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Year in Review: How APSCA Advanced Integrity & Professional Conduct in 2025

In 2025, APSCA’s Professional Conduct Team focused on a simple but important question: 

How can we better support Member Firms and Member Auditors while strengthening integrity, accountability, and trust across the social compliance auditing ecosystem?
 
Below is a look at how we worked with members and stakeholders in practice—through oversight, guidance, and remediation-focused activities—to help address integrity challenges in real-world audit environments.

Listening and responding to integrity concerns:

One of the most direct ways we support the ecosystem is by listening. In 2025, APSCA received nearly 400 integrity-related reports from across the membership. These ranged from requests for guidance to formal allegations requiring review.

Each report represented a decision by a Member Firm or auditor to raise a concern, ask a question, or seek clarity. We view this engagement as a sign of professionalism and trust. Throughout the year, the Professional Conduct Team worked to ensure members had clear, confidential, and fair pathways to raise concerns and understand next steps—whether through informal guidance, compliance review, or investigation.

Strengthening compliance through clearer pathways:

In June 2025, APSCA released the Quarterly Reporting Policy and companion guidance following a year-long pilot with 17 Member Firms. This work formalized the Compliance Pathway, a process that has existed since 2019 and has been refined through ongoing member feedback.
 
The Compliance Pathway reinforces core expectations under APSCA’s Code and Standards of Professional Conduct, including that audits are conducted by APSCA Auditors in Good Standing and that each audit team includes a CSCA. In practice, this work supported stronger resourcing, professional mentoring, and more consistent audit outcomes—while giving Member Firms clearer structure and predictability in meeting requirements.
 
Dashboards, communications and enhanced reporting statistics to align with Code requirements were developed in 2025 to aid member reporting pathways and compliance performance.

Supporting ethical best practices in the field:

Member feedback directly shaped our learning and engagement activities throughout the year. Integrity Clinics held in September 2025 focused on real audit scenarios, professional judgment, and ethical decision-making under pressure. These sessions provided a space for auditors and Member Firms to explore options, ask questions, and learn from shared experiences.
 
APSCA also expanded its Ethics & Integrity resources, including the release of the third annual Speak Up video and the launch of FREDDY, a practical action plan designed to support integrity before, during, and after audits. These tools reflect our commitment to meeting auditors where they are and providing practical, usable guidance.

Looking Ahead - together:

Year-end metrics and links to APSCA’s 2025 Ethics & Integrity resources will be published in the Ethics & Integrity section of the APSCA website.
 
As always, we encourage Member Firms and Member Auditors to reach out to the Professional Conduct Team at ethics@theapsca.org—whether you are seeking guidance, raising a concern, or simply unsure how to proceed. Your engagement helps us continue improving how professional conduct is upheld across the ecosystem.
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