The document discusses environmental auditing. It defines environmental auditing as a systematic, documented, periodic evaluation of how well environmental management systems are performing with the aim of assessing compliance, facilitating management control, and placing information in the public domain. It describes the benefits and types of environmental audits, including compliance, issues, health and safety, site, corporate, and product audits. It outlines the objectives, procedures, and stages of an environmental audit, including pre-audit activities, on-site audit activities, and post-audit activities and reporting.

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UNIT 4
ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT

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Introduction
Is an exercise of self assessment to minimise the generation of wastes and
pollution potential.
A gazette notification on environmental audit has been issued by the ministry of
environment and forest on March 13th, 1992 (amended on 22nd April ,1993)
This notification applies to every person carrying on an industry ,operation or
process and require consent to operate under
(1) section 25 of the water (prevention and control of pollution ) Act 1974
Or
(2) Section 21 of the air (prevention and control of pollution ) Act 1981
Or
(3)Authorisation under the hazardous waste ( management and handling rules
,1989) issued under the environmental statement ,for the financial year ending
31st March to be submitted to the concerned state pollution control board on or
before 30th September of the same year.

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Definition
Environmental auditing is a management tool comprising a systematic
,documented, periodic and objective evaluation of how well the management
systems are performing with the aim of
1) Waste prevention and reduction
2) Assessing compliance with regulatory requirements
3) Facilitating control of environmental practices by a company’s management
4) Placing environmental information in the public domain.
Benefits of environmental audit
1)Determines how well the process systems and pollution control systems are
performing and identifies the operations of poor performance.
2) Identifies potential cost saving which can be accrued through reduction in raw
material consumption by way of waste minimisation and adoption of recycle,
reduction in pollution land.

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3) Increase awareness of environmental requirement policies and responsibilities.
4)Helps in understanding the technical capabilities and attitude of the environmental
organisation in a company.
5) Provides up to date environmental data base for use in plant modification
emergencies etc.
Definition of environmental auditing
Is a management tool comprising a systematic ,documented and periodic evaluation of
how well environmental organisation is performing with the aim to safeguard the
environment by assessing compliance wit company’s policies.
Types of environmental auditing
Compliance audit
-Most common
- consists of checks against environmental legislation and company’s policy
Issues audit
An evaluation of how a company’s activities relate to an environmental issue.(eg. Globa;
pollution) or
An evaluation of a specific issue (eg. Buildings, supplies )

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Health and safety audit
An assessment of risks and contingency planning , sometimes merged with
environmental auditing because of the interconnected impacts of industrial processes
and hazards.
Site audit
Audit of a particular site to examine actual or potential environmental problems.
Corporate audit
Audit of the whole company and its policies structures, procedures and practices.
Due diligence audit
An assessment of potential environmental and financial risks carried out before a
accompany merger or site acquisition.
Activity or operational audit
An assessment of activities that may cross company departments (eg. Energy or waste
management)
Product or life cycle audit
An analysis of environmental impacts of a product throughout all stages of design,
production, use and disposal.

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The above have been described as partial environmental audits (Welford and
Gouldson 1993) to distinguish them from more specific audit.
External audit
An assessment of the condition of the local environment resulting in a state of
environmental report (SOR or SOER)
Internal audit consists of 2 areas
1)Policy impact assessment – a review of the activities of the authority
2) Management audit –a review of the procedures and structures by which
environmental policies are managed.
Objectives of environmental audit or concerns of EIA
to help safeguard the environment and minimise risks to human health. (
auditing alone will not achieve this goal, hence the word help is used ,which is a
management tool.

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Key objectives are
-determines how well the environmental management systems and equipment
are performing.
-verify compliance with relevant national, local laws and regulations.
- Minimise human exposure to risks from environmental, health and safety
problems.
- There are 2 main objectives.
- Primary and secondary objectives
Primary objectives
To produce a report by the auditor based on the financial statements so that any
person reading and using them can believe them.
Secondary objectives
-to detect error and fraud
-to prevent errors and fraud by the deterrent and moral effects of audit.

