IThey have been worried about climate change for a long time now, and the decline in biodiversity worries them just as much. To align their actions with their ideas, many young graduates from accounting courses are moving towards a new sector experiencing very strong growth, the audit of social and environmental responsibility (CSR). Their role: to analyze the CSR reports that companies attach to their accounting statements, and to verify that the “responsible” actions that they put forward correspond to realities.
A perfect job for personalities particularly sensitive to ecological and human issues? The behavior of companies has major consequences on carbon emissions and more broadly on the environment. Tracking “greenwashing” operations is in this respect a mission full of meaning. Similarly, at a time when well-being at work has become a sensitive issue, confronting announcements in this area and managerial behavior seems to be essential work.
Three problems
However, the distress of CSR auditors often lives up to their initial expectations (« The CSR audit at a crossroads », by Camille Gaudy, Jonathan Maurice and Christophe Godowski, French management review notoh 306, 2022).
We interviewed auditors from medium-sized audit firms, mainly working with SMEs. The turnover of these independent firms is much lower than that of the Big Four [PricewaterhouseCoopers, EY, Deloitte et KPMG], international entities that control the accounts of large groups. But their role is crucial, because more than half of French activity is carried out in SMEs and, for the most part, these do not benefit from any other support in terms of CSR.
However, three problems are systematically pointed out by these auditors.
The question of their competence is first posed. Trained to be figure professionals capable of deciphering the financial accounts of companies and verifying the accuracy of data, for example the level of stocks or the reality of announced investments, they know how to read invoices and find this information.
Disillusions
But they are now being asked to also assess the sincerity of social and environmental commitments, which requires specific skills. The Big Four can afford the services of experts specialized in CSR to help the auditors in their work, but the small firms do not currently have these means. And very few of their employees have been able to follow additional training to carry out these new missions.
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