Environmental Management Audit Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Environmental Management Audit Report - Essay Example Principles of Environmental Auditing In this section, the report will discuss the fundamental elements and features of environmental auditing. This will set the framework for the discussion of the elements of the audit and the scope of the audit. The section will provide groundbreaking definitions and important ideas and concepts that defines auditing in the environmental management sector. The information analysed in this section is based on a critical literature review that provides important insights into the core ideas under examination in this report. Auditing is defined as an examination of records or accounts to check their accuracy and verify elements that define the records in question (Alexander 195). This implies that auditing is fundamentally involved in checking information presented by a group to ascertain whether it meets the standard that the group are claiming to adhere to or not. Audit involves a review of accounts and information to pass an opinion on whether they are true or not. Environmental audit is somewhat different from the mainstream audit which is often financial in nature. Environmental audit is a management tool which comprises of a systematic, documented procedure and objective evaluation of how well the environment of an organisation, its management and equipment are performing and the end sought by these audits is to ensure that the environment is safeguarded (Keil 22). The procedure of environmental auditing ultimately aims at facilitating management control of environmental practices and assessing compliance with company policies which include amongst other things, meeting regulatory requirements (Keil 22). Another view of environmental audit is that it involves a verification of a statement of compliance or conformity with defined requirements and conditions made by the auditee either explicitly or implicitly (Hitchens et al 128). In order to explain this further, it must be noted that every environmental report that an organisation's manageme nt puts forward is based on a number of assumptions or claims. In other words, there are some express and implied terms that an organisation needs to adhere to in order to prepare environmental reports. The express ones are those that are stated in the company policy whilst the implied ones are those that are expected of an organisation and this include industrial and legal requirements for environmental compliance. Thus, the essence of environmental audit is to test and verify if these standards and terms were met as the management claim at the time of preparing the reports in question. Vincoli (91) identifies that there are four main elements of environmental audit and this include: 1. Systematic: Environmental audit must be done in a structured and defined manner. This should involve laid down steps and directions that must be met and adhered to with a very high standard. Each step needs to