KPMG Faces Rising ISSB Reporting and ESG Assurance Demands

KPMG Faces Rising ISSB Reporting and ESG Assurance Demands

The sustainability work is moving into the center of the job

Sustainability reporting is no longer a side lane for a few specialists in corporate responsibility. The ISSB’s new standards have turned it into a mainstream reporting task that reaches finance, risk, controls, and external disclosure, which means more of the work can land on audit and advisory teams rather than sitting in a separate ESG bucket.

That shift matters inside KPMG because billable time is changing shape. The projects that once looked like advisory add-ons are now closer to the core mechanics of financial reporting: deciding what to measure, testing whether the data is reliable, and making sure the story holds up under investor and regulator scrutiny.

Why the ISSB changed the conversation

The International Sustainability Standards Board was created in response to a basic demand from users of general purpose financial reports: they wanted sustainability-related information that is more consistent, complete, comparable, and verifiable. That is a very different brief from broad corporate sustainability storytelling. It pushes reporting toward the same discipline that already governs financial statements.

The ISSB issued its first two standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, on June 26, 2023. IFRS S1 covers general requirements for sustainability-related financial information, while IFRS S2 focuses on climate-related disclosures. Both became effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, with earlier application allowed if the two standards are applied together. For KPMG teams, that means many clients are no longer asking whether they should report. They are asking how fast they can build a process that survives scrutiny.

The standards also force a longer horizon. Companies have to think about sustainability-related risks and opportunities across the short, medium, and long term, while keeping the information decision-useful and connected to the rest of the reporting package. That creates real work for auditors and advisors, especially where sustainability data has to tie back to finance systems, internal controls, and board reporting.

What this means for audit and advisory staff

KPMG describes sustainability reporting as a way to enhance trust, mitigate risk, and create value, and says its audit professionals help bridge the gap by providing ESG assurance across sectors, frameworks, and metrics. That is the key career signal here: ESG fluency is becoming part of the mainstream toolkit, not a niche specialty.

The practical pressure is straightforward. If a client wants to report credible emissions data, governance structures, or transition plans, someone has to define the metric, test the source system, and make sure the output is auditable. That means more demand for people who can work comfortably across accounting, controls, data management, and sustainability frameworks without treating them as separate worlds.

It also changes the profile of high-value work. The people who can translate sustainability goals into reportable information are not just helping with compliance. They are helping clients tell a more credible business story to investors and regulators. That is the kind of capability that can influence promotion cycles, staffing choices, and which professionals get pulled into higher-visibility client conversations.

The skills gap is now a control gap

KPMG’s 2025 ESG Assurance Maturity Index, based on 1,320 global firms, frames ESG assurance as a strategic imperative rather than a simple compliance exercise. The index points to five pillars of maturity: governance, skills, data management, digital technology, and value chain. That is a useful map of where the pressure is landing inside professional services.

Governance and skills matter because ESG data often cuts across multiple departments that were never designed to speak the same language. Data management matters because sustainability numbers are only as strong as the systems that produce them. Digital technology matters because firms need better tools to collect, test, and trace information at scale. The value chain pillar is a reminder that a client’s disclosure obligations increasingly depend on information from suppliers, contractors, and downstream partners, not just internal operations.

For KPMG staff, that means the most useful ESG skill set is not just subject knowledge. It is the ability to connect sustainability reporting with audit quality, internal controls, and data integrity. That is where the next wave of training pressure will sit.

The market is already treating this as normal work

KPMG’s 2024 Survey of Sustainability Reporting reviewed reports from 5,800 companies, making it the most comprehensive edition in the series since it began in 1993. The scale matters because it shows how far sustainability disclosure has moved from a specialty topic to a standard reporting expectation.

According to the survey, reporting on sustainability and setting carbon targets has become “part of business as usual” for almost all G250 companies and four-fifths of N100 companies. That language may sound blunt, but it captures the reality facing client teams: what once looked like a reputational exercise is now embedded in annual reporting cycles, assurance planning, and board agendas.

The survey also says double materiality, required under the European Union’s CSRD, is now used by half of the largest companies. That is a major signal for KPMG practitioners working with multinational clients. Even where formal deadlines differ by jurisdiction, many companies are already moving toward mandatory-reporting practices before regulators force the issue. The result is a widening gap between firms that can operationalize these disclosures and firms that are still treating them as a communications project.

The global rollout keeps widening the workload

The ISSB standards are not staying theoretical. As of June 12, 2025, the IFRS Foundation said 36 jurisdictions had adopted or otherwise used the ISSB standards, or were in the process of finalizing steps toward introducing them into their regulatory frameworks. That matters because every new jurisdiction adds another layer of client demand, another policy nuance, and another reason multinational teams need to coordinate.

For KPMG, that translates into more cross-border advisory work and more assurance questions from clients that want one reporting architecture that can hold up in multiple markets. It also means professionals who understand the overlap between ISSB, the European Union’s CSRD, and broader capital-markets expectations are likely to become more valuable, not less.

The broader career consequence is hard to miss. ESG work is shifting from a peripheral specialty into a core competency that rewards people who can handle data, controls, disclosure logic, and stakeholder pressure at the same time. In a Big 4 firm, that is the kind of shift that redefines what counts as essential work, and who gets to lead it.