| Approx Course Duration *: | Equivalent to 32 Hours (Approx 4 days full-time study) |
| Access to Course Content: | 18 Months from the date of enrolment |
| Qualification/s: | Lead Auditor IWA 48 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) |
| Competency Units: |
Exemplar Global (AU) Management Systems Auditing
Exemplar Global (TL) Lead Audit Teams |
| Certificate Type: |
Certificate of Attainment - TPECS |
| CPD Hours: | 32 Continuing Professional Development Hours |
Why Lead Auditor ESG?
ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, the three pillars organisations use to measure and improve how they impact the world, treat people, and manage accountability. In practice, ESG is how a business proves it’s operating responsibly, managing risk, and building long-term trust with stakeholders. It covers everything from emissions and resource use, to worker wellbeing and community impact, to ethics, transparency, and compliance.
Right now, ESG capability is one of the fastest-growing areas in business. Regulators are lifting expectations, investors are scrutinising claims, supply chains are under pressure to demonstrate performance, and customers want proof, not slogans. That means organisations need auditors who can verify what’s real, identify gaps, and guide improvement.
For you, this is a fantastic next step in your career.
Becoming a Lead Auditor in ESG positions you at the front of a field that’s expanding across every industry. It strengthens your professional credibility, broadens the scope of audits you can lead, and opens pathways into roles such as ESG assurance, sustainability leadership, risk and governance, supplier auditing, and third-party certification work.
This course prepares you to lead ESG audits that:
- test what matters (not just what’s documented),
- uncover risks and opportunities,
- verify claims and performance,
- and support credible ESG reporting and continual improvement.
You’ll graduate ready to lead audits internally or as a third-party auditor — with a skillset businesses are actively looking for.
What You’ll Learn
- Interpret ESG principles and clause-based frameworks in real business contexts
- Map ESG obligations, risks, and stakeholder expectations
- Plan and lead ESG audits end-to-end (scope, criteria, sampling, risk focus)
- Conduct effective interviews and evidence collection
- Identify nonconformities, gaps, and improvement opportunities
- Write clear, defensible ESG audit reports
- Lead follow-up, corrective actions, and improvement reviews
- Audit ESG reporting for consistency, accuracy, and traceability
- Confidently manage audit teams and audit programs
Who This Course Is For
This course is designed for people who need to lead ESG audits, not just participate in them.
It’s ideal if you are:
- an internal auditor or lead auditor expanding into ESG
- responsible for ESG, sustainability, or corporate responsibility
- a consultant supporting ESG system implementation
- working in compliance, risk, or governance
- preparing for supplier / regulator / assurance audits
- transitioning into ESG assurance roles
If you already hold a Lead Auditor qualification, we recommend takign a look at the IWA 48:2024 ESG Implementation Specialist course to build on your existing qualification (no need to do it all over again).
ATOL courses are broken up into a series of modules followed by related assessments completed as part of the learning, step-by-step, module-by-module. You can exit and reenter your course at any point without losing your place.
Lead Auditor Management Systems Content
This course consists of the following modules:
| Introduction to Management Systems Auditing | Managing an Audit Programme |
| The Auditor & Competence of the Auditor | Audit Procedures |
Audit Team Member Guidelines for:
|
Lead Auditor Guidelines for:
|
| Framework for implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles: | |
|---|---|
| Introduction to ESG, including Clauses 1, 2, & 3 | Clause 4 Principles and practices in ESG |
| Clause 5 Environmental | Clause 6 Social |
| Clause 7 Governance | Clause 8 Compliance and conformity |
| Clause 9 Reporting | Clause 10 Continual improvement |
$1,395.00 USD
This course includes:
- Lead Auditor Management Systems
- IWA 48:2024 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Implementation Specialist
Course details:
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Online Self-Paced
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Approx 32 hours full-time study*
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Exemplar Global International/Industry Recognized
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Standard: ISO 19011:2018 and IWA 48:2025
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No prerequisites required
* All ATOL courses are delivered in such a way you can work through them at your own pace, the actual time to complete the training may change depending on the individual learners' experience and/or learning style
NO PREREQUISITES