Endnotes
Ryan J. Casey and Jonathan H. Grenier, “Understanding and Contributing to the Enigma of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Assurance in the United States,” Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory 34, no. 1, (February 2015): 97–130.
“ESG and the cost of capital,” MSCI Blog, February 2020.
Brian Ballou, Po-Chang Chen, Jonathan H. Grenier, and Dan L. Heitger, “Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance and Reporting Quality: Evidence from Restatements,” Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (2019).
On March 21, 2022, the SEC proposed amendments to Regulations S-K and S-X in Proposed Rule The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (proposed rule). As highlighted throughout the proposed rule, it is increasingly important to investors that they have access to relevant disclosures about the collective drivers of short-, medium-, and long-term value.
Suitable criteria are necessary for reasonably consistent measurement or evaluation of the subject matter of an assurance engagement. AICPA Professional Standards require suitable and available criteria that are relevant, objective, measurable, and complete. The AICPA’s clarified attestation standards, which are codified in Professional Standards, define subject matter as, in an examination or review engagement, the phenomenon that is measured or evaluated by applying criteria.
“The Enigma of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Assurance.”
“ESG and the cost of capital.”
Lorne N. Switzer, Qiao Tu, and Jun Wang, “Corporate governance and default risk in financial firms over the post-financial crisis period: International evidence,” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (2018).
The AICPA attestation standards define a practitioner as the person or persons conducting the attestation engagement, usually the engagement partner or other members of the engagement team, or, as applicable, the firm. The terms practitioner, CPA, and independent public accounting firm are used interchangeably within this brochure.
CS section 100, Statement on Standards for Consulting Services, in AICPA Professional Standards.
The SEC’s Proposed Rule The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors includes assurance requirements for greenhouse gas emissions information.
AICPA Professional Standards define the responsible party as the party(ies) responsible for the subject matter.
IFAC and AICPA & CIMA, Benchmarking Global Practice: The State of Play in Sustainability Assurance, June 2021, p. 6.
“Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance and Reporting Quality.”
See the definition of subject matter in note 4.
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