The journey continues: Navigating the road to readiness

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda is rapidly moving forward, with new rules coming into force that oblige companies to report on their ESG risks, opportunities, and performance. To make this reporting credible, disclosures will require independent third party assurance.

It was against this backdrop that, last year, we published the inaugural KPMG ESG Assurance Maturity Index. The Index found that companies had a long way to go to prepare for ESG reporting and assurance. So, how are they doing now?

Our second year of analysis shows that some progress has been made – but nevertheless, many organizations are still in the early stages. The time has come for a concerted focus on putting in place the necessary systems, processes and controls to gather the data required, and aim to ensure these are sufficiently robust to stand up to external assurance.

The Index and associated research were designed to offer a path forward and provide a roadmap with guidance on areas to focus on, and the steps to take to become ready for ESG assurance. The views of senior executives and board members at 1000 companies across industries, global regions and revenue sizes were captured to gauge their relative ESG Assurance maturity. Respondents were ranked as either Leaders (top 25%), Advancers (next 50%), or Beginners (bottom 25%) based on their maturity.