ELK Asia Pacific Journals – Special Issue
ISBN: 978-81-930411-0-9
A REFLECTION ON GREEN AUDITING IN INDIA
N.Sangeetha, Lecturer,
Department of Commerce,
Chinmaya Vidyapeet College ,
Ernakulam
Abstract
Corporate Reporting is the process of communicating information about the performance and
activities of a company. This information can be grouped into financial and non-financial in nature.
The changes in the global business scenario and the changing government policies force companies
to disclose information ranging from financial, social,enviornamental,marketing and also in
corporate governance issues. The range and frequency of such disclosures are increasing which
highlights the awareness and need of public. In its reach for sustainable economic and eco driven
environment in the country, each organisation has to implement policies, measures more often which
leads to its attainment. Green audit is the process of assessing the environmental impact of an
organization, process, project, product, etc. The paper tries to explore the conceptual framework of
green auditing in India. It also tries to find the hindrances in understanding the term green auditing
and explores the benefits from green audit available to the organisation and the public. The
increasing awareness and the cost effectiveness of green auditing may prove its successive
implementation.
Key Words: Green auditing, legal measures, accounting practices.
Introduction: Climate change is a natural
change visible to all living beings and it is
human beings who are blind to these
changes. Each year we are succumbed to
climatic changes which are new and
beyond our control inspite of the several
precautionary measures taken to tackle
them. There is time to change and
measures to change must immediately be
enacted to avoid further destruction of the
nature. The UN Climate Summit of 2014
was a culmination of leaders from various
streams viz. government, business, finance
and civil society. The UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon asked these leaders
to bring bold announcements and actions
to the Summit that will reduce emissions,
strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize
political will for a meaningful legal
agreement in 2015. Climate Summit 2014
provided a unique opportunity for leaders
to champion an ambitious vision, anchored
in action that will enable a meaningful
global agreement in 2015.
GREEN AUDITING: Green auditing is
the corporate responsibility to bring out
the truth about the statements made by the
government and companies with regard to
the effects of environment pollution. It
reviews the measures taken to minimise
and overcome pollution. The green audit
is study of the effects of a company’s
activities and performance on the
environment.
It is widely known as
Environment Audit.
Green audit
comprises of compliance of Environment
Laws, auditing of environment cost and
Environment Impact Assessment and
Carbon Credit.
REVIEW OF GREEN AUDIT IN
INDIA: Environmental law is a complex
and interlocking body of statutes, common
law, treaties, conventions, regulations and
ELK Asia Pacific Journals – Special Issue
ISBN: 978-81-930411-0-9
policies which, very broadly, operate to
regulate the interaction of humanity and
the rest of the biophysical or natural
environment, toward the purpose of
reducing or minimizing the impacts of
human activity, both on the natural
environment for its own sake, and on
humanity itself. This can be further
divided into two major subjects
(1) Pollution control and remediation and
(2)
Resource
conservation
and
management
Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) India of
the C&AG of India has conducted more
than 100 specialised environmental audits
over the last 25 years. The Environment
audit can be divided into Air issues, Water
issues,
Waste,
Biodiversity
and
Environment Management System.
AIR ISSUES: The audit on air issues was
done in twenty three states of India with
regard to air pollution, vehicular emissions
and industry emissions. It revealed that
the poor implementation and monitoring of
the Air Pollution Act led to increase in
pollution levels.
WATER ISSUES: This audit mainly
focussed on the availability of water
supply and quality. The Ganga Action
Plan was a study of water pollution control
measures taken in river Ganga. It revealed
that Ganga remained polluted even after
huge expenditure spend on it. A similar
audit on the river Yamuna was undertaken
in Delhi.Further audits for providing safe
drinking water in Madhya Pradesh in 2004
was done.
The conservation and
management of Dal Lake in Jammu and
Kashmir in 2006 was undertaken and in
2006 Urban water supply in Sikkim was
studied.
WASTE ISSUES: In 2008 Management
of Waste in India, a performance audit was
done across 24 states which revealed
several loopholes of waste management in
India. The audit revealed weakness in
policies regarding waste reduction,
recycling waste and its reuse. Sufficient
rules for disposal of all kinds of waste
were lacking. Most of the rules relating to
solid waste, bio-medical waste and plastic
waste were not complied. The reasons of
inefficient functioning and management of
waste was due to lack of proper
monitoring and accountability. Some of
the audits done in this regard are the
removal of garbage and sanitation work in
Delhi, Solid waste management by the
Municipalities and corporations in
TamilNadu,
Biomedical
waste
management in Jammu and Kashmir ,Biomedical waste management in Orissa.
