Format
This course will be delivered via Zoom on Thursday 24
October 2024 from 8.30 am to 2pm. The Zoom link will be emailed to participants
the day before the course is due to take place.
Who Should Attend?
Accountants (and other finance professionals) in practice and industry,
across business and financial services and whether in the public or private
sector, who want an updated summary of the current corporate sustainability
reporting landscape. Similar sold-out online workshops were hosted by the
Institute in both October 2023 and April 2024.
Course overview
The masterclass is designed to provide a high-level overview and will bring
together a diverse range of speakers to provide key updates and insights on the
global, European, and national sustainability requirements and principles most
impacting the role of professional accountants. This will include:
- The definition of sustainability and ESG, and applying
them in different organisational contexts
- The intersection of finance (including funding opportunities), regulation,
governance, reporting and assurance – Insights on how these are impacted by
the evolving sustainability requirements from various stakeholders, including
regulators and society.
- The regulatory landscape – an overview of the key
regulations, the impact on all types of organisations and the core
requirements.
- Principles and Frameworks – An overview and
explanation of common sustainability principles and frameworks, including the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and applying them in an
organisational context.
- The Sustainability Reporting landscape – An overview
of the current sustainability reporting landscape, examples of reporting and
the latest developments in context of International Sustainability Standards
Board and European Sustainability Reporting Standards, the Impact of Corporate
Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and other legal developments for
accountants.
- The Sustainability Assurance Landscape – An overview of the
current sustainability assurance landscape, the evolving situation under CSRD
and future developments impacting assurance, such as those included in the
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
• Interpret the terminology and summarise key sustainability
requirements impacting organisations, e.g. CSRD.
• Explain the laws,
regulations, standards, principles and best practice driving the corporate
sustainability compliance agenda.
• Prioritise sustainability
requirements and plan next steps from a governance (including risk management
and compliance), reporting, and assurance perspective.
• Describe
examples of sustainability compliance initiatives and approaches taken by
various organisations.
• Describe recent developments in sustainability
governance, reporting and assurance impacting organisations of all sizes and
develop an action plan to address.
Speaker Bio
Níall Fitzgerald, FCA. Head of Ethics and Governance, Chartered Accountants Ireland
- Níall
brings together technical expertise, experience and insights from his role
with the Institute and his roles as a non-executive director
for an Irish Charity and chair of its
governance and risk committee, Trustee for an occupational pension scheme, co-founder
of Chapter Zero Ireland, advisory member on several global professional accountancy committees/task
forces, and Institute of Banking faculty member with focus on financial
service governance, risk, sustainability, culture and ethics.
If you have any questions regarding this or any other CPD course or requirements, please feel free to contact the team here or call us at
(+353) 01 523 3930
This course is also available for in-house training. If you're interested, please contact our team
here or call us at (+353) 01 523 3989