We carry out a comprehensive auditing service which examines the effectiveness of the company’s Environmental Management System (EMS) and considers the following:
- The extent to which the EMS policy is known and understood at site level
- Facility specific environmental objectives and improvement/action plans
- The deployment of the EMS procedures and the extent to which these are complied with
- Training and awareness records
- Environmental and energy reduction initiatives, promotion and general housekeeping at site
- Waste Management
- Energy and utilities conservation and consumption
- Environmental performance data at the facility
- On site walk around (of all areas under management control) to assess the legal compliance, procedural conformance and opportunities for improvement
The EMS audit provides a robust assessment of the company’s approaches to environmental management against criteria aligned to ISO 14001. The audit will follow the Plan, Do, Check Act concept and the format combines the following:
- A review of documentation (such as policies, procedures, records and action plans).
- Interviews with key personnel within the organisation responsible for managing the EMS.
- Observation of work practices, building energy management and the use of technology and equipment to reduce the company’s impact on the environment.
We proposed the following area are covered in the audit:
The audit assesses how the company develops its policy, how this is linked to its strategic objectives, how this is integrated with other policies and approaches e.g. purchasing and how the policy is communicated and cascaded throughout the organisation.
The audit assesses the level of top management commitment to improving environmental performance through their personal involvement in the setting of environmental objectives and how these are measured and improved at all levels of the organisation. The audit will also examine the extent to which the senior management are involved in the review and improvement of the EMS performance.
The audit assesses how the organisation has identified and captured its significant aspects and impacts and how these are managed and controlled. In additional, the organisation’s approaches to managing its environmental risks and opportunities will also be examined.
The audit assesses how the organisation determines its compliance obligations related to its environmental aspects and ensures legal compliance is managed and maintained.
The audit assesses how the company defines the competencies required to manage its EMS and all associated training records. Furthermore, how the EMS objectives are communicated to its key stakeholders and how environmental champions are deployed throughout the organisation.
The audit assesses how documents and records are managed, maintained, reviewed, changed, controlled, stored, retained, retrieved and are identifiable.
The audit examines a sample of the operational procedures (e.g. emergency action procedure) to ascertain the robustness of the control measures to ensure the significant environmental aspects are adequately considered. Initiatives such as housekeeping alongside general work practices throughout the company will also be assessed at a practical level.
The audit assesses the company’s results in relation to environmental management and establish if appropriate KPIs have been set and how these are monitored, measured and acted upon.
The audit assesses the existing mechanisms are in place to identify opportunities for improvement and the extent to which corrective action identifies root causes to prevent reoccurrences. The audit will also assess how the organisation captures learning opportunities and uses these to drive improvements to the system.
Each area is scored and to ensure consistency of approach we use the same scoring system as deployed for the Health and Safety audits. A feedback report is provided for each full day audit.