Term Paper on Green Audit: Meaning and Objectives | Business

Here is a term paper on ‘Green Audit’. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Green Audit’ especially written for school and college students.

Term Paper # 1. Meaning of Green Audit:

Green audit is a way to show businesses what type of carbon footprint they are leaving on the planet, while also giving them ways to reduce it. Green audit involves the inspection of a company to assess the total environmental impact of its activities, or of a particular product or a process.

For example, a green audit of a manufactured product looks at the impact of production, including energy use, and the extraction of raw materials used in manufacture, use of the raw material which may cause pollution and other hazards, and waste disposal, potential of recycling.

The green audits are tools that organizations use to identify their environmental impacts and assess their compliance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as with the expectations of their various stakeholders. It also serves as a means to identify opportunities to save money, enhance work quality, improves employee health, safety and morale, reduce liabilities and achieve other form of business values.

This concept has got its origin in recent past and suddenly got acceleration due to heavy industrial traffic which ends with unaccountable emission resulting pollution. Due to growth in population, needs has increased. Needs of humans can only be met by installing industries.

The increase in industries has not only supplied the need of humans but also had been damaging the environment by emitting carbon components. The provision for environmental impact assessment prior to allowing an industry to setup is the first step to ensure that the project or industry will not harm the environment. But still the production and operation process will have some impact on environment. That post-production assessment of impact of environment is the motto of Green Audit.

Term Paper # 2. Objectives of Green Audit:

The main objectives of green audit are as follows:

1. To ensure development along with safeguarding the environment.

2. To reduce energy consumption to foster environment.

3. To ensure compliance with present legislations of the State and other legal requirements.

4. To physically ensure installation of devices that reduce pollution and authentication of such devices by competent authority.

5. To ensure optimum utilization of resources.

6. To see whether provisions are made for liabilities arising out of unintentional pollution related damages and their compliance in cases so arose.

7. To ensure that sufficient precaution has been taken by the industry to protect the employees of the industries from pollution resulting from it.

8. To suggest improvement in the system to promote safe and clean environment.

The people employed in the industry are directly associated with the environment of the industry and are exposed to many types of diseases specific to industries or occupational diseases e.g. Asbestosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, lead poisoning.

Term Paper # 3. Green Audit Process:

The audit process will differ from industry to industry, as different industries give different outputs and are having different operation processes.

So there will be broadly understand plans to carry out the Green Audit:

1. To understand the industry and its specific effect to environment.

2. To compare the statements of the industry with standard performance indicators obtained.

3. To find whether relevant clearances from different departments/ministries have been obtained or not. Eg. Environment Clearance from Pollution Control Boards, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Water drawls permission etc.

4. To find consumption per unit of produce to see whether loss of energy caused.

5. To assess inefficiency, bottlenecks which are energy consuming.

6. To see all Compliance of Environmental Laws has been made.

7. To inquire regarding the pollution effect with the Civil Society of nearby region.

8. To find whether the industry has complied with all commitments and assurances given in MoU regarding environment.

9. To suggest measures to improve energy efficiency and anti-pollution measures.

Besides, there will be industry specific variation in audit, there will also be variation in audit process from country to country as per the requirements of the existing legislation of that country.

Term Paper # 4. Types of Green Audit:

On the basis of frequency such audit is of two types:

a. Concurrent/Cyclical Audit It is mainly conducted by entity’s environmental unit segment/outside consultants or combination of both on a scheduled cycle of occurrences.

b. Single Special Purpose Audit It is intended for special purpose and normally conducted by outside agencies. Such audit is not carried out on regular basis. It is generally undertaken in response to a special need.

On the basis of scope, objectives, risk assessment such audit may be categorised as:

1. Compliance Audit:

Reviews level of compliance with relevant environmental and safety standards.

2. Performance Audit:

Tests the environmental impact of programmes, EMS, compliance with environmental laws etc.

3. Transactional Audit:

It assesses the environmental risks and liabilities of land/facilities before a real estate acquisition or divesture of business. It is important as both the buyers and sellers want to know the extent of any liabilities due to environmental contamination.

4. Product/Activity Audit:

It is the audit of specific products/processes and their distribution to determine the requirements to make them environmentally friendly and to confirm that they are meeting products and chemical restrictions. Such audits also assess packaging materials for their recyclability.

5. Issues Audit:

Assesses the corporate performance in a particular area (e.g. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s impact on habitats or impacts on Sundarban for potential chemical factory in Nayachar of West Bengal)

6. Risks Audit:

Considers occupational health and safety/risks to employees and public.

7. Energy and Waste Audit:

Evaluates usages of energy with alternative sources and tracks the reasons of wastes, risks involved etc.

8. Process and Safety Audit:

Evaluates whether policies, processes, monitoring, appraisal, documentation etc. are in place. It also considers present/potential hazards and risks arising from processes.

9. Quality Audit:

Tests the total quality management (TQM) from the perspectives of environment.

10. EMS Audit:

Examines whether given facility meets EMS standards (viz., ISO 14001, EMAS).

11. Baseline Audit/Future Scenario Assessment:

Helps to identify potential environmental problems in addition to current one and intends to assess the probability/intensity of organisation’s ability to respond to new challenges.