Sustainability related issues are increasingly mainstream, impacting the investment value, general risk profile, and potential liabilities of many organizations.

In today’s society, lobbyists, activist groups, shareholders, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders are too sophisticated to let businesses get away with corporate and social responsibility failings. They expect firms to have a morally and ethically acceptable approach to how they run their business and manage their impact on society. Failure to do this can result in negative publicity, a falling share price and a tarnished reputation.

As corporate responsibility issues move up the political and business agenda, it is critical for organizations to have an effective response. We advise corporations and public sector organizations on their strategy and the integration of corporate responsibility into their business functions to help them better understand, improve and report on their environmental, social and ethical performance.

Therefore, we offer our clients customized services to help them align their corporate responsibility strategy, performance and communication with their values and business practices. Our work focuses on assessment, strategy, implementation, and assurance activities.

Sustainability Assessment Services

KPMG’s Sustainability Assessment services provide an organization with the ability to better understand the maturity of its enterprise-wide sustainability program across a series of pre-defined business and sustainability domains.

The results from a Sustainability Assessment provide a platform for management to:

• Better understand the organization’s sustainability risk profile. 
• Focus resources and initiatives in areas that represent new and emerging risks, or that represent the most opportunity for a Return on Investment (ROI). 
• Align with other industry and / or leading sustainability programs and activities.

Sustainability Strategy Services

Three elements define KPMG’s approach to advise clients on their strategy towards corporate responsibility/sustainable development:

• Benchmarking
  Provide insights in your corporate responsibility performance by comparing it with competitors and front runners using public data and confidential information, which is made available by means of an agreed upon protocol.
• Analyzing stakeholder view
  Support the identification and mitigation of your business risks by taking into account the stakeholders’ needs and concerns through media search, stakeholder analysis or facilitation of dialogue and engagement.
• Strategy development
  Support your corporate responsibility strategy development at corporate level or for specific business functions (e.g. purchasing, R&D, marketing) by incorporating stakeholder views, benchmarking information and your internal company perspective.

Sustainability Implementation Services
KPMG supports companies in implementing their corporate responsibility strategy, by integrating sustainability issues in existing corporate governance structures (e.g. by organizing a sustainability department) and management systems. We may introduce new procedures and control points, taking into consideration potential change management issues. Our services include, but are not limited to, the following:

• CR reporting
  Assist clients in sustainability report development in line with international reporting guidelines (e.g. GRI, AA1000APS) based on stakeholders’ needs and benchmarks. 
• Performance management and reporting system development
  Develop targets with key performance indicators and reporting system possibly supported by IT systems. 
• Climate change
  Assist clients to respond to challenges of climate change helping to enable them to grasp the competitive advantage that comes with fuller and earlier understanding. 
• Policy, process and management systems development
  Develop sustainability strategy related policies (e.g. Purchasing Policy, Code of Ethics). Identify processes with high social or environmental impact and assist in reducing these effects. Develop and / or enhance the integration of different management systems (ISO 14001, ISO 9001, SA 8000, OHSAS 18001, ISO26000, Global Compact etc.) and as such improve the management in place and raise consistency within your organization.
  
  

Sustainability Assurance Services

KPMG provides independent assurance on the corporate responsibility performance of organizations.
 
This may relate to historical information, management systems, or behavior and is usually reported in a Corporate Responsibility, Social, or Health & Safety Environment Report or as part of an organization's financial reporting,
which may be on paper or web-based.

KPMG’s vision in providing CR assurance services encompasses the belief that superior sustainable business performance requires a focus on integrating social, environmental, and economic factors.
 
Our approach to providing assurance on social, ethical, and environmental performance is founded on this belief.
 
Our work is designed not only to provide assurance on the information our clients report to their stakeholders but also to help management improve the quality of the business’s overall management information.
 
In addition to external assurance as described above, our assurance professionals also undertake:

• Supply chain audits 
• Reviews of information systems (reporting guidelines) 
• Reviews of internal controls around corporate responsibility information