ESG Assurance

ESG data has quietly become reporting that matters: lenders price against it, customers audit their supply chains on it, UK climate disclosure rules already bind larger companies, and EU reporting regimes reach UK groups through their European operations and customers. Yet most ESG numbers are compiled in spreadsheets, by teams without a controls background, and published without anyone independent ever checking them.

Acumon brings audit discipline to that gap: we review how your ESG data is gathered, test the disclosures you plan to publish, and provide independent assurance that gives boards, investors and counterparties a reason to believe what they read.

Why ESG Numbers Now Need Assurance

A sustainability claim that fails is worse than none at all — greenwashing exposure is now a regulatory and litigation risk, not just a reputational one. Assurance answers the question every serious reader of an ESG report asks: who checked this? For companies facing UK climate-related disclosure requirements, supply-chain questionnaires from large customers, or EU-derived reporting obligations, independent assurance is rapidly moving from differentiator to expectation.

Assurance Over Your Published Disclosures

We provide independent limited assurance engagements over selected ESG metrics and disclosures — greenhouse gas emissions figures, energy consumption, workforce data, governance statements — applying the discipline of recognised assurance standards: understanding how each number is produced, testing the underlying data, and reporting clearly on what we found. You choose the disclosures that matter to your stakeholders; we make them credible.

Readiness Before Assurance

Many organisations are not yet ready for assurance, and pretending otherwise wastes money. A readiness review maps what you currently report against what your stakeholders or an incoming regime require, examines how the data is actually compiled, and produces a practical plan: which metrics need proper data ownership, where controls are missing, and what to fix before an assurance engagement can succeed. It is the cheapest step in the whole journey and the one most often skipped.

Carbon and Energy Reporting

For UK companies within Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting, and for groups measuring their footprint for customers or lenders, we review the methodology behind the numbers: emission factors, estimation approaches, boundary decisions and year-on-year consistency. Carbon figures are unusually easy to get defensibly wrong — the methodology review is usually where the real findings are.

Audit-Firm Discipline, Not Consultancy Gloss

ESG assurance is an assurance discipline, and we approach it as auditors: evidence before narrative, documented conclusions, and independence from the people who compiled the numbers. Because we are an ICAEW-registered, FRC-authorised audit firm, the same quality framework that governs our statutory audits governs this work — which is precisely what makes the resulting assurance worth having.

What You Get With Acumon

• Independent limited assurance over selected ESG metrics and disclosures
• Greenhouse gas and energy reporting methodology reviews, including SECR
• ESG reporting readiness reviews with a practical remediation plan
• Data-gathering and controls assessment behind your sustainability reporting
• Support responding to supply-chain and lender ESG questionnaires
• Clear, board-usable assurance reporting — findings, not verbiage
• Delivered under the quality framework of an FRC-authorised audit firm
• Combined with statutory audit where efficient, independent where required

Why Acumon for ESG Assurance?

• ICAEW-registered and FRC-authorised audit firm — assurance work runs under audit-grade quality control
• Team of 70 audit professionals, more than half from leading international accounting firms
• Inflo data analytics applied to ESG data population testing
• Full-service firm: tax, advisory and audit teams support what the assurance work finds

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.