Identification of Environmental aspects

An organization determines its environmental aspects and associated environmental impacts, and determines those that are significant and, therefore, need to be addressed by its environmental management system.

Changes to the environment, either adverse or beneficial, that result wholly or partially from environmental aspects are called environmental impacts. The environmental impact can occur at local, regional and global scales, and also can be direct, indirect or cumulative by nature. The relationship between environmental aspects and environmental impacts is one of cause and effect.

When determining environmental aspects, the organization considers a life cycle perspective. This does not require a detailed life cycle assessment; thinking carefully about the life cycle stages that can be controlled or influenced by the organization is sufficient. Typical stages of a product (or service) life cycle include raw material acquisition, design, production, transportation/delivery, use, end-of life treatment and final disposal. The life cycle stages that are applicable will vary depending on the activity, product or service.

An organization needs to determine the environmental aspects within the scope of its environmental management system. It takes into account the inputs and outputs (both intended and unintended) that are associated with its current and relevant past activities, products and services; planned or new developments; and new or modified activities, products and services. The method used should consider normal and abnormal operating conditions, shut-down and start-up conditions, as well as the reasonably foreseeable emergency situations. Attention should be paid to prior occurrences of emergency situations.

An organization does not have to consider each product, component or raw material individually to determine and evaluate their environmental aspects; it may group or categorize activities, products and services when they have common characteristics.

When determining its environmental aspects, the organization can consider:

a) emissions to air;

b) releases to water;

c) releases to land;

d) use of raw materials and natural resources;

e) use of energy;

f) energy emitted (e.g. heat, radiation, vibration (noise), light);

g) generation of waste and/or by-products;

h) use of space.

In addition to the environmental aspects that it can control directly, an organization determines whether there are environmental aspects that it can influence. These can be related to products and services used by the organization which are provided by others, as well as products and services that it provides to others, including those associated with (an) outsourced process(es). With respect to those an organization provides to others, it can have limited influence on the use and end-of-life treatment of the products and services. In all circumstances, however, it is the organization that determines the extent of control it is able to exercise, the environmental aspects it can influence, and the extent to which it chooses to exercise such influence.

Consideration should be given to environmental aspects related to the organization’s activities, products and services, such as:

— design and development of its facilities, processes, products and services;

— acquisition of raw materials, including extraction;

— operational or manufacturing processes, including warehousing;

— operation and maintenance of facilities, organizational assets and infrastructure;

— environmental performance and practices of external providers;

— product transportation and service delivery, including packaging;

— storage, use and end-of-life treatment of products;

— waste management, including reuse, refurbishing, recycling and disposal.

There is no single method for determining significant environmental aspects, however, the method and criteria used should provide consistent results. The organization sets the criteria for determining its significant environmental aspects. Environmental criteria are the primary and minimum criteria for assessing environmental aspects. Criteria can relate to the environmental aspect (e.g. type, size, frequency) or the environmental impact (e.g. scale, severity, duration, exposure). Other criteria may also be used. An environmental aspect might not be significant when only considering environmental criteria. It can, however, reach or exceed the threshold for determining significance when other criteria are considered. These other criteria can include organizational issues, such as legal requirements or interested party concerns. These other criteria are not intended to be used to downgrade an aspect that is significant based on its environmental impact.



A significant environmental aspect can result in one or more significant environmental impacts, and can therefore result in risks and opportunities that need to be addressed to ensure the organization can achieve the intended outcomes of its environmental management system.