Terry Dowson

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The Planning Process

Although not an assessable element of the standard, a thorough, preparatory site review is essential in order to establish precisely where the company currently stands. The importance of the review cannot be understated, and the time spent on this activity should reflect its priority status. Assessors will be impressed with a thorough investigation and a sound platform from which the EMS has been developed.

Your review should broadly cover the following key areas:

	Site history and geographical setting
	Hydrology and hydrogeology
	Use of raw materials and substances
	Energy and water usage
	Detailed evaluation of all direct and indirect site activities
	Analysis of waste
	Evaluation of any emissions to air or discharges to water
	Complaints from local authorities, neighbours or employees
	Drainage maps
	Site plans and perhaps an analysis of the sub-soil if there is any possibility that the site's activities have lead to contamination of the land

The review should also include a thorough examination of all the environmental legislation that could affect, either directly or indirectly, the company's activities. There are several excellent sources from which this kind of information can found, such as the Environmental Technology Best Practice Programme, The Environment Agency, The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and various Trade Associations. One important thing worth remembering, is that compliance with all relevant legislation is a pre-requisite to achieving accreditation to ISO 14001, as a minimum the company must operate within the law.

The investigation does not have to have a scientific bias, nor does it have to contain a high degree of detail. It should however, contain enough information to provide prospective readers with an accurate and balanced account of the interaction between the site's activities and processes, and the environmental issues the organisation is endeavouring to address.

Once the information gathering process has been completed, consideration must be given on how to summarise it, and consolidate the facts and figures into a report. One highly effective method is to evaluate the company by department or function, against the same criteria. This option provides an alternative perhaps, to looking at the company as a whole, and trying to determine varying degrees of significance for emissions to atmosphere, discharges to foul or surface drains and waste disposal etc. The reasons for this approach will become more apparent later, but the result will allow a smoother interface when consideration is given to setting objectives and targets.

It is probably appropriate at this point, to explain the difference between environmental "aspects" and "impacts". An aspect is any activity, operation or service provided or performed at the company, which does or has the potential to, affect the environment in either a positive or a negative way. An impact is the way in which the activity, operation or service affects the environment. For example the transport of a 20 tonne load of wooden pallets from Manchester to London, may be described as an environmental aspect of one particular company's operation. The impact of this aspect could be evaluated in the following way: - 20 tonnes of wood contributes to the depletion of the earth's finite, natural resources (albeit in a small way), the burning of vehicle fuel involving emissions of CO2, CO, NO, SO, smoke, dust and particulates and noise pollution. There would almost certainly be a legislative issue to consider with respect to the vehicles condition and exhaust emissions.

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