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The other objectives are
-completeness
-ownership
-Accuracy
-valuation
-classification
-disclosure
Objectives of environmental audit in industry
- To determine mass balance of various materials used and the performance of various
process equipment.
- To identify the usage of materials in excess than required and accordingly fix up
norms for equipment performance and minimisation of the wastes.
- To identify the areas of water usage and waste water generation and determine the
characteristics of waste water.
- To determine the emissions , their sources and characteristics.
- To determine the solid waste and hazardous wastes generated ,their sources and
characteristics.

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-To identify the possibilities of waste minimisation and recovery and recycling of water.
-To determine the performance of the existing waste treatment.
-To determine the impact on surrounding environment (ground water, residential
areas,stream,agricultural area etc.) due to disposal of waste water, emission and solid
waste from industry and identify suitable measures.
-To verify compliance with the standards and conditions prescribed by the regulatory
bodies under the water act ,air act and environmental pollution act.
- To check effectiveness of the company with reference to their technical view point
and environmental policy of the company.
Scope of auditing
Audits can address one topic or a whole range of issues.
-greater the scope of the audit, greater will be the size of the audit team
-international audits are carried by a central team.
Scope of an audit can vary from simple compliance testing to a mor rigorous
examination.
-technique is applied to operational , environmental, health, safety
management,product safety and product quality management, loss prevention.

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Environmental auditing and procedures
The entire audit procedure is divided into 3 categories
1) Pre audit activities or pre audit stage
2) Audit stage or activities at the site
3) Post audit activities or post audit stage
1) Pre audit activities or pre audit stage
- Full management commitment
- setting overall goals
- Selecting a team to ensure objectivity and professional competence.
Pre audit activities include various preliminary works.
-preliminary information on the industry is obtained through a questionnaire
-the information includes location of the industry, climate conditions, products
manufactured, raw materials used, details of water utilisation , waste water generation
And disposal, gaseous emissions, solid/hazardous waste disposal and policies of te
company for environmental management.

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After receiving the preliminary information of the industry, an audit team will be
appointed to the industry to carry out the audit process.
-this team prepares an audit plan and contains areas to be audited.
-then this information will b intimated to the industry about the data of audit and
areas od audit, so that the senior management and staff at various levels will be
available for smooth conduction of the audit.
Audit team
Should be carefully selected to cover various aspects of the audit.
-the team should include employees from production, quality control / laboratory.
-the number of people may vary from4 to 8 depending on the size and complexity of
the facility being audited.
-Effectiveness of the audit is a direct result of the qualification ,confidence, training
and proficiency of the personnel who conduct the audit.
-The team should understand regulatory requirements, relevant waste control
technologies and their operations and process
-the management should be provided with a realistic assessment and environmental
performance.

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2) Audit stage or activities at the site
-on site audit ,well defined and systematic , using protocols or checklists.
-review of documents and records
-review of policies
- Interviews
- Site inspection
include deriving material balance , identifying waste flow lines, monitoring
characteristics, evaluating performance of pollution control equipment system,
assessing environmental management and finally preparing the draft report.
Interviews should be carried out with the various cross sections of the staff engaged in
production ,quality control.
Material balance
The entire manufacturing process of each product should be drawn as a flow sheet
representing various unit operations as blocks.
Eg. For a pesticide manufacturing industry ,
Inputs are raw materials,catalyst,water,air,power and recycled materials.

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Outputs and by products are waste water ,emissions, solid waste and reusable waste
etc.
Waste flow
From the material balance , the source of quantities of generation of water like geyser
emissions and solid waste should be identified.
The waste pre treatment , final treatment and disposal path should be identified.
3) Post audit activities or post audit stage
-evaluation of the findings
-reporting with recommendations
-preparation of an action plan
Follow up
Various aspects discussed above should be compiled and a final report prepared along
with recommendations .
The final report may if necessary be sent to the top management for comments so as
to make further modifications.
Synthesis of data
The requirement of various raw materials according to the mass balance of chemical
equation – stoichiometric requirement.

