Buying Assurance with Confidence: What You Need to Know 

The webinar combined a practical walkthrough of the Buyer’s Guide with a panel discussion exploring real-world experiences of preparing for, buying and using sustainability assurance. 

During the panel discussion, Mardi McBrien (WBCSD), Michael Newby-Fraser (Standard Chartered) and Ravi Abeywardana (ICAEW) brought the Buyer’s Guide to life by sharing practical experiences from their assurance journeys. The discussion explored why organisations are increasingly pursuing assurance beyond compliance requirements, what first-time buyers should consider when selecting an assurance provider, where companies tend to underestimate the effort required to prepare for assurance, and how governance structures, audit committees and investors use assurance to build confidence in sustainability information. The panellists reinforced that assurance is most valuable when it strengthens governance, controls, decision-making and stakeholder trust, rather than being viewed solely as a reporting or compliance exercise.

Key messages from the session

The main takeaways were:

• Readiness drives cost, effort and quality.
• Buying assurance well starts with clarity of purpose.
• Boards and management have distinct but complementary roles.
• Assurance should strengthen decisions, controls and trust, not just satisfy compliance requirements.