An environmental audit is useful in assessing which particular areas of your business impact on the environment, and to what extent. An audit is also an effective risk management tool enabling you to check how well you comply with environmental legislation.

An environmental audit assesses the nature and extent of harm to the environment caused by the activities, wastes or noise from your business. You can use the audit as a tool to help you:

• assess how you can manage or influence the condition of the environment
  
• prioritise what actions you can take to reduce your impact on the environment
  
• demonstrate accountability to third parties such as government, customers and shareholders.

Environmental audits must be independent, objective, credible and transparent in order to be successful. Audits should also be regular and ongoing, and conducted against a benchmark or initial assessment, generally detailed in your environmental plan.

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