These Guidelines provide for ensuring proper environmental auditing of the regulated community, as well as for assisting the regulated community to carryout mandatory and voluntary self-audit of their facilities, in order to serve as a reference material for all stakeholders requiring an environmental audit of their establishment. Environmental Audit is designed to protect the environment with the aim of: assessing performance against a set of targets, related to specific issues; evaluating compliance with environmental legislation and corporate policies; measuring performance against the requirements of an environmental management system standard; generating data for policy formulations; improving environmental management and sustainability; undertaking self-regulation practices towards resource conservation; exploring the potential economic, social and environmental benefits that an improved performance can achieve, such as: environmental benefits in terms of conservation of natural resources and pollution reduction; economic benefits in terms of savings in use of water, materials, energy; social benefits in terms of protection of health, vegetation, property and monuments. The Guidelines also specify the following objectives of environmental audit: generation of adequate environmental information of facilities for the potential environmental risks caused by their operations; defining how well the environmental management systems and equipment are performing; achieving resource optimisation and improved process performance; encouraging organisations to self-regulate their environmental practices and to increase their responsibilities to stakeholders and society; ensuring compliance, not only with laws, regulations and standards, but also with the requirements of the approved NESREA-endorsed Environmental Management Plan; enabling environmental problems and risks to be anticipated and responses to be planned; minimizing human exposure to risks from environment, health and safety issues. The Guidelines also define: types of environmental audit and their scope, including waste and energy audit; certification of environmental consultants; environmental audit process; audit protocols for environmental management and performance; significant environmental issues, including: air pollution, water pollution, generation of solid and hazardous waste, biodiversity and loss of ecology, storm water management, greenhouse gas emissions inventory, noise pollution, soil pollution, chemicals management, risk assessment; types of waste; audit protocols for various sectors, including: mining, ports and harbours, wildlife facilities and sanctuaries, wood and wood products, water resources management, health and safety.
Nigéria · 2011-01-01