Environmental aspect and impact analysis
Answer:-
Environmental Aspects
• According to ISO 14001:2004, an environmental aspect is any “element of an organization’s activity, products, or services that can interact with the environment.”
• Goetsch & Davis (2001) state: In simple terms, an environmental aspect is anything resulting from the organization’s activities, products, or services that has the potential to cause an environmental impact, even if it is presently controlled, or prevent such an impact.
• The fact that the potential exists (if something goes wrong, for instance) makes it an environmental aspect.
• An environmental aspect can be either negative or positive.
- Negative aspects include emissions to the air or water, discharge of oil to the land or water, generation of hazardous waste, generation of solid waste, community impact, and the generation of dust and noise.
- Positive aspects include recycling of used materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, glass bottles, and paper, removal of pollutants from the air or water, and restoring land by removing decontaminated soil.
Environmental Impact
• In cause and effect, if one considers an environmental aspect to be the cause, then the environmental impact is the effect.
• An environmental impact is any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization’s activities, products, or services.
• Essentially, the environmental impact is the result of the environmental aspect. For example, suppose a company is discharging wastewater.