The Institute of the Charted Accounts of India (ICAI) releases the Standards on Sustainability Assurance Engagements (SSAE) 3000, "Assurance Engagements on Sustainable Information". These standards are the guidelines that organisations use to measure, report, and disclose their sustainability performance. It's a framework for businesses to assess and communicate their sustainability practices to stakeholders.
The Sustainability Information Assurance Standard is the first standard of its kind developed by ICAI's Sustainability Reporting Standards Board (SRSB) to assist members in providing appropriate assurance to such information by reporting companies. SRSB was set up in 2020 to promote the culture of accurate and credible non-financial reporting and develop reporting metrics for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Presently, SRSB is chaired by Mr. Sanjeev Singhal.
In late 2011, MCA issued the National Voluntary Guidelines for Corporate Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibility (LVN). As a result, companies are required to take measures to achieve sustainable economic growth and development, and these measures were later incorporated into the Companies Act 2013. These guidelines were only a voluntary initiative that companies had to take up. However, through a circular in 2012, the SEBI directed 100 listed companies to submit a Business Responsibility Report (BRR) attached along with their Annual Report.
Later, the BRR was mandated to the top 100 listed entities based on market capitalisation, and this was initiated through the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015. However, in the same year, it was amended and made applicable to the top 500 listed entities. In 2021, SEBI released a circular informing the new disclosure norms on sustainability that will apply to the top 1000 listed entities, however, become a mandatory basis from the financial year 2022-23.
The government of India is working on a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) accounting framework that includes social, environmental, and financial outcomes as the bottom line. Instead of just focusing on the standard bottom line, TBL adds social and environmental concerns to help measure an organization's impact on its environment. This is usually measured by the three P's: profit, people, and the planet.
Organisations implementing such a framework can reap benefits by improving productivity and reducing costs through sustainable efforts, as well as improve brand awareness and reputation by showing others that the organization doesn't just make a profit. This will result in increasing transparency and reputation by showing others that the organization doesn't just make a profit.
