shifting ESG regulatory landscape, integrating ESG considerations into the company’s governance, strategy, risk, and reporting practices is becoming table stakes. Also, the role of internal audit and external assurance is becoming more important to make sure that strategic priorities are met and that ESG performance reports are of high quality. The Deloitte-AuditBoard alliance extension will enhance organisations in their ESG initiatives.”

Tom Schmit, Chief Revenue Officer, AuditBoard, said:

"The increasing regulatory and investor focus on ESG risks is creating significant challenges for companies as they look to quickly stand-up audit-ready reporting capabilities. We’re excited to extend the Deloitte-AuditBoard alliance to help joint clients rise to the occasion, whether they’re seeking to deploy, operationalise, or advance their ESG programmes.”

Source: AuditBoard

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