ESG CERTIFICATE: INTERNAL AUDITING FOR SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONS

OUTLINE Fundamentals of ESG • An overview of ESG. • Global ESG regulatory bodies and regulatory influence. • Industries and activities impacted by ESG. • ESG importance to the internal audit community. ESG Governance and Framework • The importance of ESG governance. • Critical factors for establishing ESG governance. • Components of an ESG Governance Framework. ESG Strategy • Critical components of an organization’s ESG strategy. • Tactics for developing the ESG strategy. • ESG strategic risk assessment. ESG Center of Excellence • Common characteristics of an ESG Center of Excellence. • Primary ESG roles. Critical Success Factors for ESG Reporting • Common ESG reporting categories. • Essential ESG reporting metrics. • Data elements used in ESG Reporting. ESG Governance and Third-Party Risk Management • ESG governance and third-party risk assessments. • Identifying third-party actions that impact ESG reporting. Establishing an Audit Program for ESG • Scoping and ESG governance and compliance program audit. • Gathering evidence. • Performing the pre-audit risk assessment. • Conducting the fieldwork. • Reporting consideration

Organizations are increasingly under pressure to understand and manage ESG risks, particularly as investors and regulators focus on organizations producing accurate and reliable reporting on sustainability efforts. That pressure is being reflected increasingly in executive performance as more organizations tie incentive compensation metrics to ESG goals. Additional risk areas associated with ESG are varied and can include reliance on third-party data, potential reputational damage from faulty reporting, and the real possibility that an organization’s explicit commitments to meet specific sustainability goals could grow into a material weakness. As ESG reporting becomes increasingly common worldwide, it should be treated with the same care as financial reporting. Organizations need to recognize that ESG reporting must be built on a strategically crafted system of internal controls and accurately reflect how an organization’s ESG efforts relate to each other, the organization’s finances, and value creation. This certificate program provides hands-on practical application of critical ESG metric identification and reporting. Participants who complete the course are eligible to sit for the certificate exam which is administered on The IIA’s LMS platform.