Environmental audits
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Environmental audits are intended to quantify environmental performance and environmental position. In this way they perform an analogous function to financial audits. An environmental audit report ideally contains a statement of environmental performance and environmental position, and may also aim to define what needs to be done to sustain or improve on indicators of such performance and position.[citation needed]
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[edit] ISO 14001 definition
ISO 14001 defines an environmental audit as:
A systematic, documented verification process for objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence to determine whether specified environmental activities, events, conditions, management systems or information about these matters conforms with audit criteria, and communicating the results of this process to the client. (Mattsson and Olsson p.177)
[edit] Three types
Mattsson and Olsson (p. 178) say that there are three types of audit:
- 1. Liability audit
- 2. A management audit
- 3. A functional audit (sometimes called an activity or issues audit)
Liability audits assess compliance with legal obligations. Management audits verify that an Environmental Management Strategy meets its stated objectives. An activity audit may investigate a specific area such as energy or water use.
[edit] Links
- ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITOR GUIDELINES FOR APPOINTMENT AND CONDUCT (Victoria, Australia)
- Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA), under the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)
- Environmental Auditors Registration Association, Regional Institute of Environmental Technology According to their website, EARA is the leading UK membership organisation dedicated to the promotion of the goal of sustainable development.
[http://www.iema.net The Institute of Environmental Management And Assessment, UK, now maintains the Environmental Auditors Register of the erstwhile EARA
[edit] References
Kim, Unhee "Environmental & Safety Auditing: Program Strategies for Legal, Internatinoal, and Financial Issues, CRC Press, Florida (1997)
Harrison, Lee (Ed) "Environmental, Health and Safety Auditing Handbook", Second Edition, McGraw Hill, New York (1995)
ISO 14011, Audit Procedures and Auditing of Environmental Management Systems.
B. Mattsson and P. Olsson 2001. 'Environmental audits and life cycle assessment'. in Dillon, M.; Griffith eds. Auditing in the Food Industry - From Safety and Quality to Environmental and Other Audits, Woodhead Publishing.
Nelson, David D. "International Environmental Auditing", Government Institutes Inc., USA (1998)
