A Guide to Environmental Risk Assessment

Introduction

In this guide we are going to take a look at environmental risk assessments (ERAs). Undertaking ERAs is a key skill for environmental, health, and safety professionals to understand and execute, helping them understand the key environmental issues in the organisations in which they work so that they can appropriately managed to avoid negative outcomes such as breaches of the law and damaging the trust of stakeholders.

A word about RRC

RRC International is a leading provider of environmental management courses. Such as the NEBOSH National Diploma in Environmental Management and ISEP Certificate in Sustainability & Environmental Management. 

What is an Environmental Risk Assessment? 

ERAs are means by which  an organisation can identify environmental problems associated with their activities and prioritise them allowing them to understand what needs to be managed, monitored and reduced. They may also assist, both directly and indirectly in complying with environmental law and other requirements. ERAs are used in many work sectors to understand and manage environmental risk particularly in construction, manufacturing and commercial sectors

Environmental Risk Assessment: The Key Steps 

Definitions

Before we look at how to complete an ERA it would be a appropriate to define key terms used. Unlike other areas of risk assessment ERA do not tend to use terms such as hazard and risk.  Activity, environmental aspect and environmental impact tend to be used, this largely results from the use of these terms in the IS0 14001:2015 environmental management system standard. 

An activity is the task that an organisation is undertaking, there is no direct definition in ISO 14001. Examples might include, purchasing, operating machinery and grounds maintenance.

ISO 14001 defines environmental aspect as being

“element of an organisation’s activities or products or services that interacts or can interact with the environment”.

An aspect is basically the cause of the harm not the harm itself. It is like the term ‘hazard’ that is used in other forms of risk assessment. It covers use of materials and energy as well as the release of emissions and wastes.

Environmental impact is defined in the ISO 14001as being:

“change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organisation’s environmental aspects”.

The impact is the effect the aspect has on the environment, usually negative but sometimes positive. This is similar to the term ‘risk’. Categories of impact include pollution and nuisance to local communities.

How to undertake an ERA

1. Identifying activities

The first task is to identify the activities within the chosen scope (workplace or part of a workplace). This could be completed by undertaking observations, reviewing documents (such as site plans) or interviewing people. 

More formally a process flow diagram or task analysis could be developed tracking work activities in the way that they link within the area of assessment. The key to this stage is to just understand what is occurring in the workplace rather than to think about how the relate to the environment.  It is vital that this stage is undertaken properly, if an activity is missed or not properly understood then it cannot be assessed correctly.

2. Identifying Aspects and impacts

We need to determine what the environmental aspects are for each activity. A simple, but effective way to complete this is to take each activity in turn and consider what is needed to operate the activity such as raw materials, energy and water for example and what is released by the activity such as wastes, emissions to air, water or land and noise. Both these inputs and outputs are aspects. These are causes of environmental impacts rather than the impact itself.

It is important to understand that aspects can occur under one of three conditions:

• Normal aspects that occur for the usual operation of an activity for example a computer will always need electricity to operate.
• Abnormal – aspects that occur infrequently such as a delivery of hazardous chemicals or maintenance of a machine or 
• Emergency – aspects that are associated with emergency situations such as fires, spillages or flooding.

The next stage is to work out the environmental impacts that are associated with each aspect. Impacts are generally the harm that the aspect causes although impacts may, on occasion, be positive (such as those associated with habitat restoration). Every aspect will have at least one impact. Example impacts  include nuisance to local communities, climate change, biodiversity loss and deforestation. 

3. Prioritising aspects and impacts

By this point, depending on the size and complexity of the area assessed  there could be many aspects and impacts. It is time to sperate the wheat from the chaff. This is done by developing and employing a way to work out which aspects and impacts are important, and which are negligible. There is no set way to complete this, but we will cover a couple of potential ways that could be employed.

I have had success with smaller organisations, with limited resources, by developing a small number of questions with a yes answers meaning that the aspect and impact is significant(this approach could also be used an initial screen where many aspects are identified). Such questions might include:

• Compliance obligations – is there a legal requirement, contractual obligations or internal requirement?
• Does the activity present a significant environment impact?
• Is the aspect of key concern to stakeholders such as customers or the local community?

A common way of prioritising aspects and impacts is to use a matrix, similar to  those that are used to assess occupational health and safety risk. This would involve attaching a score to the likelihood of an aspects occurring which is multiplied by a number representing the consequences should it occur. The total score calculated can be used to rank the list of aspects and impacts. A cut off level would be set and every aspect above it  would be significant and need to be managed. 

4. Recording and reviewing

Commonly environmental risk assessments are recorded in a register. This is usually a landscaped table identifying the activity, aspect, impact condition and ranking information. 

The whole purpose of an impact assessment is to identify key environmental risks so that they can be managed through mechanisms such as procedures, training, auditing and monitoring. It is essential that these actions are undertaken following completion of the assessment.  

As with any risk assessment, ERA must be reviewed on a regular scheduled basis or when there has been a significant change such as introduction of a new process or following an accident.

It is important that environmental managers and others who undertake impact assessments have a appropriate general knowledge of environmental management which can be gained by completing a recognised qualification such as those offered by ISEP or NEBOSH. 

The Source Pathway Receptor Model 

A model that is very useful when identifying and characterising environmental impacts is the source – pathway – receptor model:

• Source there must be a point where the pollutant starts this includes a hazardous chemical or physical substance such as noise or dust.
• Pathway – the route by which the contaminant can reach the receptor for example drainage system, air or water. 
• receptor this is something that can be harmed such as a people, ecosystems, rivers or forests.

If the three elements are present, then there is an environmental problem. This pollutant linkage model is a very useful model for identifying environmental risks as the source and the pathway together are the aspect and the harm to the receptor is the impact. It provides a systematic approach to identifying aspects and impacts. You can find out more about source – pathway – receptor by reading this blog post.

Improving Your Environmental Risk Assessment Skills

Environmental risk assessment requires a detailed knowledge of environmental management. This incorporates not just an understanding of the process to identify and prioritise aspects and impacts, but also thorough understanding of environmental issues and how they are caused by an organisation. It is essential therefore that the environmental risk assessor possesses competence in these areas as otherwise the risk assessment will not accurately reflect the key environmental aspects and impacts of the organisation, increases the chances of legal breaches and would not be trusted by key stakeholders such as customers, local communities and regulators. 

Accredited training is a key way to develop such competencies with various level courses available to the budding environmental risk assessor who wants to increase their employability or those who want to ensure their competence is certified. The following courses would be suitable:

ISEP Certificate in Sustainability & Environmental Management

NEBOSH National Diploma in Environmental Management

ISEP Foundation Certificate in Sustainability & Environmental Management

NEBOSH Environmental Management Certificate

Conclusion

Environmental risk assessments are means by which  an organisation can identify environmental problems associated with their activities and prioritise them. 

The process for identifying environmental risks is to understand what activities are occurring in the areas that is being assessed, identify the environmental aspects by considering inputs and outputs into each activity, determining impacts and developing an applying a methodology to prioritise, so that the key impacts are understood. 

To improve risk assessment skills training in both the risk assessment process and understanding of environmental issues and how the apply to an organisation is key.

John Binns BSc (Hons), MSc, MISEP (formerly IEMA)

With over 19 years’ experience working in environment management, John Binns BSc (Hons) MSc MISEP (formerly IEMA) is an experienced environmental tutor and consultant with knowledge of health and safety management.