As environmental issues become more pressing and public awareness grows, organizations now need to be increasingly conscious of their impact on the planet. An important tool for this would be environmental risk assessments, which allow each organization to see their exact hazards and take informed steps to reduce them.
Environmental risk assessments involve plenty of planning and research, and this guide will explain the steps behind them–and the most common hazards you need to know about.
What is environmental risk assessment?
Environmental risk assessment (ERA) involves identifying and analyzing potential environmental threats that come from daily business operations and activities. This allows businesses to understand how their processes are affecting the environment and then take steps to reduce those risks. These risks might include:
- Excessive waste
- Harmful emissions
- Resource overuse
The goal is to minimize the environmental footprint and ensure sustainability. Legally, the obligation to conduct environmental assessments is laid down in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act. Many countries actually have enacted EIA laws that require assessments for certain types of projects.
Top environmental risks
Industries with the most environmental risks include mining, manufacturing, and construction, since processes can easily affect water, air, and oil quality. Here are some of the most significant contributors to environmental harm are:
Improper disposal of chemicals
Industries often use hazardous substances during production, like solvents, cleaning agents, and industrial byproducts like chemical sludge. If these chemicals aren’t disposed of correctly, they can seep into water sources, contaminate soil, and harm both wildlife and people. They might even stay in the environment for years, so even small amounts can accumulate over time.
Air pollution
Another major concern is air pollution, since many activities can release significant amounts of greenhouse gases, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These not only make climate change worse but also contribute to smog, respiratory issues, and other public health concerns for people living nearby. In addition, pollutants can travel long distances before settling, causing a ripple effect.
Mishandling of hazardous materials
Materials like asbestos and heavy metals are commonly used, but when they’re improperly stored or transported, they can lead to contamination. Examples include storing chemicals in leaky or unlabeled containers, leading to leaks and spills, as well as transporting radioactive substances without proper safety precautions. The consequences can be severe and difficult to reverse, with devastating health effects.
Resource depletion
Resource depletion happens when industries consume natural resources faster than these can be replenished. This includes overusing water, minerals, fossil fuels, and timber. It’s a pressing issue now, from dwindling fresh water supplies in the US to unsustainable logging of forests in the Amazon. This also disrupts ecosystems, leaving habitats fragmented or even destroyed and reducing biodiversity.
Industrial noise pollution
Noise pollution is often overlooked as an environmental risk, but it can have profound effects. Too much noise near water can actually interfere with marine life, like dolphins and whales, that depend on sound to avoid danger or find mates. Humans also suffer the consequences, with health issues like stress, sleep disturbance, and hearing loss growing with long-term exposure.
Since every company has its own set of risks, employers should conduct thorough risk assessments and inspections to develop a good environmental management system. This way, they ensure that their company operates in such a way that it causes as little damage to the environment as possible.
6 steps to an effective environmental risk assessment
Risk managers and policy makers can use an environmental risk assessment to identify and document any non-conformities and potential environmental hazards caused by a company and its employees at an early stage.
The following steps will help you to conduct an environmental risk assessment. To make the process easier, you can use a pre-existing environmental risk assessment template, which you can instantly turn into a report on the Lumiform app.
Step 1: Problem formulation
Problem formulation is the foundation of any environmental risk assessment. In this step, risk managers define the scope of an environmental risk assessment by guideline, identifying what needs to be protected from harm. For example:
- A company near a waterway might focus on preventing chemical contamination of aquatic ecosystems.
- A construction site in an urban area would evaluate noise pollution and dust emissions that could impact nearby residents.
- A manufacturing plant close to a forest would aim to prevent air pollution and habitat destruction that could harm local wildlife.
You’ll then also conduct a site-specific analysis to pinpoint areas of concern.
Step 2: Hazard characterization
Next, you’ll investigate the potential environmental hazards, which can range from chemical spills and air emissions to soil contamination and excessive noise. The goal is to identify the activities or materials that are posing a threat to the environment. A manufacturing plant might examine the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in its production and how they might affect air quality.
You’ll analyze how each hazard interacts with the environment and estimate its potential to cause harm. This involves considering factors like:
- Toxicity – How much can the hazard harm living organisms?
- Persistence – How long does the hazard remain in the environment before breaking down or being removed?
- Scale of exposure – How many people, animals, or ecosystems will the hazard affect?
Step 3: Exposure characterization
It’s then time to go into more detail about exposure and determining what and who is at risk. This means identifying how environmental hazards might reach sensitive areas, like human populations and water supplies. A chemical leak might enter the soil and eventually contaminate groundwater used for drinking.
You also have to take into account how certain ecosystems and populations would be more sensitive to specific hazards. For example, children living near an industrial zone would face greater health risks from air pollution compared to adults.
Step 4: Risk characterization
By this stage, you already have a deeper understanding of the hazards and their impact, so you’ll be ready to evaluate the likelihood and severity of each risk. To make the process more systematic, you’ll assign scores based on the likelihood and the magnitude of each impact. You might set a scale of 1 to 5, then multiply each hazard’s likelihood and magnitude ratings to get a total risk score.
If a hazardous material is both highly toxic and widely distributed, it might have a likelihood score of 4 and also a magnitude score of 4. Multiply these, and you get a total score of 16–which is quite high. By doing this for every hazard, you can quickly see which should be tackled first.
Step 5: Documentation
To make the risk assessment official, you’ll compile all of your findings and analysis into a comprehensive report. You’ll detail all of the elements above, along with what methods you used, your data sources, and any assumptions you made during the analysis.
Aside from these, you’ll also propose recommendations for reducing these risks and giving a concrete plan for implementation. If a manufacturing plant identifies a risk of soil contamination from chemical leaks, the recommendations might be installing containment systems, training staff on chemical handling, and scheduling regular inspections.
Step 6: Implementation and monitoring
Finally, it’s time to implement the plan from the risk assessment and assign tasks. Once this is done, you’ll still need to check if the precautionary measures are effective over time. To monitor these, you’ll track environmental conditions like air or water quality to see if there really is improvement. Some common methods include periodic inspections, sensor installations, and data analysis.
There’s a possibility too that new risks might emerge. Monitoring allows you to adapt your environmental risk management plan accordingly and make improvements.
Digital application for an environmental risk assessment
You can use an environmental risk assessment checklist to minimize negative impacts on the environment step by step for your company. Based on the checklist, you can easily implement target-oriented environmental impact assessment measures. Another option is to use an ISO 14001 checklist for an environmental audit and become certified to show the company’s environmental performance.
Since this can be a cumbersome process, Lumiform’s digital solution allows you to use checklists in digital form for your inspections. This offers many other advantages. For example, all responsible persons can access the respective checklists at any time and from any location. If problems occur and corrective measures become necessary, this can be immediately communicated from the app.
Comprehensive documentation and the collection of evidence on site is very important for this. At the same time, clean and transparent documentation helps to fully comply with the legal framework. Benefit from further advantages with Lumiform:
- Continuous increase in quality and safety: Thanks to the flexible checklist toolbox, you can continuously optimize internal audits and processes. Since Lumiform guides the auditor through the audit, there is no need for training.
- The very simple operation offers no room for error for auditors on-site. The app offers less complexity in documenting or completing checklists than complicated paper or Excel lists.
- Depending on the application, tests are carried out about 30%-50% faster.
- The super intuitive mobile application makes it easy to complete every test in the field with your teammates, saving you time.
- All results, images and comments are automatically bundled in a digital report.