ENV729 The Initial Environmental Review

The initial environmental review (IER) is a common practice while implementing the EMS. It consists in sketching the environmental portrait of an organization.

The IER must focus on activities, products, or services with potential environmental impacts such as the following:

  • Production and use of hazardous substances, like heavy metals or phthaltes in components
  • Atmospheric emissions from hovens
  • Wastewater release
  • Transportation
  • Air conditioning and halocarbon management (greenhouse gases)
  • Handling of hazardous and non-hazardous waste
  • Energy consumption
  • Consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources
  • Maintenance activities
  • Etc.

The IER should cover all of the activities under the EMS scope, as well as the product’s life cycle (from the acquisition of raw materials to waste management).

The IER also enables a preliminary determination of the risks and opportunities of the developing organization’s EMS.
Such a review is also precious when it comes to listing your environmental aspects. We will focus on this in the next lesson.

Ref. Articles 3.2.10 and 3.2.11 of ISO 14001.

To Do List

  1. Take pictures or videos of your site and its activities
  2. Gather documents related to the potential environmental impacts caused by your organization or third parties in the EMS scope (Environmental studies, permits, test reports, certificates, etc.)
  3. Based on the collected information, draft your IER. We recommend that you use a spreadsheet to list the different activities, sub-activities, and tasks that may interact with the environment.