Environmental auditing

Environmental audit is the assessment of the environmental performance of the enterprise and its compliance with the obligations resulting from the environmental legislation. Its standard component is the assessment of the potential risks in terms of health and safety protection. The main objective of the environmental audit is to enable the submitter (private company, development bank – World Bank European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to prevent the future financial losses resulting from insufficient assessment of the level and the character of the environmental risks and consequent environmental damage removal.

Environmental audits are performed for various purposes – it usually concerns:

• before purchasing an enterprise an assessment in terms of costs necessary for the enterprise to became compliable with the requirements of the environmental legislation - so-called due diligence or acquisition audits
• independent assessment of an enterprise in terms of its compliance with the requirements of the environmental legislation with the aim to prevent the potential sanctions for non-compliance with the environmental legislation - so-called compliance audit
• environmental audit of an enterprise within the scope of an implementation and/or certification of the Environmental Management System.

An audit is usually performed in two phases (I and II).
The objective of phase I is to assess:

• the existing and potential impacts of an enterprise on particular components of the environment (air emissions, water management, waste management, management of hazardous substances, consumption of raw materials and energy, noise, dust, etc.)
• the measures necessary for the enterprise to be in the compliance with the environmental legislation
• the costs related to the implementation of these necessary measures
• the areas of potential soil, groundwater and buildings contamination due to existing or previous activities of an enterprise.

The objective of phase II is:

• the specification of the character, scope and rate of contamination of the rock environment, groundwater and building constructions on the site of an enterprise or in its vicinity
• the costs and time estimation required to implement remediation measures leading to the removal of the identified contamination.

DEKONTA employs a number of highly qualified experts – auditors who are able to implement both phases of ecological audits within the scope of the requirements of the protocol of the EBRD and the World Bank.