Environmental Auditing
An environmental audit is useful in assessing which particular areas of your business impact on the environment, and to what extent. An audit is also an effective risk management tool enabling you to check how well you comply with your organisation’s environmental objectives and targets and of course, environmental legislation.
An environmental audit assesses the likelihood of causing environmental harm based on the policies, procedures and systems to negate such impacts. Knowing where your weak spots lie is a critical component of effective risk management and also provides a high level of due diligence. Environmental auditing can help you:
- assess how effectively you manage those aspects of your organisation which have an ability to impact on the environment;
- prioritise what actions you can take to reduce your impact on the environment
- demonstrate accountability and due diligence to third parties such as government, customers and shareholders.
Environmental audits also have the ability to save you money through the early detection of potential environmental impacts and also through reductions in costs such as energy, resource consumption and the generation of waste. An environmental audit should be independent, objective and based on agreed clear audit goals and processes. Audits should also be regular and ongoing, and conducted against a benchmark or initial assessment, generally detailed in your environmental plan.
An environmental audit will generally provide the starting point for any other environmental measures and can provide a valuable tool for companies both in performance management and in planning. It can be an effective risk management tool for assessing compliance with environmental legislation, and can also be used to identify areas for improvements and efficiencies.
The GPA has a long history of undertaking environmental audits across a range of industries and activities in a manner that will help your organisation to reduce its impact on the environment, and where possible reduce operational costs.