Determining the Significant Aspects

EPA Regions 9 & 10

and

The Federal Network for Sustainability

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Objectives

After this discussion, you should :

• Describe the importance of significant environmental aspects for your EMS.

• Describe factors to consider in evaluating the significance of environmental aspects and impacts.

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Overview

• Definition

• EMS Requirements

• Risk Assessment

• Decision Matrices

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Definition• A significant environmental aspect is an

environmental aspect that has or can have a significant environmental impact.

• Significance could be tied to:– Environmental concerns– Natural resource concerns– Regulatory or legal exposure– Business or mission concerns– Concerns of interested parties

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EMS Requirements

• ISO 14001 uses “significant” aspects and impacts as the basis for developing objectives and preparing programs.

• The facility determines which aspects and impacts are “significant.”

• The EMS must address all significant aspects.

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Considerations for Determining Significance

• Legal and other requirement

• Toxicity

• Consequence / Magnitude

• Risk / Likelihood

• Sustainable

• Others

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Several Methods for Determining Significance

• Risk Assessment

• Decision Matrices

• Significance Set by Management

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Risk Assessment

• Risk assessment is a tool used by managers to provide information for decision making.

• Risk assessment may be formal or informal, but it is always there.

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Risk Management

• Risk management addresses unacceptable risk.

• Residual risk is the unidentified risk plus any acceptable, identified risk remaining after risk management.

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Characterizing Risk

• Exposure - How big of a problem is it?– Global, regional, local?

• Severity - How bad will it get?

• Probability - How likely is it to occur?– Daily, weekly, monthly, annually, in

emergencies, only when a certain event happens, when a new project starts?

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Risk Assessment

• Estimate exposure, severity, and probability for each aspect

• Prepare relative rank for each aspect

• Compare ranking to determine significance

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Not real data. Scale of 1 to 5 used with 1 being low and 5 high. Numbers were multiplied to give totals. No weighting factors used.

Risk Assessment Example

Aspect Exposure Severity Probability Total

Vehicle exhaust 4 2 3 24

Hazardous waste 1 4 2 8

Food waste 3 1 2 6

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Decision Matrices

• A decision matrix is a tool used to quantify a risk assessment

• Identify key criteria

• Determine relative ranking

• Evaluate significance

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Key Criteria for Significance

• Environmental impact

• Health & safety

• Regulatory or Executive Order requirement

• Cost

• Mission impact

• Environmental policy commitments

• Community impact

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Decision Matrix Example

National data. Scale of 1 to 5 used with 1 being low and 5 high. Numbers were added to give totals. No weighting factors used.

Aspect Env.Imp H&S Cost of Change

Mission Comm. Total

Vehicle exhaust

3 2 -1 1 3 8

Hazardous waste

4 3 -2 2 2 9

Food waste

1 1 -1 1 1 3

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Significance May Be Defined by Management

• Environmental Goals

• Management Priorities

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Determining Significance

• Risk Assessment and Decision Matrices are only suggestions

• Refer to your agency’s risk management procedures

• Establish a procedure and stick with it

• Make a list of significant aspects and the impacts associated with them

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Where Do Significant Aspects Fit in Your EMS?

• EMS manages your significant aspects, impacts• Objectives and targets for your significant aspects shall

be considered• Employees need to be aware of significant

environmental aspects of their jobs• Organizations shall consider processes for external

communication of significant aspects and document decision

• Organization shall have procedures to monitor operations & activities that can have signif. impact(s)

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Summary

• Significant aspects are defined based on facility-specific criteria

• A formal procedure is used to evaluate significance

• Preparing a list of significant aspects is a big part of an EMS

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Exercise 4: Determining significant Aspects

Potential factors– severity

– probability/frequency

– risk (environmental/

health/financial)

– toxicity

– external concerns

– ability to control/

influence/investigate

– duration

– regulatory concern

Use reproducible methodology; e.g., rank using a formula containing factors the organization considers important

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Examples of Factor RatingsSeverity

• 5 Catastrophic

• 4 High

• 3 Moderate

• 2 Low

• 1 Slight

• 0 Positive Impact

Regulatory Importance

• 5 Current violation

• 4 Non-compliance, past 3 yrs

• 3 Non-compliance, past 5 yrs

• 2 In compliance

• 1 Below regulatory cut-off

• 0 Unregulated

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Examples of Factor Ratings

Probability

• 5 Certainty

• 4 Likely

• 3 So/So

• 2 Unlikely

• 1 Very unlikely

Potential for Increased Control

• 5 High, with cost savings

• 4 High at low cost

• 3 Moderate

• 2 Low

• 1 Low and very costly

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Example of Rating Scheme

Significance =

(Severity + RI + Prob) Control