Auditing International Environmental Agreements: The Role of Supreme Audit Institutions

Environmental problems are often transboundary in nature. International cooperation to solve them has resulted in a growing number of environmental agreements. Supreme Audit Institutions, which are the highest national audit institutions in a country and are responsible for auditing the regularity of governmental expenditure and receipts, can contribute to the success of international cooperation by auditing government compliance with international environmental obligations and commitments. This is a new challenge for supreme audit institutions. To encourage and support this work a Workgroup on Environmental Auditing of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions has developed guidelines, which are presented in this article. The possible practical role of audit institutions is illustrated by the audit on the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Ships, in which eight European audit institutions cooperated. This article is published in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Netherlands Court of Audit.     

Environmental auditing at the crossroads: The environmental auditing roundtable's response to ISO 14000

The Environmental Auditing Roundtable (EAR) is the single largest professional organization in the world, representing over 900 members. Built on a tradition of promoting environmental auditing through openly sharing experiences in the field of safety, health, and environmental auditing, the organization in recent years has significantly expanded its influence on auditing practices both nationally and internationally by monitoring audit activities and participating in the development of audit policy, regulation, standardization, and the certification of environmental auditors. This article describes the origin and evolution of the organization from meeting the needs of the membership to addressing the needs of external national and international stakeholders.     

清洁生产审核在石油企业基层的应用研究

文章总体介绍了中国石化河南油田分公司古城油矿实施清洁生产审核的概况,针对基层开展清洁生产审核工作的现状,重点分析了审核过程中存在的各种问题:审核培训的深度和力度不够,基层清洁生产审核的人力、物力资源严重不足等。提出提高基层清洁生产审核效果的对策:加强全员清洁生产知识和审核方法的培训,选定合适的清洁生产审核单元,充分利用好现有的技术资源。通过实施清洁生产方案取得了较好的经济效益和环境效益。     

Environmental reporting requirements under the EU: eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS)

The fifth Action Programme on the Environment: Towards Sustainability, defines European Union (EU) environmental policy until the year 2000 and emphasises the need for greater disclosure of environmental information. This paper discusses the Eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS), and EU market based instrument designed to bring more industrial environmental performance data into the public domain. The paper discusses the purpose of the Regulation's environmental statement identifying the potential audiences and their requirements. Using six corporate environmental reports, the paper analyzes how these meet the Regulation's reporting requirements and what modifications would be needed in current reporting trends. The paper concludes that existing reporting requirements will need to change to satisfy EMAS requirements and the increasing public demands for industrial environmental performance information.Ruth Hillary successfully completed a MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College, University of London, and is currently undertaking a doctorate to continue her research into the fields of environmental auditing and environmental management. She was placed at the European Commission's Industry and Environment Division of DG XI where she worked on the draft Eco-management and audit Regulation during its progress towards adoption and application. She is the Series Editor for the Business and the Environment Practitioner Series, a series of practical business reports addressing current and emerging environmental topics of importance to companies, and has recently published a reportThe Eco-management and audit Scheme-A Practical Guide. She has also published many papers on the subjects of environmental auditing and the EU Eco-management and audit scheme.     

Conducting effective audit conferences for improving environmental performance

Both opening and closing conferences are crucial elements of an effective environmental audit program. As many firms reengineer their auditing process, focusing on the beginning and end points of the on-site process makes eminent sense. This article discusses a variety of issues that often arise during the preparation and conduct of opening and closing conferences that can ultimately affect the success of the audit.     

The value of “EHS auditing” in the United States: Making sense out of the current chaos

Conventional wisdom has advocated environmental auditing as a prudent part of an internal control program and one of the key tools in driving proactive efforts. As a part of risk management activities, it is often employed to protect an organization, its employees, and officers from liability. Conscientious use of such audits has undoubtedly protected human health and the environment. Ironically, those who make the most consistent efforts to audit compliance and management systems, according to advocates of audit protection, may be the most vulnerable to enforcement actions and lawsuits. This article places the escalating calls for audit protection in a proper context.     

