Auditing as an effective mean of communication on environmental, social and governance issues in Brazil

The study investigates the understanding of the relationships between the adoption of the sustainability standards by the organisations, audit role and the effective communication based on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). The ESG has evolved over time in several countries and has attracted some concerns on the part of stakeholders. Thus, our research responds to the question of what the understanding of the relationship between audit communication and ESG risks is. Data was constructed from the Symposium organized by the Brazilian Central Bank addressing the future of sustainability and from interview of experts. We used the discourse analysis to work on the data corpus. Our results reveal that to comprehend the relationship between auditing and communication on ESG issue, understanding risk analysis and the matrices, planning and rules of effective communication turns sine qua non. De facto, a well written report and communicated in a timely manner instils confidence in the auditee by procuring response and giving remedies to weaknesses without fear or favour. Results also indicate that auditing will have a key role to play through their methodologies noting that they are competent to carry out the work. Overall, our study contributes to research on ESG, auditing communication and stakeholders' relationships.