Environmental Compliance

What is Environmental Compliance?

An environmental compliance report is prepared by your management team, a third party expert or an environmental regulator, and outlines compliance requirements with environmental laws, regulations and standards applicable to your company’s products or projects.

It also highlights the permits required by your company to operate.

Examples of information include:

• An Environmental management plan:
  • Identifies the impact of your business on the environment
  • Outlines strategies adopted to mitigate such impacts and
  • Details permits and licenses required for relevant operations
• Environmental audits, surveys and reports published by your company including:
  • Facilities or operations which have previously emitted, stored or disposed of hazardous materials or substances
  • Lists of internal processes and workflows to comply with emissions or storage and disposal of hazardous waste, materials or substances

Why is Environmental Compliance important for business today?

An environmental compliance report enables your company to:

• Mitigate the legal and operational risks of non- compliance
• Evaluate the resources required and terms and conditions related to environmental compliance, across jurisdictions
• Identify the environmental issues impacting your operational performance and growth potential and formulate strategies to mitigate them
• Apply for environmental licenses, permits and approvals required by your company to operate its business across jurisdictions
• Evaluate the most appropriate and cost-effective approach to comply with environmental requirements
• Determine the facilities or projects of your company that have caused contamination or were used to dispose of any hazardous materials or substances

Why is it important for an event tomorrow?

An environmental compliance report is important for an event tomorrow, as it helps:

• Assess current and potential environmental regulations applicable to your business across jurisdictions
• Determine the frequency and nature of environmental audits conducted by your company and their impact on your business and its environment
• Analyze the environmental management plans implemented by your company and risks and benefits associated with them
• Assess the legal risks and estimate the expenses and fines incurred by your company, by analysing contamination records over the years
• Assess information on new licenses or permit renewal dates

Pros of addressing Environmental Compliance

• Legally engage and expand business activities across jurisdictions
• Formulation of internal procedures and policies to deal with waste materials or substances
• Budget in advance by accounting for the costs of environmental compliance
• Establish a positive reputation and brand image by displaying your company’s environmental standards
• Corporate social responsibility plan completion
• Accountability for the impact of your business on the environment
• Transparency between regulatory authorities and your company

Cons of not addressing this topic

• Restricted expansion or operation within jurisdictions due to inadequate understanding of regulations
• Increase in your company’s risk of liabilities, fines litigation due to non-compliance
• Potential waste of natural resources due to uncontrolled contamination
• Disruption to your operations due to increased regulatory interventions and enforcement
• Impact on your company’s reputation and potentially negative publicity in the media
• Impact on the financial health of your company, as non-compliance may lead to loss of competitive edge and/ or closure of certain business operations