Do you know what environmental auditing is? Today, there's a lot of discussion in the business world about preventing and reducing environmental impacts in production systems.
The main reason for this is that environmental compliance is one of the smartest ways to create a competitive advantage in the market, as people and companies increasingly use sustainability as a consumption criterion.
Consequently, many companies that implement an environmental management system (EMS) become benchmarks in their niches.
Within an EMS, one of the simplest and most efficient management tools to help a company stand out is environmental auditing.
So, to help your company differentiate itself too, in this post we will delve deep into what environmental auditing is.
What is environmental auditing?
Environmental auditing is a management tool of paramount importance for improving environmental management performance, as it supports decision-making.
Using environmental auditing as a management tool helps prevent environmental damage and fines for non-compliance with environmental protection standards. Obviously, these fines can negatively impact the results of institutions, entities, foundations, and companies in both the public and private sectors, hence the direct importance of this instrument in management.
However, environmental auditing does not only have a corrective and preventive nature.
Equally important, the function of this resource is to reasonably guide the modernization of sustainability practices without compromising the company's financial health.
NBR ISO 14001 (ABNT 1996 c) - created to help companies identify, prioritize, and manage their environmental risks as part of their operations - defines environmental auditing with the following words:
"The systematic process and documented verification process, carried out to obtain and evaluate, objectively, audit evidence to determine whether specified activities, events, management systems and environmental conditions or related information conform to audit criteria, and to communicate the results of this process to the client."
So, when faced with the question "what is environmental auditing," we understand, in other words, that it is simply a process aimed at verifying conformities and irregularities in the modus operandi of the audited company.
Thus, with the results of the environmental audit in hand, it is possible to recommend adjustments and formulate new procedures - if necessary - to improve the institution's performance.
It is important to emphasize that the conformity assessment can be in accordance with pre-established environmental criteria such as technical standards, legal requirements defined by clients, or the company's own environmental policy.
Now that we understand what environmental auditing is, let's explore its types.
What are the types of environmental auditing?
Environmental audit types can be divided into 2 main categories: internal or external.
Internal or first-party audits are conducted by the organization itself - or on its behalf - for management to perform a critical review with an organizational objective in mind. Similarly, conducting an internal audit can generate data for an organization's self-declaration of conformity.
External audits, in turn, include second- and third-party audits.
Those of second-party are types of environmental audits conducted by parties with an interest in the organization, such as customers who have the regulatory or contractual right to request an audit.
Third-party audits, on the other hand, are conducted by independent external auditing organizations, such as those that provide certificates or records of conformity with NBR ISO 14001 requirements.
In addition to this division, environmental audit types are also classified by another criterion, which leads us to the next topic.
Types of Environmental Auditing: Other Classifications
Simply put, the objective of an environmental audit defines its classification. Among the most commonly applied categories, we will highlight 7 types of environmental audits:
Legal Compliance Audit: verifies compliance with national, state, or sector-specific environmental legislation. This category of environmental audit involves the actions of governmental environmental agencies, the verification of conditions linked to the licensing process, addressing demands, inspection schedules, and investigating complaints.
Incidentally, CONAMA Resolution No. 306/2002, later updated by CONAMA Resolution No. 381 of 2006, establishes minimum requirements for conducting environmental audits to assess environmental management and control systems in port facilities, platforms, support structures, and refineries.
- Management System Audit: evaluates the performance of the environmental management system, its degree of conformity with the requirements of the standard used, and whether it aligns with the company's policy. We can cite, for example, compliance with standards that specify the Environmental Management System, such as ISO 14.001, EMAS, etc. - Performance Assessment Audit: evaluates the performance of production units regarding pollutant generation and energy and material consumption, as well as the objectives defined by the organization. - Liability Audit or Due Diligence: verifies a company's responsibilities towards shareholders, creditors, suppliers, customers, governments, and other interested parties. This type of environmental audit is generally applied in company merger or acquisition processes to check the existence and scope of environmental liabilities and make more assertive decisions. - Post-Accident Audit: aims to verify the causes of the accident, identify responsibilities, assess damages, and propose measures to prevent a recurrence. - Supply Chain Audit: applied to partners and suppliers who may pose risks to the company, considering that environmental responsibility is shared. - Decommissioning Audit: applied to ensure that the cessation of a particular operation or the closure of an industrial plant does not pose risks to the environment or local population.
Advantages of Environmental Auditing as a Management Tool
Using environmental auditing as a management tool can generate several positive impacts for your company.
In environmental terms, this instrument encourages the rational and sustainable use of resources, reduces waste generation, promotes actions that minimize environmental impacts, and strengthens environmental conduct and control before regulatory bodies and society as a whole.
On the social side, environmental auditing positively influences the promotion of environmental education actions for employees and helps reduce the exposure of employees and neighboring communities to environmental risks.
Finally, the finance department is also positively affected by the audit. In practice, it contributes to improving the image of the company among different stakeholders (customers, environmental agencies, and partners), entry into the international market which has stringent environmental requirements, rigorous verifications in major acquisition and merger processes, and for raising financial resources by meeting compliance parameters for tenders, public investments, credit granting, and general financing.
How to conduct an environmental audit?
In Brazil, there is a large volume of laws and technical standards regulating environmental issues.
This means that the preparation process for an environmental audit - despite its advantages - can be quite complex and bureaucratic.
For this reason, it is perfectly understandable that many companies lose sight of the benefits and give up before even starting the procedure.
So, the question arises: how do you conduct an environmental audit?
And the answer is: unfortunately, there's no ready-made answer to that question.
Each environmental audit has a specific procedure tailored to the client's scenario and needs.
So, the answer, a priori, ends up being the famous "it depends."
However, what we already know firsthand - from our own experience - is that it makes all the difference to have the help of a specialized consultancy, with multidisciplinary knowledge and a strategic vision capable of correctly interpreting the standards and the audit procedure.
Indeed, for many companies, this is the only missing step for their environmental management system to generate positive results by achieving legal compliance and becoming a market benchmark in sustainable practices.
In conclusion, now that you understand what environmental auditing is, I hope you can implement this management tool in your company.
NewFields provides environmental auditing services according to the type desired by you and your company.
