What is an Environmental Audit?

An environmental audit is a management tool that measures findings against established criteria (e.g. corporate / industry guidelines or regulations). A global definition is “A systematic, documented verification process of objectively obtaining and evaluating audit evidence to determine whether specified environmental activities, events, conditions, management systems, or information about these matters conform with audit criteria, and communicating the results of this process to the client.”
From Canadian Standards Association publication: “CAN/CSA-ISO 14010-96 Guidelines for Environmental Auditing – General Principles”.

Why Perform an Environmental Audit?

• To evaluate an organization’s environmental management practices and facilities.
• To identify potential threats to the environment.
• To evaluate compliance with regulatory requirements and corporate policies and standards.
• To ensure that environmental aspects are addressed in business planning and incorporated into operations procedures and budgets.

About WEI Environmental Audits

WEI personnel’s backgrounds in production engineering, process maintenance and environmental planning ensure that there is an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the particular operating systems being audited.  This includes the logistical and human resource planning issues that accompany the system.  If required, associate audit team members are brought in as needed to ensure that all necessary expertise is available to address a project’s requirements.  In particular, safety and occupational health audit requirements can be integrated for a combined project methodology and report.

As independent commentators we are able to witness and provide commentary on the integration of a corporation’s policies and philosophy across the expanse of the complete company.

Our in-house audit protocols, originally developed from a number of industry sources, are regularly re-designed to address the specific needs of each project.

WEI audit reports present a categorization of the visual observations and documented evidence of various environmental elements.  Findings are based on operating practices that are both consistent and inconsistent with good environmental operating practices.  Recommendations may also provided to assist a company with enhancing its environmental programs.

WEI compliance audits address all aspects of the applicable regulatory environments in the petroleum producing regions.  Making a clear definition between these two approaches ensures that WEI’s clients are able to adjust their programs to ensure responsible compliance.

For the insurance underwriting business sector, WEI’s environmental liability protocols have been re-developed and utilized for hundreds of third party environmental risk liability inspections of municipal and industrial operations.