Environmental Self-Regulation, Audits, and Verification: A Business Perspective
PAC3. 2.1. Environmental Management Autoregulation
The unique relationship between public regulation and social self-regulation leads to autoregulation. Essentially, it’s a technique allowing governments to balance their power against society’s growing influence, while using societal arguments for legitimacy. This means acknowledging a public economic-environmental interest between public authorities and private companies, where the state doesn’t govern directly but relevant economic entities do.
Examples include ISO 9000 (international guidelines) and ISO 14000 (environmental management and monitoring). In Europe, companies proactively respond to tightening environmental legislation by conducting audits, primarily for self-protection and to identify and correct breaches. Environmental audits are linked to the principles of openness, transparency, and trust, which are the basis of autoregulation.
In conclusion, it means recognizing that between government and private enterprise in the economic field there is a public environmental interest the state does not regulate, but relevant bodies of the economic realm do.
PAC3.2.2 Differentiating Environmental Audit and Environmental Monitoring
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a management technique providing certification to organizations across industries aiming to evaluate and improve their environmental performance and disseminate relevant information to the public and stakeholders.
The system has two phases:
1. The Private Self-Regulatory Regime
- a) Implementation of an environmental management system (EMS).
- b) Conducting an audit to ensure proper EMS implementation.
2. External Regulation and Public Purposes
- a) Accreditation of the environmental verifier.
- b) Validation and registration of the environmental statement by the accredited verifier.
Thus, we see two phases (one internal and one external) of the same process. This is a primary distinction. The environmental audit is the second part of the self-regulatory phase, after establishing the EMS.
The audit will verify that the main task of the environmental management program is properly implemented according to set objectives:
- Voluntary EMS adoption.
- Limited administrative supervision.
- The company appoints the audit team.
- Auditor training requires a broad multidisciplinary perspective, not just technical expertise in areas like waste or water.
- Auditors are characterized by trust. No specific entitlement or administrative approval is needed to become an auditor.
Auditors work in two ways:
- a) Assess the adequacy of the company’s environmental management to achieve its environmental aims.
- b) Verify the effective implementation of the EMS.
This involves:
- Preparing a final audit report.
- Drafting the environmental statement, including:
- a) Activities, products, and services.
- b) Environmental impacts and main audit results.
The environmental statement, audited by the company, is recognized by the administration upon validation by an environmental verifier (as per ISO 14000 and EMAS).
The management system verification and validation of the environmental statement must occur according to regulations, by an accredited entity or environmental verifier.
The environmental verifier certifies compliance with EMAS requirements: the EMS, audit and its results, and the environmental statement.
- The EC Regulation sets minimum requirements for verifier accreditation.
- The verifier can be a natural person.
- In Spain, for example, the STC (or an accredited administration) demonstrates the competence of environmental verification companies.
- Accredited verifiers can operate in different states by notifying the state where they intend to work.
Accreditation ensures the verifier’s technical soundness and fairness. Unlike the auditor, the verifier:
- a) Must be external to the company.
- b) Must act impartially. (The same firm cannot perform both audit and verification.)
- c) Has a unique function: verifying the accuracy of the environmental statement data and validating it, or rejecting it if it cannot be validated.
- d) Cannot validate if the installation violates existing environmental regulations.
- e) Functions similarly to a notary public.
- f) The validated environmental statement is registered with the agency, unlike the environmental audit.