There is an ever-increasing global need towards the companies concerning clear and transparent disclosures of their long-term ESG-commitments. The Hungarian market is no different, naturally: investors, suppliers, clients and employees alike wish to understand the values and goals of companies that they are collaborating with. This has brought to life a steady spread of non-financial indicators and reporting thereupon in the recent years. Currently a diverse scale of ESG-goals and frameworks are in use, also differing by industry, market size and business structure. In the European Union as well as on an international level, the volume of ESG-related regulation is on the rise, which not only creates a challenge for companies, but for those who spot the importance of ESG, can serve as a basis for a long-term competitive edge.

Assurance reports play a major role in building trust concerning the reliability of non-financial information too. Today’s disclosures of a company’s relevant ESG considerations and indicators are primarily shaped by the pressure from key stakeholders or by where the company stands in their ESG-goal realization journey. This also means that there is no universal one size fits all solution for ESG-compliance.

It is very important to me that via our ESG Assurance services, we actively contribute to the realisation of the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

Zsuzsanna Nagy

Partner

How can we help building trust

Our sustainability and assurance experts have multidisciplinary and wide-ranging expertise in auditing compliance of ESG and other non-financial information. Our goal is for our Clients to reduce their sustainability-related risks, and create maximum environmental, social and economic value, also meeting their stakeholders’ as well as the regulators’ expectations.

We work in close collaboration with senior management, ESG and internal audit leaders of companies, as well as audit committees and boards to implement such planning, reporting and monitoring procedures that contribute to the realisation of long-term corporate goals as well as gaining trust by the market and ensuring compliance.

Our ESG-assurance experts provide the following Client services:

Assurance of sustainability disclosures and information: assuring the compliance with the mandatory (ESRS and/or national ESG legislation) or voluntary framework standard (e.g. GRI, SASB) and its application level, according to ISAE3000-based internationally approved methodology

Certification of selected sustainability indicators: certifying the value of certain selected ESG indicators towards third parties, based on ISAE3000-based internationally approved methodology (e.g. GHG-emission or carbon footprint of the company)

Ready for Assurance: assessing whether the client’s ESG reporting (incl. EU Taxonomy) and related internal systems and procedure are ready to go through the actual assurance process.

KPMG Insights

Avoiding the risk of greenwashing

Along with the expansion of the green financing market and an ever-increasing need towards sustainable, ESG-focused financial instruments and companies, the success of future growth lies in maximizing ESG-performance and an ongoing credible ESG-assurance. Read more on our blog! (Hungarian content)