Verification Statement

Certification of Independent Audit

To TÜV Rheinland AG, Cologne

This statement is a translation from the German original. It was translated on behalf of TÜV Rheinland, and therefore is not authoritative. The verification statement refers to the German original report. In case of doubt, the German original shall prevail.

Based on a contractual agreement, we have conducted an audit to establish a limited assurance about the statements on corporate social responsibility (CSR) made by TÜV Rheinland AG, Cologne, in the chapter »Sustainable Path« on pp. 44–78 of its Corporate Report for the business year 2011. The audit for the chapter »Business Ecology« on pp. 63–70 and the statements on occupational health and safety on p. 62 relate to information provided about TÜV Rheinland Group companies in Germany.

Responsibility of the Legal Representatives

TÜV Rheinland AG’s Executive Board is responsible for compiling the aforementioned chapters of CSR information in keeping with the criteria listed in the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Vol. 3 (pp. 7–17) of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI):

  • Materiality,
  • Stakeholder inclusiveness,
  • Sustainability context,
  • Completeness,
  • Balance,
  • Clarity,
  • Accuracy,
  • Timeliness,
  • Comparability, and
  • Reliability.

The responsibility consists of selecting and applying appropriate methods of data collection used in drawing up the aforementioned chapters on CSR and of confirming that assumptions and estimates on individual CSR statements are plausible under the circumstances. It also comprises the conception, implementation, and maintenance of systems and processes insofar as they are of importance for compiling the aforementioned chapters of details about CSR.

Auditor’s Responsibility

Our task is to make an assessment on the basis of the work we have undertaken as to whether we have become aware of circumstances that lead us to assume that the statements on CSR for the 2011 business year made in the above-named chapters of the Corporate Report for 2011 do not comply in material respects with the criteria of the GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Vol. 3 (pp. 7–17). In addition, we were instructed to make recommendations on the basis of our audit findings on the further development of CSR management and CSR reporting.

We conducted our audit with due regard for the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000, which requires us to abide by our professional duties and to plan and implement the commission with due regard for the principle of materiality so as to be able to make our assessment with a limited degree of certainty.

In an audit to establish »limited assurance,« the audit activities are less extensive than those undertaken in an audit to establish a sufficient degree of certainty such as is required for annual financial statements in accordance with Section 317 of the German Commercial Code (HGB), so that a correspondingly lower degree of certainty is achieved.

The choice of audit activities is subject to the auditor’s judgment. In the course of our audit we undertook, amongst others, the following activities:

  • An inspection of the documents on CSR strategy, CSR management, and stakeholder dialog along with obtaining an understanding of the topic-finding process for the CSR report;
  • Interviews at the Group’s headquarters in Cologne with employees who are responsible for compiling the aforementioned chapters on CSR (the responsible areas include CSR and Sustainability, Human Resources, Occupational Health and Safety, and Radiation Safety, Global Process Management, and Compliance) or for supplying details of the processes used to draw up CSR statements and consolidate data, and of the internal control system relating to these processes;
  • An on-site visit to TÜV Rheinland Shanghai Co., Ltd., Shanghai; TÜV Rheinland Immobiliengesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG, Cologne; and the conduct of site-related interviews and surveys;
  • An inspection of the documentation of the implementation and suitability of the systems and processes used to record, analyze, and aggregate statements on CSR and spot checks to obtain an understanding of them;
  • A comparison of selected details in the »Compliance« section with the respective requirements of the anti-corruption reporting guidelines of the UN Global Compact and Transparency International;
  • An analytical assessment of selected CSR data;
  • Spot checks of the evidence provided in support of individual CSR details, including inspection of internal documents, external reports, invoices, and analysis of data generated as reports by the IT systems (conversions, estimates, and projections).

Judgment

On the basis of our audit to establish a »limited assurance,« we have not become aware of any circumstances that lead us to believe that the statements on CSR for the 2011 business year in the aforementioned sections of the Corporate Report for 2011 do not comply in material respects with the criteria of the GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Vol. 3 (pp. 7–17).

Supplementary Notes – Recommendations

Without prejudice to our audit findings outlined above, we make the following recommendations on further development of CSR management and CSR reporting:

  • Further development of uniform, Group-wide, and documented definitions of CSR statements and data collection procedures;
  • Strengthening defined and documented internal control procedures on central and upstream level.

Düsseldorf, March 12, 2012

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Aktiengesellschaft
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Andreas Bröcher
Auditor

pp Nicole Kummer