KPMG and Workiva join forces to enhance ESG reporting, boosting corporate strategy alignment and efficiency

LONDON, UK and AMES, IA; November 30, 2023 – KPMG in the US, a leading audit, tax and advisory firm and a part of KPMG, the global organization, uses Workiva Inc. (NYSE:WK), one of the world’s leading cloud platforms for assured integrated reporting, to enable Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) double materiality assessments (DMA), helping to accelerate clients’ journeys towards compliance.

The Workiva platform, combined with KPMG’s market-leading methodology and industry accelerators, enables information gathering to help companies identify the material topics they need to report on considering the fast-approaching 750 CSRD disclosure requirements without using labor-intensive and time-consuming manual spreadsheets.

"This approach avoids non-auditable processes like spreadsheets, improves efficiency, and helps mitigate risks," said Rob Fisher, ESG Leader, KPMG in the US. "Our collaboration with Workiva allows organizations to align their data collection to their business strategy, and helps to save time, avoid manual processes, and streamline data collection and reporting. By leveraging this new platform, clients can focus on their core business activities while enabling their ESG reporting to be more accurate and transparent considering the regulatory requirements."

“New and pending ESG regulations continue to expand globally in both scope and complexity and are driving the convergence of non-financial and financial reporting, as well as the requirement that the data be audit-ready and investor-grade. Workiva is the only unified platform in the industry bringing Financial Reporting, ESG, and GRC together in one secure, controlled, audit-ready environment,” said Paul Volpe, Senior Vice President of Growth, Workiva.

Together, KPMG and Workiva’s approach aims to simplify DMA, enables enhanced stakeholder engagement, applies consistent definitions, and provides greater visibility into metrics and disclosures, for some 60,000 impacted organizations.

“Leveraging KPMG professionals’ experience and the Workiva platform will not only help customers address new regulations initially, but also help them accelerate the operationalization of their ESG reporting. Our platform streamlines the ESG reporting process end-to-end, from data collection and management to final report. Together with KPMG member firms, our mutual clients can connect solutions, gain efficiency and accuracy, and review and compare guidelines from multiple frameworks and standards,” Volpe said.

Earlier this year, KPMG member firms and Workiva announced an enhanced alliance to deliver ESG-focused solutions and services and enable more consistent ESG data collection. Through the alliance, they are working to enhance and increase collaboration between compliance functions while improving risk management and providing real-time monitoring of data to provide valuable insights.

The Workiva ESG reporting platform is designed to be flexible and provides capabilities for organizations to meet their current ESG data and reporting needs and timelines. This includes collecting relevant ESG metrics, aggregating them into a central repository, and connecting them to the necessary stakeholder reports. Importantly, CSRD in Workiva presents opportunities and risks through dashboards across common ESG frameworks (SASB and GRI) in the established data model and control framework.

CSRD requires an annual DMA, an intensive process for multinational organizations to determine material impacts, risks and opportunities that are relevant to the bottom line and broader stakeholders and triggers extensive disclosure requirements. DMA provides companies with a comprehensive assessment of sustainability matters in an effort to address challenges facing generations to come.

Join KPMG ESG professionals and Workiva ESG specialists for a webinar on December 14, 2023 as they examine the significant impacts of the latest regulations while detailing key insights and innovative technology solutions for tackling these business challenges. This alliance is part of KPMG’s commitment towards innovation with Workiva for reporting and data solutions as the Workiva 2023 America’s Innovation Partner of the Year. 

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP is the U.S. firm of the KPMG global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. The KPMG global organization operates in 143 countries and territories and has more than 265,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.

KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career. Our people share a sense of purpose in the work we do, and a strong commitment to community service, inclusion and diversity and eradicating childhood illiteracy. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.

About Workiva Inc

Workiva Inc. (NYSE:WK) is on a mission to power transparent reporting for a better world. We build and deliver the world’s leading cloud platform for assured, integrated reporting to meet stakeholder demands for action, transparency, and disclosure of financial and non-financial data. Workiva offers the only unified SaaS platform that brings customers’ financial reporting, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) together in a controlled, secure, audit-ready platform. Our platform simplifies the most complex reporting and disclosure challenges by streamlining processes, connecting data and teams, and ensuring consistency. Learn more at workiva.com.