Core
ESG assurance readiness and internal review
Sustainability data is moving from the back of the annual report toward the standard of evidence expected of financial information. This service builds the controls and documentation that let an assurance provider — or a sceptical investor — follow your numbers back to source.
Why readiness has become a live issue in Hong Kong
As climate disclosure moves onto a mandatory footing and Hong Kong works toward full HKFRS S1 and S2 adoption, the direction of travel is clear: sustainability information is expected to be supportable. Companies that have relied on spreadsheets emailed between departments tend to discover the problem at the worst possible moment, when an assurance provider or a regulator asks how a figure was derived.
Assurance itself must come from an independent provider — we do not audit our own or anyone else's work. What we do is make sure that when you appoint one, the engagement does not turn into three months of rework.
What we look at
- Whether every reported figure has a traceable path to source evidence
- Who calculates, who reviews and who approves each metric — and whether that is documented
- Emission factor sources, versions and consistency across reporting years
- Estimation and extrapolation methods, and whether they are disclosed
- Restatement history and how prior-year comparatives are handled
- Consistency between the ESG report, the annual report and any investor presentations
Independent report review
A narrower version of this service is a straightforward second opinion: we read your draft or published report against your applicable requirements and give you a written list of findings ranked by exposure. Companies often use this in the year before seeking assurance, or after a change of consultant.
A review is also the cheapest way to test whether your current advisor is doing the work you are paying for. If your report was largely machine-generated, it shows up quickly — usually as confident language sitting on top of data that cannot be reconstructed.
What the engagement includes
- Control and process mapping for ESG data
- Documentation and evidence-trail design
- Metric-by-metric review against applicable requirements
- Written findings ranked by likelihood of challenge
- Remediation plan with owners and sequencing
- Support during the assurance provider's information requests
- Prior-year comparative and restatement review
Who this is for
Listed issuers preparing for external assurance; companies whose auditors have begun asking about sustainability data; boards wanting an independent check on a report before it is signed.
Request a quotationCommon questions
Do you provide the assurance opinion itself?
No. Assurance must come from an independent provider so that it means something. We prepare you for it, and support you through the information requests, which is where most of the cost and friction actually sits.
We are not seeking assurance. Is this still worth doing?
Often yes. The same discipline improves the reliability of what you publish and reduces the chance of a correction later. Directors are signing the report either way.
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Read moreReady to scope this?
Tell us your listing status and reporting year end. We come back with a defined scope, a fee and a realistic timeline — not a brochure.