BIODIVERSITY ISSUES: Audit on
wildlife conservation programmes and
conservation and protection of forests are
included in this audit.
In 2006
Conservation and Protection of Tiger in
Tiger Reserves of India was conducted in
28 reserves across India.
Some of the
audits conducted in this regard are the
preservation of Wild Life in Meghalaya
1996, Management of Forest in Delhi,
Functioning of Zoos and Wildlife
sanctuaries in Rajasthan, Unauthorised
extraction / removal of forest produces in
Arunachal Pradesh and Illicit felling and
removal of timber in Meghalaya. Such
audit revealed that the relocation of people
to safer areas and removal and prevention
of encroachment was essential to protect
the tiger population. The intelligence and
communicating network at the reserve
levels were weak.
ENVIORNMENT
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM: These audits aim at proper
control and minimisation of all kinds of
pollution. The Audit conducted by the
Mumbai Port Trust of India showed that
the Port lacked in a systematic plan for
environment management audit which
resulted in poor control of pollution of
harbour waters. Some of the audits done
in this regard are the Environment
ELK Asia Pacific Journals – Special Issue
ISBN: 978-81-930411-0-9
Safeguards in thermal power stations in
Andhra
Pradesh,
Environment
management system in thermal power
stations in Gujarat, Compliance with the
Environment Regulations by the State
Public sector undertakings in Tamil Nadu.
PROBLEMS IN GREEN AUDIT: The
industries are now to fill a form and
submit it to the concerned Pollution
Control Boards (PCBs). It made it easy
for industries to make statements to the
effect that they have taken the requisite
steps in compliance with existing pollution
control regulations.
There are many
apprehensions about revealing information
relating to environment audit. . They fear
it would lead to legal wrangles and
litigation and that the data would be used
by Pollution Control Boards for
prosecution. Publishing details of raw
materials used and processes might reveal
their trade secrets. Another factor is the
lack of specialised environmental auditors.
There is a need for increasing number of
such auditors who can reveal the
information unaffecting the industries
performance and growth. It is difficult for
small industries to hire the services of
existing auditing agencies as the
environment auditing costs between
Rs75000 and Rs200000. Another factor is
it requires long periods of time to cover
and implement the audit. The Pollution
Control Boards lack follow up action plans
and does not give proper feedback to the
industries on time.
BENEFITS OF GREEN AUDIT: The
industries achieve energy efficiency in its
operations. This results in proper use of
resources and its conservation. New ways
of ensuring less dependence on natural
resources leads to sustainability in the
existing environment. The initiatives of
recycling approach are a long term
measure in this regard. The need for
consciousness and awareness on a
continual basis is the need of the hour.
This can be done by imbibing an
environmental responsibility culture. If an
industry sets up its own system of green
audit in compliance with the existing
environment laws, then conducting such
audits would not only be cost effective but
also would consume less time for its
compliance and implementation and
completion. Proper remedial action could
also be taken on time to overcome the
problems exposed in the audit. Green
audit improves
the efficiency in
production process by ensuring proper and
effective use of material and energy,
thereby reducing waste, proper utilisation
of resources. This ultimately contributes
to the economic and industrial growth of
the nation.
CONCLUSION:
Green audit is inevitable in today’s world.
Issues of environment and natural
resources and disasters are a daily routine.
Each organisation should make individual
efforts to work for a better and prosperous
future by ensuring economic, ecological
and social growth of the country through
the
process
of
green
auditing.
Sustainability of the available and not
explosion for the new by utilising further
natural resources is the need of the hour.
Awareness and voluntary abidance is a
resolved measure in this regard
Environment audit ensures a consistent
procedure of making and maintaining
environment clean. This can be achieved
only through proper implementation and
timely control.
REFERENCES:
[1] -Aparajita Gogoi,“Enviornment
Audits- A mean to going green”
[2] -Raj Kumar Adukia, “Green HR is
nothing but an environmentally
friendly HR practice by reducing
the cabon foor print by less
printing of paper, video
ELK Asia Pacific Journals – Special Issue
ISBN: 978-81-930411-0-9
conferencing and interviews”-India
Infoline News October 2014
[3] -Vikas Nath, Nithin Nayak,Ankit
Goel, “Green Banking Practices –
A Review”-IMPACT:IJRBM
Vol2,Issue 4 ,April 2014,4562pages
[4] -Dr. Sudhakar Rao, “ The corporate
Reporting Pratices in India: An
Analysis”Abhinav Publication
Vol3 Issue 4 April2014
[5] -Suvarun Goswami, “Resorting to
green audit a path towards
sustainability, AJMR Vol1, Issue3,
August2012 -Comptroller and
Auditor General Of India,
“Enviornmental Auditing in India”