Policies are generally devised after an environmental review of the site has been undertaken. This way, the sites significant environmental impacts can be taken into account in the policy. There is nothing to prevent a company writing an environmental policy first to show its commitment and then revising it at a later stage in light of the outcomes of the site review. However, this can be time-consuming.

The Management Representative should prepare a draft policy in conjunction with the ESG. The environmental policy must not be viewed in isolation, but should be seen as an integral part of the organisations business policies. In general terms, it should be:

• Company wide - in that it applies to all parts of the organisation and is not restricted to particular aspects of the organisations operations or focused on individual departments
• Strategic so that the stated aims and objectives of the policy are directed towards an organisations activities, operations, products and services.

Each member of the ESG should ask for comments and approval from the line managers within their department. Line managers will be responsible for operating many of the measures that will be implemented to meet the aims and objectives of the policy. It is therefore important to involve them to ensure their to commitment and motivation to make the changes. Line managers must be given time to review the policy and come back with their comments. Once feedback has been received, the ESG should meet to review the comments, and either accept, modify, or reject any proposed changes. The line managers should be then informed of the changes that have been made to the policy document.

With the agreement of the ESG, the Management Representative can take the policy to the executive management for their approval and signature.