LECTURE 7 Environmental auditing 1 Project evaluation To

LECTURE 7 Environmental auditing

1. Project evaluation • To effectively develop and implement environmental assessment a “follow-up” organization should exist, evaluating the conformance non-conformance of predictions in EIA and further measures to reduce this impact and improve existing consequences. • According to “Regulation on EIA” all organizations should include recommendations in project evaluation of these or those planned economic activities.

• “implementation monitoring” involving project regulation, environmental management specification and performance of planned measures in environmental mitigation; • environmental impact monitoring (development of project reports in environmental monitoring); • environmental project evaluation audit involving systematic analysis of the actual environmental impact of this or that activity (Cherp, 2000).

• actual impact on environmental components; • evaluation of environmental management conditions; • identification of nature, precision and efficiency of ecological assessment prediction; • promotion of future effective assessments.

• enhancement of environmental management system; • improvement of a company’s image; • reduction of enterprise’ payments and fines (Ecological…, 2009).

2. Basic concepts, targets and objectives of environmental audit According to GOST (National State Standard- NSS) R ISO (Environmental management. Terminology) 14050 -99, environmental audit is a general term that can reflect various types or evaluations intended to identify environmental compliance and management system implementation gaps, along with related corrective actions. There are generally two different types of environmental audits: compliance audits and management systems audits. Compliance audits tend to be the primary type in the US or within US-based multinationals.

Target of environmental audit – assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance, including improvement controls, effective regulating environmental management mechanism and sustainable development, as well as, 1) objective assessment of environmental protection activities of this or that enterprise and its environmental safety level; 2) identification of priorities in environmental management for this or that enterprise; 3) development of specific response objectives and strategies in environmental indicator improvement of this or that enterprise;

4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Targets of environmental audit : identification of official documents in enterprise activity as to their accuracy or completeness; - verification of existing documents- regulations, norms and implementation plans; - identification of disadvantages and faults in reporting documentation; - determination of executing environmental protection measures further regulations audit institutions; - verification of legislation enforcement; - assessment of organization and qualification (Timofeeva, 2004).

Audit objectives include: • Identify and document facility compliance status. Environmental audits will not only consist of noting differences or shortcomings that may exist at facilities, but will also acknowledge areas of exemplary performance. Further, it will include evaluating patterns of deficiencies that may develop throughout the company or over time. • Improve overall environmental performance at facilities. Regularly scheduled audits will provide an incentive for permanent resolution of environmental issues at facilities and provide a means to identify and realize continuous improvement at all operations.

Audit objectives include: • Assist facility management. In addition to verifying a facility's compliance status, audits can aid management in understanding and interpreting current or upcoming regulations or policies. They can also help identify compliance issues and cost-effective solutions as well as assist in identifying employee training needs. Further, the information provided in protocols and checklists developed by the audit group can help facilities better manage their operations. • Increase environmental awareness throughout the company. The audit program demonstrates senior management's commitment to environmental compliance. The audit program will, by its nature, increase environmental awareness at facilities. Increasing environmental awareness will influence and involve employees at all levels of the organization.

Audit objectives include: • Identify and assess environmental risks. Audits will assess risks associated with hazards both regulated and unregulated. They will include proposed actions which can be taken to control, mitigate, or eliminate risks, and evaluate potential material impacts to the Company. • Optimize Resources. Identification of environmental activities and practices, and investigation into consolidation of resources and technologies results in more efficient and cost effective management strategies.

Audit objectives include: • Provide assurance to senior management. Environmental audits provide senior management evidence that environmental affairs are being effectively managed, and that the company's exposure, including the exposure of responsible company officials, to compliance related issues and identified hazards are minimized. • The long term goal of the environmental audit program is to provide a basis for assessing and improving management systems and to identify and resolve environmental issues before they become problems, hazards, or risks (Grinin et al, …. 2001).

3. Environmental auditing • There is no strict regulating procedure in environmental auditing, as each program is specific for this or that enterprise. The most typical environmental auditing (EA) are considered to be site contamination audit – assessment remediation in respect of known or suspected site contamination on or below the surface of a site and compliance audit - is a comprehensive review of an organization's adherence to regulatory guidelines.

Generally, environmental auditing program of an industrial enteprise includes the following items (Makarov, Shagarova, 1997): 1) major contaminants and other environmental impact factors; 2) major release sources of contaminants and their control; 3) utilized raw sources, materials, reagents; 4) usable energy resources; 5) end products; 6) basic waste types, methods of disposal and removal; 7) industrial environmental monitoring system; 8) acute local situations, connected with environmental component changes and their consequences; 9) local monitoring system.

• The establishment and implementation of EA was based on the Government Resolution № 168 (26. 02. 1996) “Regulation statement in licensing of certain activities in environmental protection”. This document entitled RF Environmental Agency and its territorial agencies to conduct licensing of environmental activities, including environmental auditing. However, lack of regulatory and legal framework restrained the implementation of above -mentioned document. The next Government Resolution in environmental protection “Environmental auditing (16. 10. 1997)” included the basic provisions of environmental activities, HIT LIST and other issues in environmental auditing in RF.

• In 1998 Russian Environmental Agency adopted a federal program in terms of training three professional groups of auditors, total number of which was 156. All auditors received training certificates in environmental auditing, as well as, European accreditation of environmental auditor. These auditors were included in the Federal Environmental Auditor Register of Russian Environmental Agency (Guidelines and Regulatory-analytical principles, 1999).

• Although the international standards ISO 14001, 14004, 14010 were adopted in 1998 (October) and are the fundamentals in today’s EA development, only a few Russian companies are certified in accordance to standards ISO 14001. The first Russian company was JSC Vologodsk Bearing Plant (Makarov, 2001). In 2005 more than 48 Russian companies were certified.

The scope and style of audits vary, but common stages and activities include(Ecological…, 2009) 1) preparing to conduct an environmental audit( pre-audit stage); 2) effective audit design; 3) conducting the audit ( audit stage); 4) concluding the audit (post-audit stage).

Results of audit include: • all recessions from federal, regional and local regulations performed by the company; • all authorized amendments of company’s rules and operation procedure relevant to environmental management, environmental protection and environmental safety; • list of existing disadvantages and positive aspects of the organization (Ecological…, 2009).

Conclusion 1. Most typical environmental auditing (EA) are considered to be site contamination audit – assessment remediation in respect of known or suspected site contamination on or below the surface of a site and compliance audit - is a comprehensive review of an organization's adherence to regulatory guidelines. Auditors review security polices, user access controls and risk management procedures over the course of a compliance audit.

Conclusion 2. Differences between EIA and EA are very difficult to define. Within the framework of most national and international EIA systems the project evaluation stage is included, which in its turn, only determines feature-based environmental project requirements and actual environmental impact in facility operation.

Conclusion 3. Major standards regulating the environmental auditing are the ISO 14000 family of standards developed by International Organization for Standardization. 4. Methods in EIA and EA, in many cases, are similar due to the following facts: facility similarity, targets, objectives, and principles. This can be explained by the complementarity of both EIA and EA: in the one case, audit results are eligible in EIA of reconstruction projects of any enterprise, while EIA documents are effective in EA.

Conclusion 5. Major results of EA are: • improvement of environmental management system; • enhancement of улучшение company’s image; • mitigation of public response; • reduction of payments and penalties.