Assurance
Internal and external assurance is an important part of our approach.
Our approach
Accuracy and reliability of reported information is assured through our internal management and information systems, with each section formally approved by the relevant functional owner.
Our environmental reporting has been supported by independent external verification since we first started reporting in 1996 and our social report was formally verified for the first time in 2004. Our previously separate social and environmental reports were merged in 2005 and have included external assurance of core key performance indicators (KPIs) since then. Some of the information we include in our sustainability reporting comes from our financial report and is therefore audited by our financial auditors.
In order to align our sustainability reporting timetable with our financial reporting timetable (Annual Review and Annual Report and Accounts 2008), in 2008 we improved our process for collecting and reporting monthly eco-efficiency data from our manufacturing sites.
As a result of these improvements, eco-efficiency data for our main KPIs is now reported quarterly to the Unilever Executive rather than at year end. This enables us to monitor our performance more closely and act more quickly to make improvements, eg in order to maintain progress against our targets. It also means that this data is available earlier in the year, in mid-February rather than mid-April. For the first time - in March 2009 - we published this management reporting data as 'preliminary data' in our external sustainability and financial reports.
By the end of March, each site has completed its detailed annual environmental report on its eco-efficiency data. We complete our reporting cycle once this data is reviewed by Deloitte as part of their limited assurance of ten environmental and occupational safety performance indicators contained within our Sustainable Development Report 2008. Deloitte study not only the data but the process for collecting it and our employees' understanding of the system.
Deloitte's report, which sets out the scope of the assurance work performed on these indicators and their qualified conclusion, is now available to download.
