The Register Of Environmental Effects

Unit 7: Environmental Law And The Environmental Management System

The Register Of Environmental Effects

Preparing a register of the environmental effects that you have identified will help you to further understand them, and hence, begin to improve them. The register will also enable you to identify opportunities to reduce costs for example through minimising wastes.

Environmental Effects that you should consider are:

Emissions to air.

Water discharge.

Wastes management.

Contaminated land resulting from spillage or leakage.

Use of raw materials and natural resources.

Noise, visual impacts.

Other local environmental and community issues.

Additional Requirements of ISO 14001 and EMAS
The review has to list all environmental impacts of a company, even if not significant ie paper usage, office wastes, etc. A register of environmental impacts has to be maintained under EMAS. ISO 14001 require proof that all environmental impacts have been considered.

How Significant Are Your Environmental Impacts?
Now, you should understand the aspects of the company that have an effect upon the environment, and to make an assessment of the significance of these.

Significance is mostly attributed to those effects that are:

Controlled by legislation, authorisations or consents.

Capable of causing a significant impact/irreversible damage to the environment.

Capable of affecting any other interested parties such as local community, employees, investors, regulatory authorities, neighbours, insurers, environmental groups, the general public.

The Evaluation of Significance
There are many evaluation tools available to evaluate the significance of your environmental effects. It is up to you to choose the most appropriate one to your company. You may choose to devise one yourself: the key points to remember in choosing/devising a method are that it is:

Simple.
Concise.
Easy to follow.
Applicable to the company.
Not too general.

A point scoring system could be used, in order for the significance of environmental effects to be quantified. For each impact identified you should award a score to show the relative performance under normal operating conditions of:

Legislation (existing and proposed).
Damage to the environment: level of toxicity, acidity, polluting potential.
Interested parties: public, investor's, employees etc.
Quantity: waste volumes or occurrence frequencies.

The table below shows how effects can be rated under normal operating conditions.

Score					Weighting Factor
Legislation	Existing	Impending		None	x	2	=	A
Environmental impact	Known detriment	Possible detriment	Limited detriment	No detriment	x	3	=	B
Interested parties	Considerate interest	Moderate interest	Little interest	No interest	x	2	=	C
Quantity	High	Medium	Low	Nil	x	3	=	D
Normal operating conditions total score = (A + B + C + D)

The same type of table can be used to assess the significance under other operating conditions to show the impact of:

Abnormal operations, eg start up of the factory following summer shut down.

Accidents or emergency situations.

Historical activities, such as those of past occupiers.

Planned activities eg. Proposed production line/product and further site development.

These four scores can then be added together to give a total score (table 4) which can be used to rate and rank the effects under the different operating conditions.

Matrix table to score environmental effects under different operating conditions.

Abnormal Operations		Increased environmental impact	No change	Reduced environmental impact	=	A
Accident/emergency		Increased environmental impact	No change	Reduced environmental impact	=	B
Historical activities	Evident/requires action	Possible damage/difficult to evaluate		No damage	=	C
Planned activities		Increased environmental impact	No change	Reduced environmental impact	=	D
Total score of other operating conditions = (A + B + C + D)

Once you have established a score for each effect, it is up to you to finally establish the overall significance of effect using your knowledge of the company and the site. You need to be able to record and justify your choice of method.

The Identification of Your Significant Environmental Effects

Instructions:

use the first 3 columns to list all the company's environmental effects (using the checklist below to help you cover all of the aspects)

Assess the significance of each effect and write the outcomes in the fourth column. Use the last column to indicate the proposed action in reducing the significance of the effects.

(You may find that you may need to make extra copies of the sheets according to your circumstances)

Business Functions

Office Based Activities

Process design/operation

Waste disposal

Solid waste management

Emissions/discharges

Water use/discharge

Raw materials

Storage on site

Transport and distribution

Energy sources/use

Product design

packaging

Energy use

Waste disposal

Paper use

Water use

Example:

Company: Armond Engineering Ltd Completed by: J Price Date: 3rd March 2000
Process/activity	Cause of environmental effect	Environmental effect	Significant	Proposed action
Storage and handling of liquid waste	Accidental spillage/leaks	Contamination of soil and groundwater. Possible toxicity to flora and fauna. Reduction in quality and value of land	Yes	Construct bunded and coated storage area and implement safe handling procedure. Check site for existing contamination and remove contaminated soil.
Pre-treatment	Effluent discharge	Toxic to flora and fauna. Lower groundwater levels through depletion of water resources.	Yes	Implement a water reduction strategy. Improve control of effluent treatment plant. Look to recycling chemicals from waste water.
Extraction fans	Noise	Noise nuisance to local residents	No	None

The Register of Environmental Effects
The Register of Environmental Effects should be compiled by the management Representative and should contain within it a comprehensive list of all the environmental effects identified following the review, their significance assessment and the proposed action that the company pledges to undertake in reducing their significance.

Information required to compile your Register of Environmental Effects is given below:

A significance evaluation of the environmental effects.

A record of your decision upon whether an effect is significant.

The development of an action plan for the effects deemed significance with the proposals.

The completed lists of environmental effects and their significance evaluation are your Register of Environmental Effects.

Additional requirements of ISO14001
Effects should be considered during:

Normal operating conditions.

Abnormal operating conditions, eg start up or shut down of a plant.

Emergency situations, eg leakage or spill.