Environmental auditing : an appraisal of existing guidance and current practice with a view to developing a standardised audit protocol

Abstract

Environmental auditing in modem day Irish organisational management is a concept which is growing in significance with the continual development of new environmental legislation and industrial standards. With the increasing complexity of issues that need to be addressed under the environmental banner, guidance is required for both the auditor and the auditee on the management, organisation and content of the environmental audit. With no registration scheme to ensure quality of the environmental audits currently being conducted in Ireland there is a requirement for the development of a practical working tool to assist in the development of a standard approach to conducting the environmental audit. This thesis examines existing publications on the approaches to environmental auditing, examines how environmental auditing is conducted in the field and presents a conceptualised working protocol to assist in ensuring that as environmental audits are conducted, they are done so in a comprehensive, traceable and orderly fashion.