EU:s nya direktiv gällande hållbarhetsrapportering : hur påverkas granskningen av hållbarhetsrapporter?

Sammanfattning: Assurance of sustainability reports is a relatively new field compared to the financial auditing field, which has developed for a longer period of time. Currently there are no requirements regarding assurance of sustainability reports in Sweden. But there is already a demand for assurance of sustainability reports. New directives are coming, where assurance of sustainability reports are a requirement, a joint reporting standard for the preparation will also be included. These directives are meant to improve the comparability and credibility of sustainability reports, which has been a previously reported problem. The study's purpose is to describe the auditing process concerning sustainability reports with current regulations and create an understanding of sustainability reports comparability and credibility. Further the study aims to create an understanding of how the implementation of the new directives may affect this. The theoretical point of view in the study is legitimacy theory and literature regarding the auditing process for both financial reports and sustainability reports. To sustain information of relevance concerning the studies purpose the empirical collection has been through qualitative content analysis of sustainability reports that has been audited by an auditor. The empirical collection has also been through qualitative interviews with respondents that work with assurance of sustainability reports. From the qualitative content analysis a variation in execution, both in preparation and assurance could be confirmed. The comparability and credibility can therefore be questioned. From the respondents further information concerning the execution of the assurance process could be collected, and their expectations and opinions regarding the new directives. What emerged in the study is that the expectations of the new directives are positive, it isassumed that it will facilitate the work with sustainability reports. The new directives seem to be more of a step in the right direction, rather than a solution to the problems with deficient comparability and credibility. The terms comparability and credibility have a strong connection to legitimacy. The study suggests that sustainability reports still have symbolic value for the companies in creating legitimacy, and that the environment's demands on the companies have changed and therefore the need for the new directives are also confirmed. The conclusions of the study are that the auditing process is based on the financial auditing process, but because the field is relatively new and the information that's being audited is of a qualitative character, challenges and difficulties can occur. Therefore a need for development can be seen in the whole field, and the expectations of the new directives are positive.