The potential effect of ISO 14000 standards on environmental audit training in the United States

Training has been an important component of the environmental audit profession since its outset some 15–20 years ago. Training and education have taken on a variety of forms—from audit texts and articles, to formal courses, to videotapes, to on-the-job training programs. These efforts have helped to advance the sophistication of environmental auditing over the past few years. Now, with the advent of the international ISO 14012 Environmental Auditor Qualification Guidelines,¹ the auditing profession in the United States and around the world likely will be transformed in the near future. In fact, many organizations are now reengineering their programs in anticipation of the emerging Guidelines. The expected transformation holds for training and education programs as well. This article suggests some of the ways in which environmental audit training is likely to be reshaped as a result of ISO 14012. Offerors of training courses and seminars would be wise to anticipate the changes and modify their programs accordingly. A quick response could provide a competitive advantage. Moreover, corporate audit program managers should conduct critical evaluations of commercial offerings to assure that the programs' contents are consistent with ISO 14012 “auditor certification” expectations.     

Auditing non-hazardous wastes from golf course operations: moving from a waste to a sustainability framework

This paper provides non-hazardous solid waste audit procedures and bench mark audit data for golf courses (GCs). The paper also demonstrates the narrow scope of solid waste audit data, and the need to move towards a broader auditing scope such as that contained in sustainability auditing frameworks. A case study of Clear Lake Golf Course, located in southwestern Manitoba, Canada was completed. Annual waste generation rates at the GC were estimated to be 46.2 tonnes/year with 83% of this material compostable. Grass clipping material generated from the putting greens accounted for 79% of the waste stream. The GC achieved a solid waste diversion rate of 81% (waste generated not destined for landfill per total waste material generated). A future, realistic target of 97% diversion was also identified. The 7 day audit period was found to be unsuitable for estimating grass clipping generation rates. Implementation of a broader sustainability framework for future audits will harmonize many existing management functions such as solid waste auditing, waste characterizations, pollution prevention, green procurement, customer satisfaction, and the efficiency of the operations.     

The value of EHS auditing in the United States: Solutions for audit protection

Conventional wisdom has advocated environmental auditing as a prudent part of an internal control program and one of the key tools in driving proactive efforts. As a part of risk management activities, it is often employed to protect an organization and its employees and officers from liability. Conscientious use of such audits has undoubtedly protected human health and the environment. Ironically, those who make the most consistent efforts to audit compliance and management systems, according to advocates of audit protection, may be the most vulnerable to enforcement actions and lawsuits. In this, the second part of a two-part article, we turn our attention to the likely solutions for audit protection in the current context.     

我国环境审计面临的问题及解决对策

环境审计是规范企业环境行为、提高企业环境意识的重要手段。由于我国环境审计刚刚起步,在审计理论与实践中还存在参与主体不够全面,缺少法规、制度的支持,审计范围狭窄等不足之处。从环境审计的基本问题入手,通过分析和总结我国环境审计存在的问题,提出扩大环境审计主体、完善环境保护法规体系、拓宽环境审计的范围、建立环境审计后续跟踪制度等适合中国国情的环境审计策略。     

Environmental Auditing and the Role of the Accountancy Profession: A Literature Review

This review of the literature on environmental auditing and the potential role of accountants distinguishes between compliance audits and audits of the environmental management system. After an extensive introduction to the concept, this review focuses on the similarities and differences between an environmental audit and a financial statement audit. The general approach to both types of audits is similar, except that environmental audits are largely unregulated. Both audits place an emphasis on the evaluation of control systems, which is an argument in favor of external auditors playing a role in environmental audits. Another argument for including external accountants is their code of ethics. However, these professionals seem to be reluctant to enter the field of environmental auditing. It is argued that this reluctance is because of a lack of generally accepted principles for conducting environmental audits. If external accountants are engaged in environmental auditing, they should be part of multidisciplinary teams that also include scientists and engineers to avoid a too strong focus on procedures. Rather than treating these audits as totally different, it is proposed that there be a move towards integrated, or even universal, audits.     

Benchmarking: Survey profiles the who and what of environmental auditing practice

In late 1990, the Environmental Auditing Roundtable's Auditor Training and Qualification Work Group determined that it needed reliable information about those in industry currently doing health, safety, and environmental audits. The work group would use this information to develop appropriate standards for auditors. It was also felt that such information would be helpful to others establishing internal audit programs. The work group, under the leadership of Donald P. Duffy, developed and refined a survey questionnaire during 1991. This article details the results of this survey and provides companies with timely information to benchmark their TQEM auditing efforts.     