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A comparison of these requirements with the actually used in the industry gives
an indication of excess usage of various raw materials.
Action plans
The recommendations include measures for best environmental management.
Priorities should be fixed and action plans with time frame should be formulated.
Follow up actions
Should be taken to check the progress of implementation of recommendations.
The environment division of the industry should meet the other divisional heads
periodically to review the progress.

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ICC (International chamber of commerce) -environmental auditing and
environmental managements systems (EMS)
As per ICC ,1991, an EMS is a tool designed to enable organisations to target
,achieve and demonstrate continuous improvement in environmental
performance.
It is an integrated management process with a number of stages which includes
an environmental audit.
There are a number of standards (eg. The British standard BS 7750 (BS 11992),
the European eco management and audit scheme for industry.
Evaluation of waste treatment facilities
Performance of various pre-treatment and final treatment facilities should be
evaluated based on the analysis reports.
If the treated waste water, gaseous emissions and solid waste do not confirm to
the standards prescribed by the PCB ,reason for the same should be diagnosed.

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-The waste water of the industry should be segregated based on the
characteristics such as inorganic, organic,acidic,alkaline,easily biodegradable , not
easily biodegradable and toxic streams should be provided.
-The waste water of similar nature should be combined and common treatment
facilities provided. This would be efficient and economical .
-Inorganic wastes and non biodegradable wastes are treated in biological
treatment plants.
-Toxic wastes should be detoxified before treating in biological treatment plant.
-Highly toxic wastes may be isolated and incinerated.
-The rate of waste water flow and polluted loads to the effluent treatment
plant(ETP) should be properly regulated.

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• Audit protocol
• Is a checklist to be followed by the auditors during audit process .
• The list contains procedures ,goals ,objectives ,policies etc.to be checked or
audited during process.
• There is no universal protocol for company /industry.
• Each company or industry has its own protocol to be followed during audit
process.
• Advantages of protocol
• Systematic evaluation of all procedures and processes of company.
• Prepares a detailed audit report after assessment
• Findings observed during audit will be documented in the audit report.
• Recommend suggestions for improvement in the company’s procedure.
• Prepare action plan
• Follow up.

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• USEPA definition
• As per USEPA (United state environment protection agency) report,
environment audit is defined as a systematic, documented , periodic and
objective review by a regulated entity of environmental requirements .
• Goal of an audit
• Is to express an opinion of the person/organisation/system etc. in question
under evaluation based on work done on a test basis.
• Classification of audit
• Audits can be classified into two types
• 1) Financial audit
• 2) Non financial audit
• 1) Financial audit
• It addresses questions of accounting, recording and reporting of financial
transactions.

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• 2) Non financial audit
• It is non statutory one and serves two purposes
• A) it checks company’s compliance to standards

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• Evaluation and preparation of audit process
• During the field study, authors conduct a number of interviews ,collect
various documents and receive information in other formats.
• This data is stored and analysed to determine what is relevant and be able to
evaluate the situation.
• Expectations of an audit report are generally very high and mistakes therefore
need to be avoided.
• The audit report has to provide well founded objectives and complete
information ,analysis and assessments that add value for decision makers and
stake holders.
• An audit report always has to be accurate , true , comprehensive complete
containing all of the relevant information and arguments supporting the audit
message.

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• Example
• Criterion
• The water. Management plan should be a program of measures which includes
activities for achieving a good water status.
• Condition
• Pollution in river ‘X’ has steadily increased since 2000.
• Cause
• There is a lack of adequate measure in the management plan.
• The activities for achieving a good status of the river’X’ only cover the fisheries
sector
• Effect
• If no measures are taken to control pollution,eutrophication levels will
continue to increase and economically relevant fish stocks will be depleted.

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