Assurance

ERM has governance, reporting and internal review processes in place to help ensure the quality of information contained within this report, as well as stakeholder confidence in the accuracy and reliability of our reporting.

We have gathered, recorded, compiled, analyzed and reported information and processes used in the preparation of this report in a way that can be subject to examination and which establishes the quality and materiality of the information. Individuals who did not prepare our Sustainability Report have reviewed the information reported and the processes for determining report content and stakeholder engagement.

External assurance

We engaged with an external assurance provider to conduct an independent assessment of the following:

• ERM’s processes for determining materiality;
• How identified material issues were considered in strategy formation;
• Decisions on targets and goals;
• Management approaches to material issues; and
• Reporting on performance against these issues.

The external assurance was built on internationally recognized methodologies including AA1000AS.

We continue to enhance our external assurance process. In FY20, ERM convened a panel of five members of SustainAbility's (an ERM group company) external council to review and provide independent comments on ERM's materiality assessment process and our draft report. Our external assurance provider engaged with the panel members directly and provided their consolidated feedback to ERM to inform finalization of this report. The panel’s feedback was considered in forming the external assurance statement and reflected in a separate Management Report to the Executive Committee.

Click here to read the external assurance statement.

Data verification

For our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, our internal assurance process focuses on the quality of our reported data. ERM greenhouse gas reporting experts conducted internal assurance on our FY20 data for these metrics, following the same approach used when working for clients to confirm the completeness and accuracy of data.