The environmental monitoring of large international companies. How and what is monitored and why

Monitoring is critical for environmental management. Environmental management decisions are dependent on monitoring; the same holds for reporting for legal purposes and reporting the environmental performance of the company. For improvement-based environmental management, an extensive monitoring system is needed. Such monitoring should be partly physical and partly financial. The core of physical monitoring should consist of materials accounting based on a mass balance of inputs and outputs of plants and measurements of releases. Financial monitoring should be focused on integrating all environmental costs into product costs. The aim of this survey is to find out how and what is actually monitored and why companies are conducting environmental monitoring. To address these issues investigations were carried out using structured interviews in seven large internationally operating companies. We found that legislation is the main reason for monitoring releases. The frequency of monitoring and which materials are monitored are also mainly dependent on legislation. None of the companies in our survey is using the extensive monitoring system needed for improvement-based environmental management. The financial part of the monitoring system was the least developed, but also the physical part showed many deficiencies. High uncertainties are possible in the results of monitoring. The companies studied have no comprehensive policy as to monitoring environmental costs and integrating these costs into product costs. The companies studied are monitoring environmental management system results infrequently. Accounting materials in order to determine a mass balance is not executed by the companies studied. Audits should be part of the monitoring program. All of the companies studied have regular audits. The audits are used mainly by most of the companies to control the working of the environmental management system.