环境审计体系多纬度架构与职业化——《领导干部自然资源资产离任审计试点方案》对环境审计的启动

中央两办于2015年11月印发《开展领导干部自然资源资产离任审计试点方案》,标志着环境责任追究试点工作正式展开,并且启动了环境审计帷幕。环境保护和环境管理问题在我国当前经济社会发展中日益凸显,推动着环境审计主题被提出并列入重要议事日程。鉴于环境审计并不是一个历史长久的成熟概念,在世界上尚且没有统一的内涵外延界定,本文基于中国的审计体系现状,提出环境审计多纬度架构模型,并针对政府环境审计机关、企业内部环境审计机构、社会独立环境审计机构这三类环境审计主体,阐释环境审计功效、环境审计职业化,以及职业化中的知识基础、胜任能力、后续教育培训问题,提出加快推进环境审计职业化的实现策略。     

石油化工清洁生产审核方法探讨

清洁生产是环境保护工作实现由末端控制转向全过程控制的必由之路,对提高能源资源利用效率,减少污染物排放,降低工业污染,缓解环境压力至关重要。长期以来,中国石油积极履行其社会责任,坚持清洁生产的技术政策,把它作为构建和谐企业、走新型工业化道路的重要举措,通过持续开展清洁生产审核,落实清洁生产方案,目前已取得了明显成效。文章通过清洁生产审核工作实践总结,提出了石油化工生产过程中开展清洁生产审核的有关方法和建议。     

Post-development Auditing of EIA Predictive Techniques: A Spatial Analytical Approach

Despite widespread recognition that post-development auditing has the potential to provide feedback which could improve future Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), there remains a paucity of research which relates specifically to the evaluation of EIA predictive techniques, with even less progress in the development of audit methodologies. This paper describes a spatial analytical approach to post-development auditing that focuses upon the identification and analysis of the residual errors between the impacts predicted at a site using a particular predictive method and the actual impacts found to occur through monitoring. For three case studies, relevant impact predictions are tested (to determine the residual errors) and statistical models of the errors are developed in order to explore factors which may explain the performance of the predictive technique. The paper then considers the broader lessons and limitations that can be drawn out from the research both for auditing and EIA practice, including feedback on predictive techniques, the potential role of scoping decisions in generating errors in impact prediction, and the implications of uncertainty over future baseline conditions for auditing and impact prediction/interpretation.     

苏州地区农村生活污水治理工程绩效审计评价体系的研究

现阶段我国的环境审计处于探索阶段,在审计对象上,以环境保护资金为主,在审计类型上,以财务收支审计为主,不能综合考虑环保工程的环境效益、经济效益和社会效益。为此,根据苏州地区农村生活污水治理工程的实际情况,通过大量的调研和长期的监测,并听取了经济、审计、环保专家的意见,建立了农村生活污水治理工程绩效审计评价体系,提出了科学、合理、可行的农村生活污水治理工程绩效审计评价方法。     

Better environmental future in Europe through environmental auditing?

environmental auditing must be rejected if the aim is to make companies introduce a specific management concept. Rather, it is preferable to leave the search for effective environmental protection strategies to the competitive system, especially since the criteria for environment-oriented management in the European Community audit proposal are without substance. Environmental auditing can, however, assume a complementary function in the framework of an overall environmental policy if it is designed as an information tool with which companies provide information on the development of environmental problems deriving from their manufacturing processes and products. However, the model required to establish a framework of quantity and evaluation criteria is not available. Further, auditing does not cover products. Similarly, there are no proposals defining the evaluation procedure for ecological resource scarcity. Thus, the attempt of the Commission of the European Communities to create the elementary prerequisites for consistent and verifiable environmental auditing in the corporate sector has failed.     

浅议环境监测数据的审核

环境监测数据的审核工作是整个质量保证体系中最后有效的质量控制手段。针对我国环境监测数据审核现状与存在的问题,将"五性"质量指标贯穿于整个环境监测工作当中,是提升监测数据的审核力度,保证监测数据正确、可靠的有力措施之一。