Sustainability Assurance Illustrative Reports

This set of illustrative practitioner’s assurance reports provides support the implementation of International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements. The examples were developed through a joint initiative with a group of jurisdictional auditing and assurance standard setters, whose collaboration and support have been crucial in shaping this guidance.

While ISSA 5000 includes four illustrative reports that reflect the baseline requirements of the standard, this new publication provides more specific examples to help practitioners apply the standard in real-world scenarios.

These examples illustrate how ISSA 5000 can be applied across a range of engagements:

• Five examples of assurance reports with unmodified assurance conclusions, addressing common engagement types:
  • Assurance on sustainability disclosures aligned with IFRS S1 and S2, for both limited and reasonable assurance engagements
  • Assurance on selected sustainability disclosures in an entity’s sustainability report
  • Assurance on sustainability disclosures prepared using multiple reporting frameworks
  • Assurance engagements combining limited and reasonable assurance
• A further three examples of assurance reports with modified conclusions illustrating a:
  • Qualified conclusion
  • Disclaimer of conclusion
  • Adverse conclusion

Together, these illustrative reports help bring ISSA 5000 to a practical level, demonstrating how technical issues can be addressed in practice. They reflect questions and issues that regulators, practitioners, and others have begun to encounter as they adopt and apply the new standard.

This publication is part of the IAASB’s broader efforts to support the adoption and implementation of ISSA 5000 and provide guidance to help practitioners apply the standard with confidence and consistency.

To learn more about ISSA 5000, visit www.iaasb.org/ISSA5000.