lecturer: Lina Vladimirovna Zhornyak, Associate Professor
• There is no strict regulating procedure in
environmental auditing, as each program is
specific for this or that enterprise. The most
typical environmental auditing (EA) are considered
to be site contamination audit – assessment \
remediation in respect of known or suspected site
contamination on or below the surface of a site
and compliance audit - is a comprehensive review
of an organization's adherence to regulatory
guidelines.
Generally, environmental auditing program of an industrial
enteprise includes the following items (Makarov, Shagarova, 1997):
1) major contaminants and other environmental impact factors;
2) major release sources of contaminants and their control;
3) utilized raw sources, materials, reagents;
4) usable energy resources;
5) end products;
6) basic waste types, methods of disposal and removal;
7) industrial environmental monitoring system;
8) acute local situations, connected with environmental
component changes and their consequences;
9) local monitoring system.
• The establishment and implementation of EA was
based on the Government Resolution № 168
(26.02.1996) “Regulation statement in licensing of
certain activities in environmental protection”. This
document entitled RF Environmental Agency and its
territorial agencies to conduct licensing of
environmental activities, including environmental
auditing. However, lack of regulatory and legal
framework restrained the implementation of
above-mentioned
document.
The
next
Government
Resolution
in
environmental
protection “Environmental auditing (16.10.1997)”
included the basic provisions of environmental
activities, HIT LIST and other issues in
environmental auditing in RF.
• In 1998 Russian Environmental Agency
adopted a federal program in terms of training
three professional groups of auditors, total
number of which was 156.
All auditors
received training certificates in environmental
auditing, as well as, European accreditation of
environmental auditor. These auditors were
included in the Federal Environmental Auditor
Register of Russian Environmental Agency
(Guidelines
and
Regulatory-analytical
principles, 1999).
• Although the international standards ISO 14001,
14004, 14010 were adopted in 1998 (October)
and are the fundamentals in today’s EA
development, only a few Russian companies are
certified in accordance to standards ISO 14001.
The first Russian company was JSC Vologodsk
Bearing Plant (Makarov, 2001). In 2005 more
than 48 Russian companies were certified.
The scope and style of audits vary, but common
stages and activities include(Ecological…, 2009)
1) preparing to conduct an environmental
audit( pre-audit stage);
2) effective audit design;
3) conducting the audit ( audit stage);
4) concluding the audit (post-audit stage).
Results of audit include:
• all recessions from federal, regional and local
regulations performed by the company;
• all authorized amendments of company’s rules and
operation procedure relevant to environmental
management,
environmental
protection
and
environmental safety;
• list of existing disadvantages and positive aspects of the
organization (Ecological…,2009).
1. Most typical environmental auditing (EA) are
considered to be site contamination audit –
assessment \ remediation in respect of known or suspected site contamination on or below the surface of a
site and compliance audit - is a comprehensive review
of an organization's adherence to regulatory
guidelines. Auditors review security polices, user
access controls and risk management procedures over
the course of a compliance audit.
2. Differences between EIA and EA are very
difficult to define. Within the framework of most
national and international EIA systems the project
evaluation stage is included, which in its turn, only
determines feature-based environmental project
requirements and actual environmental impact in
facility operation.
3. Major standards regulating the environmental
auditing are the ISO 14000 family of standards
developed by International Organization for
Standardization.
4. Methods in EIA and EA, in many cases, are similar
due to the following facts: facility similarity,
targets, objectives, and principles. This can be
explained by the complementarity of both EIA and
EA: in the one case, audit results are eligible in EIA
of reconstruction projects of any enterprise, while
EIA documents are effective in EA.
5. Major results of EA are:
• improvement of environmental management
system;
• enhancement of улучшение company’s image;
• mitigation of public response;
• reduction of payments and penalties.