CSRD: AFNOR Compétences trains the first sustainability auditors
The practical work is beginning! The entry into force of the sustainability reporting directive has kicked off the training of auditors who will verify these reports. In April 2024, AFNOR Compétences released its first class.
CSR and sustainability
With a touch of humor, they call themselves pioneers
Who are they? They are the first 15 trainees to have completed the sustainability auditor training course for independent third-party organizations! Jointly designed by AFNOR Compétences and Apave, this 90-hour module has been approved since April 23, 2024, by the Haute Autorité de l'Audit (H2A, formerly H3C). Completing an approved training course is a prerequisite for registering as a sustainability auditor with this same authority and practicing this new profession, which combines CSR assessment and the world of finance.
Auditors will act on behalf of an independent third-party organization that is also duly registered, as AFNOR Certification intends to be, in a market where they will coexist with accounting professionals (auditors, accountants) and legal professionals (lawyers). Reminder: from January 1, 2025, companies with more than 500 employees must produce an initial sustainability report for their 2024 financial year, based on standardized indicators developed for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, using a dual materiality approach. These reports will have to be audited.
CSRD: learners and contributors with diverse profiles
AFNOR Compétences' sustainability auditor training course takes the time to explore a complex regulatory topic in depth and provides important additional information on the links between different standards (CSR, ESG, CSRD, etc.), with practical case studies and a vision of what tomorrow's sustainability audit will look like.
, says Damien Pataki, one of the training participants and founder of Caporg. Like him, the students in the first class, who came from a wide range of professional backgrounds (organizational consultants, CSR managers, evaluators, etc.), appreciated being trained in both accounting and the various environmental and social regulations and governance issues facing organizations. And this was done by speakers with equally diverse profiles: intermediate audit and accounting firms, taxonomy experts, lawyers, etc.
Sustainability reporting and CSRD: understand and prepare for CSR regulatory changes
The 90-hour training course, with its financial and non-financial content and the diversity of professions represented by the learners and speakers, places a strong emphasis on interprofessional exchanges. This is what will ensure the successful rollout of the CSRD and build confidence among the organizations subject to it, some of which are taking tentative steps into the e exercise
, comments Anne Thomas, Director of AFNOR Compétences.
At the end of the course, trainees were awarded a certificate confirming their training in sustainability information certification. They are expected to be among the first to apply for inclusion on the list of sustainability information auditors maintained by H2A, thereby ensuring they are ready for the January 1, 2025 deadline.
Sustainability reporting and CSRD: understand and prepare for CSR regulatory changes
CSR, CSRD, EFRAG... Feeling lost amid this tsunami of acronyms? AFNOR and its partners offer an explanation of the CSRD Directive and ESRS standards to help you get back on track and write your sustainability report. The conference is divided into two parts: an introduction to the CSRD by Mélodie Merenda, CSR Project Manager, SRI and circular economy for the Afnor group, followed by testimonials from Dominique Poncet, CSR manager and demand forecaster for Diager, and Marie-Agnès de Francqueville, director of environment and sustainable development for Caisse d'Epargne Bourgogne Franche-Comté. They will share their experiences of stakeholder mapping, double materiality analysis, and how the CSRD impacts their business. This conference, organized by the AFNOR group's Bourgogne Franche-Comté regional delegation in partnership with the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the FQP Bourgogne Franche-Comté association, and MEDEF Côte d'Or, was held in Dijon on April 18, 2024. If you found it informative, inspiring, or interesting, feel free to share it!
