Non-financial and sustainability reporting

Including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Non-financial reporting and mandatory climate-related disclosure is new, uncertain, and potentially confusing for companies, investors and other stakeholders.

An obvious consequence of the absence of an established common approach for climate-related, sustainability and ESG reporting is inconsistency between entities and the lack of a reliable basis for comparison. Unsophisticated reporting systems can also result in questions or challenges to the disclosures companies make. Companies can be accused of “greenwashing” – misrepresenting their carbon emissions; or “bluewashing” – hiding mistreatment of their workforce or local communities; prompting internal investigations, regulatory scrutiny, and legal claims including class actions.

Non-financial disclosures are just as susceptible to error and misstatement as financial disclosures. Since most companies do not yet have the same comprehensive systems and processes for non-financial reporting as they do for financial reporting, the risks of error and unreliability are greater.

Grant Thornton’s Forensic Accounting specialists can apply their skills honed in investigating financial irregularities, fraud, false accounting and accounting manipulation to the interrogation and analysis of non-financial disclosures and the systems used to produce them.