Defining Your Environmental Footprint (Environmental Aspects & Impacts)
The process of identifying environmental aspects and impacts is the most technically challenging task in creating an EMS. The task requires an analysis of each activity, product or service conducted or provided by your organization. The inventory of aspects helps an organization visualize its environmental footprint.
Environmental Aspect - An element of an organization’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment.
Examples:
- Air Emissions (CO & NOx)
- Energy Usage (Gas & Diesel)
- Used Oil Recycling
- Solid Waste Generation
The key to this process is to only Identify the environmental aspects that your organization:
- Can Control, and
- Over Which it Can Have An Influence
Your organization is not expected to manage issues outside your sphere of influence. So your organization does not need to address how your energy provider manages its hazardous waste.
Environmental Impact - any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization’s activities, products or services
Examples
- Degradation of Air Quality
- Reduction in Natural Resources
- Conservation of Natural Resources
- Reduction in Landfill Space
Identification Process
- Identify the Main Activities, Products and Services within the “Fenceline”
- Process flow diagrams (inputs, processes, outputs) are useful and provide a ready made list of aspects
- List the Environmental Aspects
- Are They Under Your Control and Influence?
- Identify the Associated Impacts
Lessons Learned
- When conducting this process it’s important to have enough areas of expertise represented when doing each location within your fenceline.
- DO NOT expect that your resident chief operator (i.e. a power plant chief engineer) is the one to best identify his/her functions, the correct way they are performed, and what the impact of that function may be to all concerned.
- Include people who will not just accept what the operators (even the chief operator) say as gospel; they MUST be inquisitive and challenge everything.
- Involving personnel on the shop floor is a good way to generated ownership and ensure buy-in. Personnel involved with the operations and activities know best the associated environmental issues.
Case Study Exercise - Identifying Environmental Aspects for Anycity, USA (Coming Soon)
Next - Identifying the Environmental Hotspots (Significance Criteria)