Materiality and external assurance in corporate sustainability reporting: an exploratory case study of the UK construction industry

Abstract

The aims of this paper are to provide a preliminary examination of the extent to which the UK's leading construction companies are reporting embracing materiality and commissioning independent external assurance as part of their sustainability reporting processes and to offer some wider reflections on materiality and external assurance in sustainability reporting. The information for the paper is drawn from the top 20 UK construction companies' corporate websites. The paper reveals that only a minority of the UK's top 20 construction companies had embraced materiality or commissioned independent external assurance as an integral part of their sustainability reporting processes. This can be seen to reduce the reliability and credibility of the construction companies sustainability reports. The paper provides an accessible review of the extent to which the UK's leading construction companies are currently reporting embracing materiality and commissioning external assurance as part of their sustainability reporting processes.