It is important to remember that the checks and balances highlighted above may be combined to give the "performance criteria " or "operating framework" for a certain task.

Whether a company is fulfilling its monitoring requirements as part of an EMS or not, there are certain basic monitoring requirements that they should address:

• The impacts of all three environmental media should be monitored:
• Emissions to atmosphere
• Discharges to water
• Wastes to land (solid wastes and contaminated land)
• Other areas to be monitored:
• Non-compliances in operational control: Incidents and complaints
• Maintaining monitoring records.

The list above will be focused upon by category in the following units.

Monitoring can also incorporate the measurement of the state of the general environment. This could influence monitoring decisions. Examples of some environmental conditions that could be taken into consideration are:

• water quality of receiving waters of the company's effluent
• contribution of the company's processes/activities to global pollution problems
• the air quality within the area