Even if your organisation is only just starting to take on board environmental issues, one of the first activities to be realised is an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This assessment is also a requirement for those organisations wishing to obtain ISO 14001 or EMAS. We will explain below what elements are crucial to an accurate EIA and how this can be form the basis of a successful Environmental Management System (EMS).
The EIA Explained
The first phase of carrying out an EIA is to identify the activities, aspects and impacts that the organisation has which affect the environment. An example is provided below:
| Activity | Aspect | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Product distribution | Use of wood, cardboard, plastic in packaging | Landfill from customer disposal, use of natural resources in manufacture |
Aspects can be broadly split up into categories such as:
- Air, Land & Water pollution/quality
- Visual
- Noise
- Waste
- Natural Resource use
- Habitat disturbance
Each of these categories can then be subdivided further (e.g. Waste = Packaging, Components packaging, sewerage, chemical use in manufacturing process etc.)
Once these elements are identified, they can then be broken into aspects which can be controlled and aspects which can only be influenced. For example, chemical use during manufacturing can be controlled (because it is a direct activity of the organisation). Meanwhile components packaging can only be influenced by the choice of components supplier (it is an external element that the business cannot directly control).
Based upon this assessment of an organisation’s operational environmental aspects and the consequent division of those aspects that it can and cannot control, the Management can then determine the aspects which have or can have significant impacts on the environment and devise a strategy for minimising or at least reducing said impacts. Successful implementation of this strategy will rely on the setting of objective and targets which then feed into the overarching Environmental Management System.
How We Can Help
Eview can help your organisation carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment of its activities. We can also then help you devise an Environmental Managment Plan or System to help your organisation achieve ISO 14001 status or to simply formalise the environmental agenda of your business. For more information, please see our services page.
