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Standards Development
This document specifies requirements and gives guidance on the process for evaluating the reasonableness of the assumptions, limitations and methods in the declared sustainability information (validation), including information presented in quantitative and qualitative formats.
NOTE 1 Declared sustainability information can include reporting on environmental, social, governance and other sustainability matters.
Background and market need
The four part ISO 14019 series on validation and verification of sustainability information was approved as a joint activity between ISO/TC 207/SC2 Environmental auditing and related practices and the ISO Policy Committee on Conformity Assessment (ISO/CASCO) in 2023.
A joint working group (JWG1) was formed and has been working diligently to produce ISO 14019 Parts 1, 2 and 4 which are nearly completed. These parts are:
a) ISO FDIS 14019-1 Sustainability information — Part 1: General principles and requirements for validation and verification;
b) ISO FDIS 14019-2 Sustainability information — Part 2: Principles and requirements for verification processes; and
c) ISO FDIS 14019-4 Sustainability information — Part 4: Principles and requirements for bodies validating and verifying sustainability information
This document is the New Work Item Proposal (NP) for the final part (Part 3) and it will provide requirements and guidance for validating declared sustainability information which includes projected or forecasted future outcomes or intended states. It is proposed Part 3 will be developed by the same JWG1 that developed ISO 14019 Part 1, 2 and 4.
The market need for the ISO 14019 series has been established previously with the approval of ISO 14019 Parts 1, 2 and 4. There are increasing public expectations for sustainability reports, disclosures and declarations to be validated or verified and being truthful, reasonable and plausible. In some instances this demand has resulted in legal provisions (regulatory and contractual) being established for mandatory reporting of sustainability information (e.g. in EU Directives, in state-based legislation in the United States, as requirements from securities and stock exchanges, and as due diligence information for banking, loans and investment decisions, and supply chain contracts). These mandatory provisions are having an effect upstream in supply chains with suppliers at various tiers being required to also report to downstream customers on sustainability matters, indicators and activities. There is also a thriving voluntary assessment and reporting market associated with sustainability information aimed at demonstrating the superior sustainability performance of organizations, products and processes. These voluntary reporting arrangements can be at the level of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and often involve stakeholder, interested party, community and consumer interests.
Standards are needed for both the compiling of information regarding environmental, social, governance (ESG) and other sustainability aspects (indicators, reporting metrics, and disclosures) as well as for harmonised approaches to validation and verification of that information. This validated and verified information can then be used for decision making based on sustainability declarations, such as in investments, procurement, or individual choices for a consumer product or a workplace.
Frameworks and processes for validation and verification should be compatible with the globally accepted quality infrastructure (standardisation, conformity assessment by validation/verification, peer assessment, accreditation). Furthermore, developing these methodologies as ISO standards would allow all interested parties, especially those with already implemented structures and existing instruments, to participate.
Problems to be solved
Standards for the declaration and reporting of sustainability information already exist or are under development. This relates, for instance, to entities (e.g. listed companies or suppliers) that are increasingly required to report specific ESG or sustainability aspects under voluntary or mandatory arrangements (e.g. as a pre-requisite to supply chain or market access, pre-condition for tenders and government procurement, and as part of securities exchange or regulatory annual reporting). Within the existing legal framework of many countries and regions, the global system of conformity assessment and its recognition (e.g. through multilateral arrangements between accreditation bodies), the tools for reliable assessment and confirmation of declared information (claims, reports etc.) currently exists.
However, standardised specifications of a consistent process for validating and verifying reported sustainability information is lacking.
Benefit for end-users
Parties interested in qualitatively trustworthy and quantitatively comparable information will benefit from standardised validation and verification processes to be performed by legal entities that fulfil the requirements of ISO/IEC 17029:2019 Conformity assessment — General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies and ISO FDIS 14019-4 Sustainability information — Part 4: Principles and requirements for bodies validating and verifying sustainability information Relation and/or impact on existing work.
This proposal complements the existing scope of ISO 14065:2020 General principles and requirements for bodies validating and verifying environmental information by broadening the coverage to include the validation and verification of other sustainability aspects, such as social and governance issues. It will be applicable for validation/verification bodies according to ISO/IEC 17029, serving as part of a validation/verification programme. In that regard, the proposed documents will be general and further specification of the individual aspects and applications will be possible.
Other documents which will provide contributions to this work include ISO 14064-3:2019, Greenhouse gases — Part 3: Specification with guidance for the verification and validation of greenhouse gas statements, ISO 14030-4:2021 Environmental performance evaluation — Green debt instruments — Part 4: Verification programme requirements; ISO 14016:2020 Environmental management — Guidelines on the assurance of environmental reports and ISO 14017:2022 Environmental management — Requirements with guidance for verification and validation of water statements, to name a few. Other ISO standards with in specific technical fields, and the cross-cutting areas of governance, sustainable finance, and information technology are also relevant.
Outside of ISO, international accounting standards of the ISSB, IAASB and IESBA, as well of the work of the various international sustainability reporting frameworks such as the UN Global Compact, GRI, ISEAL and UNEP
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