Track Description
Sustainability assurance is an independent evaluation of an organization’s sustainability reports to ensure their accuracy, reliability, and consistency, which builds trust with stakeholders like investors. This process verifies information related to environmental, social, and governance performance, such as CO2 emissions and social equity, and can be provided with either a limited or reasonable level of assurance. The assurance process typically involves planning, execution, and reporting, and is becoming increasingly important due to new regulations and the growing demand for transparent and credible sustainability data. Sustainability assurance now plays a central role in strengthening transparency, mitigating greenwashing risks, fostering stakeholder trust and confidence and ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory requirements. 

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has recently released the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000, providing a framework for sustainability assurance engagements across diverse reporting frameworks. Similarly, the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has established ethical and independence standards for sustainability assurance providers, further reinforcing the credibility of the assurance process. In Europe, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) represents a landmark shift by mandating that large companies obtain independent limited/reasonable assurance over their sustainability disclosures (Directive (EU) 2022/2464). Although the CSRD requirements are postponed including changes to assurance obligations, these developments reflect a growing recognition that sustainability information should be held to the same level of scrutiny as financial disclosures. 

Despite significant regulatory advancements, SAA remains fragmented due to jurisdictional variations in assurance standards, mandatory/voluntary regime, provider requirements, selection of the assurance providers and disclosure expectations, creating a complex compliance landscape. This regulatory fragmentation affects assurance quality, limiting comparability and raising questions about the effectiveness of assurance mechanisms in preventing greenwashing.

This call for papers invites both theoretical and empirical contributions that examine the challenges, opportunities, emerging standardization and practice diversity trends in SAA. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: role of regulatory frameworks and standards in shaping sustainability assurance practices, ethical considerations and the mitigation of greenwashing through sustainability assurance processes, methodological advancements in sustainability assurance and their practical implications, influential factors shaping sustainability assurance national practices in public or private sector, stakeholders’ engagement in the sustainability assurance process, the effectiveness of SAA in promoting accountability, the role of sustainability assurance providers, the challenging educational skills and capabilities of auditing professionals.