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environmental auditing — English
The management tool to assess the environmental performance of a company, organization, development or any entity or activity. It is the evaluation of the efficacy of the efforts to minimise the environmental impact of a development or human activity. According to the environmental legislation in most developed and many developing countries, official permission (often called “permitting”) has to be obtained before any development project or activity that might have a significant impact on the environment is embarked on. When permission for the proposed project or activity has been secured, the environmental management plan (EMP) contained in the application documentation becomes a legal contract that binds the proposer or developer to a set of stipulated conditions and mitigating measures under which the activity may be performed. Environmental auditing is the process of assessing how true the development or activity adheres to the conditions of the environmental management plan. It entails regular monitoring (see “environmental monitoring”) by the competent environmental authority of the environmental performance of the permitted activity, be it a mine, a road, a nature reserve, an industrial plant, a golf estate or any other activity covered by the environmental legislation of the specific country. Note that environmental auditing is not an investigation, assessment or evaluation of the environment as such. It is an assessment of the environmental performance of the activity or development, that is, of how well the owner or developer executes the environmental management plan for the development and minimises or mitigates its impact on the environment. A development such as the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site is likely to have a large and severe impact in the form of human traffic, sewerage, roads, litter and waste, hospitality facilities, the disruption of all natural processes and the complete destruction of the habitats of some animals and plants (see “ecological footprint”). Consequently an expansive environmental management plan (EMP) for establishing and running the entire development has to be agreed upon prior to the establishment of the development. The authorising body (in the case of the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site, the South African National Department of the Environment would be the authorising body) is then obliged to inspect the site and assess how well the development is performing environmentally, and how strictly the stipulations and conditions of the EMP are executed. However, world heritage sites are ultimately under the jurisdiction of UNESCO who does from time to time inspect the sites and if the sites are not satisfactorily managed the world heritage site status could be withdrawn.
