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Independent Assurance Statement from Ernst & Young
The Management and Board of Directors
ITC Limited
Virginia House
Kolkata 700071, India.
Independent Assurance Statement
ITC Limited (the “Company”) has requested Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd. (EY) to provide an independent assurance on its Sustainability Report 2012 (the “Report”) which covers its sustainability performance from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012. The Company’s management is responsible for the content of the report, identification of the key issues, engagement with stakeholders and its presentation. EY’s responsibility is to provide assurance on the report content, as described in the scope of assurance. Our responsibility in performing our assurance activities is to the management of the Company only, and in accordance with the terms of reference agreed with the Company. We do not therefore accept or assume any responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person or organisation.
Assurance Standard
The assurance engagement was planned and performed in accordance with International Federation of Accountants’ International Standard for Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information (ISAE 3000). Our evidence-gathering procedures have been designed to obtain a reasonable level of assurance (as set out in ISAE 3000) on which we base our conclusions.
Scope of Assurance and Methodology
The scope of our work for this assurance is limited to review of information related to specific environment and social performance for the period of 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012, in 9 selected representative units from various businesses of the Company and Head office, Kolkata, which are material to the Company’s Triple Bottom Line performance, as mentioned below:
ITD ( Tobacco Division) – Saharanpur & Kidderpore
FBD ( Foods Division ) – Pune (Snacks)
Hotels – ITC Maratha, Mumbai & ITC Sonar, Kolkata
PPD (Printing and Packaging Division) – Tiruvottiyur
PSPD (Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division) – Bhadrachalam & Bollarum
ILTD ( Leaf Tobacco Division) - Chirala
EY’s multidisciplinary team of professionals visited the Company’s representative units in order to review and validate the data and information presented in the report, on core and additional G3 indicators listed below:
EN 1 Materials used by weight or volume
EN 3 Direct energy consumption by primary energy source
EN 4 Indirect energy consumption by primary source
EN 8 Total water withdrawal by source
EN 10 Percentage and volume of total water recycled and reused
EN 16 Total direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by weight
EN 19 Emissions of ozone-depleting substances by weight
EN 20 NOx, SOx, and other significant air emissions by type and weight
EN 21 Total water discharge by quality and destination
EN 22 Total weight of waste by type and disposal method
LA 1 Total workforce by employment type, employment contract, and region
LA 4 Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements
LA7 Safety performance (Fatality, reportable injury and man-days lost)
LA 10 Average training manhours per employee by category
HR 2 Percentage of significant suppliers and contractors that have undergone screening on human rights and actions taken
SO 1 Nature, scope and effectiveness of any programs and practices that assess and manage the impacts of operations on communities, including entering, operating and exiting
The nature and scope of our work was based on our professional judgment and we have performed procedures deemed necessary to provide a basis for our conclusions. The approach to the assurance exercise included interaction with key personnel to identify the processes in place to capture sustainability performance data and information as per GRI 2006 (GRI-G3) guidelines. The team conducted review and verification of data collection process, measurement methodology and general review of the logic of inclusion/omission of necessary information/data to:
Review of major anomaly within the report as well as between the report and source data/information;
Verification of the transcription of data internally verified by the Company ;
Execution of audit trail of selected data streams and information to determine the level of accuracy in collection, transcription and aggregation processes followed;
Review of the reliability of the information, assessing related controls and their operating effectiveness;
Review of the Company’s plans, policies and practices, pertaining to their social, environmental and sustainable development: