How to Generate an Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register

Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register

There is no denying in the fact that to generate an Environmental Aspect and Impact Register plays a fundamental part in the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) of any organisation. It is aimed to classify environmental aspects and prioritise importance of sustainability as well as environmental efficiencies. As stated in the ISO 14001 standard, “an environmental aspect is an element of an organisation’s activities, products, or services that has or may have an impact on the environment.”

Basically an environmental aspect is something used or activities conducted by an organisation, that result in resources being consumed or elements released that has a negative impact on the environment. For example, it can consist of consumption of natural resources, discharges to water or land, use of fossil fuels and emissions to air amongst other. For instance in case of emissions to air – our impact will be emissions by means of exhaust ventilation system. Likewise in the case of discharge to water or land – our impact will be discharges to local water paths or flow over to land like pollution from storing of transport vehicles and the like.

How to Generate an Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register for ISO 14001

Prior to managing environmental aspects and impacts, the scope of the EMS should be defined. An organisation can choose to implement an ISO 14001 management system covering the entire organisation, or simply to a particular part, site, or product. After the scope has been defined, every activity, product, and service that fall under our defined scope has to be considered by the organisation while classifying its environmental aspects and impacts. A common approach is to draw up a register listing all of the aspects, as this method is quite easy to understand. In this way the aspect and their Impact can be defined and a scoring system can be developed. This register can take account of legislation requirements as well together with the controls already established by the organisation.

The significance of the environmental impacts is usually determined by scoring each of them on severity and probability. The significance of the environmental impact is then determined by multiplying those two factors. The severity of the impact can for example be scored based on legal implications, possible harm, damage to publicity and so on. The probability is simply scored based on how likely this environmental impact is to happen, for example an oil leak.

Once the significance has been calculated, it is time to define the controls in place to reduce the environmental impact. All of this information is recorded in the Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register for ISO 14001. The register is not a static document and must be kept up to date with any changes. For example, if a process is changed or a new supplier is used, it should be reviewed if that would have an impact on the environmental aspects. A properly organised register is beneficial in dealing with the environmental risks and contribute to an effective EMS. Some examples of controls could include reduction in paper usage by double sided printing and only printing when absolutely necessary. Another example to reduce use of vehicles and fuel consumption, is to rely more on virtual meetings over MS Teams and similar platforms.

Furthermore, Legislation is a very important aspect to consider when you generate an environmental aspects and impacts register for ISO 14001. An organisation can use a legislation column to note any regulations particularly related to the environmental aspect.

Significant environmental aspects may also be viewed as useful objectives and targets like decreasing gas consumption, paper use, discharges and similar can be set. We must also keep in mind that implementing and preserving an aspect and impact register can benefit an organisations risk management.

If you need to generate an environmental aspects and impacts register for ISO 14001, then our Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register template might be of interest to you.

Alternatively, if you are looking for documentation to implement a full management system, then you might be interested in our Management System Packages which include a range of documents at a cost-effective price.