Carry out an environmental review of your business

Environmental performance is an increasingly important issue for many businesses. By managing environmental issues effectively you can make sure you comply with legislation, cut costs and improve your reputation with stakeholders such as customers, staff, investors and the local community.

The most thorough way to manage your environmental impacts is to set up an environmental management system (EMS) and get it certified to a standard, such as ISO 14001. However, this can prove daunting to many businesses.

Carrying out an environmental review of your business can enable you to gain many of the benefits of adopting a formal, systematic approach without the resources needed for an EMS.

This guide explains what an environmental review involves and the techniques you can use to assess your environmental impact. It also describes how you can use the three stages of establishing a baseline, setting environmental targets and producing and monitoring an action plan to reduce your environmental impact.