Materiality in independent audit and sustainability reports assurance

Abstract

Parallel to the increasing importance of the sustainability concept, the number of firms that issue sustainability reports has also increased. To ensure reliability and completeness of sustainability disclosures, the need for assurance of sustainability reports has arisen. The assurance of sustainability reports is a relatively new concept and has many challenges for auditors. Materiality consideration is one of the vital challenges for auditors during assurance process. There are many studies on materiality in the literature, but most of them have focused on financial statements audit. This study aims at examining the materiality concept in financial statements audit and comparing it to the materiality concept in assurance engagements on sustainability reports.