In today’s business world, environmental audits are a key part of governmental compliance efforts in many industries.
You cannot prepare for an environmental audit at the last minute. You need to have a plan in place from the very start of your operations.
Ways to keep environmental controls in place so you’ll survive an audit later
The more proactive you are about your own processes, the better prepared you’ll be for an actual environmental audit. With that in mind, here are some tips:
- Know your objectives: Different industries have different compliance concerns — and those may even vary within the industry from site to site.
- Identify past problems: You can bet that any audit will key in on any prior environmental compliance issues, so those need to be a core part of your focus.
- Create a checklist of protocols: Look at regulatory requirements at the federal, state and local levels and use that information to create your own checklist for compliance.
- Use internal audits: An honest, objective, internal audit can help you break bad habits and make course corrections before you have a real problem.
- Use concrete data: Accurate environmental data is a must when it comes to demonstrating your compliance efforts (and when identifying problems).
Finally, it’s important to set realistic goals for improvement that can be achieved on a schedule. That’s a good way to track your progress and can be used to your advantage if there are concerns about compliance following an audit to demonstrate your sincere efforts.
When facing an environment audit, it’s wise to seek experienced guidance. An experienced attorney can help you approach the issue with the best possible strategy for your needs.
