Setting An Environmental Standard

Methods in Environmental Standard Setting: Environmental Auditing

A broad definition of an environmental audit is that it is used to systematically document in an objective way over certain time scales, the evaluation of a company's environmental performance. The means by which this promoted environmental protection is through enabling a company to assess its compliance with legislation and company policy; and to make the environmental management easier.

Environmental or 'eco-auditing', therefore enables the audit of a company's management systems, in order to assess how well a company is managing its environmental effects. An effective, regular audit schedule should lead to the continuous improvement of the management of a company's environmental effects.

Environmental assessment has been looked at towards the end of Unit 3. The distinction between this and an audit, is that it concentrates upon the effects and impacts of a proposed development/activities, whereas an audit looks at existing activities.

An effective audit is reliant upon conducting it against a specific standard. This will guarantee objectiveness and give a sound means by which improvement can be measured. The audit may also be verified by third parties such as the public. The wide take up and interest in environmental auditing has led to the establishment of an environmental management system (EMS) as the standard against which to conduct audits.

In the UK, the responsible body for setting standards is the British Standards Institution (BSI), and the standards are given a BS number. The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) sets standards at the European level, of which products will carry an EN mark. The International Standards Organisation (ISO), are internationally responsible for standard setting. The standards given the ISO number are the most important and subsume similar or opposing national or European standards.

ISO have now adopted BS 5750: the British environmental management system standard, which has now become ISO 14001. The EU has adopted the Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) both standards are similar although have some differences.

N.B.The role of the EMS will be looked at in closer detail in Unit 6.


Insurance
Setting an environmental standard can also be reached through insuring for environmental risk. Today, it is common for financial companies to take into account a company's environmental risk when deciding on the granting of a loan or insurance. Insurance policies are complex for general liability as they must take into consideration the likely extent of any pollution incident that may occur in the future.

Such difficulties in forseeing this is exemplified by the Cambridge Water Company v. Eastern Counties Leather [1994] 1 All ER 53 case. Gaining insurance for high risk industries is a particularly difficult task and specialist advice has to be gained, or insurance outside the UK. Hence, it can be seen that insurance companies are now setting an environmental standard and which therefore, may serve to persuade companies to become greener. It is suggested that you read further around this topic, for example: Kiss and Shelton (1993) Manual of European Environmental Law Grotius press Cambridge. pp 78-80.

Draft Convention on Civil Liability for Damages Resulting from the Exercise of Activities Dangerous for the Environment. This draft convention was established in June 1993. It incorporates broad standards that are founded on widely recognised environmental principles such as the polluter pays. The Convention is imposed upon companies, agencies and persons within contracting parties.