Methods for Identifying Environmental Aspects and Determining Significance

It is important to recognise that every action we take has the potential to cause an environmental impact. Consideration should be given to :

• Risks arising from the way an organisation interrelates, with the physical, biological, aesthetic and cultural environmental.
• Risks in relation to the perception by the community and other environmental stakeholders towards the business activities or the products which the business generates.
• Risks in the relation to legal and other regulatory obligations.
• Risks for the business by not utilising changing opportunities in environmental management

The relationship of aspects and impacts is one of cause and effect.

Step 1

The first step is to select an activity, good or service within the organisation that is small enough to analyse. This selection can be made by :

• key process areas in the business;
• key functions that the business undertakes;
• products streams;
• or any other division which suits the nature and scope of the business

Step 2

Once an activity, good or service has been selected an appropriate team of individuals should then define how this activity good or service interrelates with the environmental. The responses to this question are the environmental aspects.

Step 3

The next step is to define "how do these environmental aspects change the environment"? What is the nature of the change ? When undertaking this section of the analysis consider both the beneficial and the adverse changes which arise from the environmental aspect.

Step 4

The next step after identifying the environmental aspects is to prioritise the associated impacts on the environment by determining which are considered to be significant. Significance corresponds with risk. Companies have difficultly in establishing a consistent method for an evaluation process which is capable of dealing with all the environmental impacts of the organisation. It is ultimately up to the organisation as to how to determine which of its environmental impacts are significant.

Option for evaluations of risk include :

• A purpose built environmental risk assessment;
• A generic risk assessment; or
• A criteria base assessment.