Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Register of Environmental Aspects and Impacts
Register of Environmental Legislation
Communication of Environmental Issues
Management Review

Purpose

The environmental aspects of Royal Free London Property Services (RFLPS) operations must be identified and assessed to determine those that are the most significant. This then enables resources to be focused on addressing specific aspects. ISO 14001 requires this to be an on-going process. Therefore, the aspects must be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that all current aspects have been identified and that they are correctly prioritised.

The register of environmental aspects and impacts aims to provide documentary evidence that demonstrates compliance with these requirements.

Scope

This document embraces the identification and assessment of significance of environmental aspects arising from activities, products and services of RFLPS. It also considers those activities, products and services over which RFLPS has only limited control (indirect aspects), but some influence.

Responsibilities

The environmental aspects of RFPL's activities, products and services were initially identified via the compilation of an inventory of inputs and outputs as part of the initial environmental review. This inventory was subsequently developed into a register of environmental aspects by the Management Team, guided by an environmental consultant.

In subsequent years, any changes or additions to the environmental aspects will be decided on an annual basis through the Management Review.

Definitions

Environmental aspect - 'Element of an organisation's activities, products or services that can interact with the environment'.

Direct aspect - an interaction with the environment over which RFLPS has control and over which it can be expected to exert an influence

Indirect aspect - an interaction with the environment over which RFLPS does not have control and cannot be expected to exert an influence

Environmental impact - 'Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partly resulting from an organisation's activities, products or services'.

Procedure

The various activities of RFLPS are documented in the Environmental Review.

Notes

ISO 14001 suggests that selected activities, products and services should be large enough for meaningful examination and small enough to be sufficiently understood.
The methodology for assessing significance is outlined below

Register of Aspects and Impacts Review

The Register will be reviewed:

As part of the annual management review
As a consequence of any amendments to RFLPS's activities, products or service
As a consequence of any relevant changes to the register of applicable legislation
As a consequence of any related non-conformities raised during the internal or external audit process
In response to stakeholders' reported and documented concerns

Identification of Environmental Aspects

Identify the inputs and outputs to and from your activities and then identify the environmental aspects and impacts that arise from these inputs and outputs. This should include (where applicable) identification of direct and indirect environmental aspects and those aspects arising from abnormal or emergency conditions.

To assist in the identification of RFLPS's environmental aspects process flow diagrams may be used.

The identification process shall cover the aspect categories listed and shall consider the findings of the Initial Environmental Review. It should be noted that not all categories will necessarily be applicable to all sections or all stages of a process.

The identification of aspects and impacts will take into account how the environmental aspects might be affected by change, abnormal conditions, emergencies and life-cycle perspective.

Identification of Environmental Impacts

Suggested environmental impacts to be considered:

Air Emissions
Water Emissions / Discharges
Releases to Land
Resource Use / Raw Materials
Use of Energy
Generation of Waste
Energy Emitted (Noise, Heat, Odour, Vibration)
Ecology

Assessment of Environmental Aspects

Record each environmental aspect in the Aspects Register
Aim to determine which identified environmental aspects are significant
Each aspect can occur under normal, abnormal or emergency conditions
Each aspect is scored to assess significance and prioritization
Scoring is based on "Severity" and "Likelihood"
Each aspect should also be relevant to our objectives and targets

Severity Scoring Methodology

Severity = Legislation & Regulation + Environmental Impact + Stakeholders & Reputation

Legislation & Regulation Scoring

Is the aspect covered by legislation, regulation or other requirement?

Score	Description
5	Regulation /legislation applies
4	Potential to be regulated
3	Corporate Policy
2	Voluntary / DEFRA guidelines apply
0	Not regulated

Environmental Impact Scoring

What are the environmental consequences of the aspect?

i. Effect on the receptor - does the receptor (air, water, etc) deteriorate and can it recover from the damage? Or is the impact irreversible?

ii. Quantities involved - what is the scale of the business activity? Is it great enough to warrant action?

Score	Description
5	Extreme: Severe ecological damage or resource use
4	High: Uncontrolled emissions or significant resource use
3	Moderate: Controlled emissions, moderate resource use
2	Minor: Minimal emissions, reduced resource use
1	No consequence: Virtually no environmental damage
0	Positive impact: Favourable to the environment

Stakeholders & Reputation Scoring

Is the aspect a source of concern for our stakeholders or reputation?

Score	Description
3	National adverse publicity
2	Local adverse publicity
1	Internal adverse publicity
0	No adverse publicity / positive publicity

Likelihood / Frequency Scoring Methodology

Score	Description
5	Very high usage / Constant operation
4	High usage / Frequent operation
3	Moderate usage / Normal Operation
2	Low usage / Normal Operation
1	Negligible usage, Infrequent operation

Overall Significance Scoring Methodology

An aspect’s total score for “Severity” is multiplied by the likelihood of the aspect occurring. The overall significance calculation is therefore:

Significance = (Legislation & Regulation + Environmental Impact + Stakeholders & Reputation) × Likelihood

Sorting the Results

Significance Value	Significance Description	Symbol
< 30	Not significant
30 - 50	Significant
> 50	Highly significant

Aspects can be ranked in descending order of significance
Aspects with a positive environmental impact will have a low score

Controls

Opportunities for identifying relevant procedures and methods of control include:

Environmental control procedures
Compliance with environmental control procedures
Environmental control methods
Knowledge of an impact
Maintenance of associated machinery
Records of an Environmental Impact
Environmental awareness training
Accident and emergency training
Monitoring of environmental aspects and impacts
Compliance with minimisation initiatives

Identification of Direct or Indirect Control

The EMS Co-ordinator must determine if RFLPS has Direct or Indirect control of the environmental aspect.

Identification of Normal, Abnormal and Emergency Conditions

Conditions are defined as: - Normal (N): Day-to-day activities or processes - Abnormal (A): Periodic or irregular activities associated with main process - Emergency (E): Unexpected events like accidents or random occurrences

Records

Register of Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Version	Date	Title	Author	Approver	Review Date
0.1	03-12-2024	Identification and Assessment of significance of environmental aspects	Nigel Walker	Draft
1.0	14-01-2025	Identification and Assessment of significance of environmental aspects	Nigel Walker	ISO Working Group	15-01-2025

Changelog

Version	Change(s)
0.1	Initial draft based on template provided by R. Widdows
1.0	Approved by ISO Working Group