Identification of Environmental Aspects & Impacts Procedure

Purpose
 To identify the environmental aspects of the institution’s activities and/or products
and/or services, within the defined scope of the EMS, which it can control and influence
and that have or can have significant impacts on the environment.
 To identify aspects that will result from planned or new developments and new or
modified activities or products or services.
 To assess the significance of the institution’s aspects in terms of their impacts on the
environment under normal, abnormal and emergency conditions.
 To review and revise the institution’s environmental aspects and impacts because of
audits, complaints and changes in regulations and legislation.

Definitions
 An aspect is defined in ISO 14001 as: “an element of an organisation’s activities or
products or services that can interact with the environment”.
 An environmental impact is defined in ISO14001 as “any change to the environment,
whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organisation’s
environmental aspects”

Scope
This procedure covers all environmental aspects of the institution’s activities, products and
services within the scope of the EMS as defined by the EMS Scope Document. This will take
into account planned or new developments, or new or modified activities, products and
services that will be covered within the scope of the EMS.

Method
The Head of Sustainability is responsible for ensuring that a regular review of relevant
activities, products and services is conducted to identify the institution’s environmental
aspects.
 Each aspect is identified as typically occurring under normal, abnormal or emergency
conditions
 Each aspect is scored to assess the significance so that areas for management and
improvement can be prioritised. The scoring methodology for this is a two-step process
based on a number of considerations. Firstly, a score for “Severity” is calculated and
then a score for “Likelihood” is calculated as detailed below:
 Each aspect is identified as to whether it falls under the control or only the influence of
the institution.
 Each aspect is assessed with regards to its relevance to meeting the university’s current
objectives and targets.

Severity Scoring Methodology

 Identification of Environmental Aspects & Impacts Procedure

This consists of three component scores in different categories which are added together:

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

Possible scores for these categories are as follows:
Legislation & Regulation: Is the aspect covered by legislation, regulation or other
requirement?
Score Description
5 Regulation /legislation applies
4 Potential to be regulated / HEFCE requirement
3 University policy
2 Voluntary / DEFRA guidelines apply
0 Not regulated

Environmental Impact: What are the environmental consequences of the aspect? The
following should be assessed when evaluating the severity of the impact on the
environment resulting from an activity/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: results in severe, disruptive or persistent ecological damage or impacts to
human health; results in the use of large quantities of energy, water or other
natural resources (e.g. consumption of energy over the lifetime of a building,
causes significant carbon emissions).
4 High: results in uncontrolled emissions to air, water or land or measurable impacts
to human health; results in significant use of energy, water or other natural
resources; could potentially cause substantial, though not necessarily persistent,
environmental damage.
3 Moderate: results in controlled emissions to air, water or land or potential to affect
human health; use of natural resources reduced by energy conservation and waste
reduction and recycling programs or the quantity of the resource used by the
organisation is moderate.
2 Minor: minimal emissions to air, water or land; use of natural resources reduced by
energy conservation or use of renewable resources, waste reduction and recycling
programs and use of recycled materials in products produced by and materials
used by the facility, or the quantity of the resource used by the organisation is
minor.
1 No consequence – an impact that causes virtually no environmental damage, and
any harm to the environment caused by the impact is at such a low level that
management of the impact would have a negligible benefit to the environment.
0 Positive impact – is considered favourable to the environment, (e.g. renewable,
increased biodiversity or species’ habitat).

Stakeholders & Reputation: Is the aspect a source of concern for our stakeholders or
 Identification of Environmental Aspects & Impacts Procedure

reputation?
Score Description
3 National adverse publicity and/or Green League criteria
2 Local adverse publicity
1 Internal adverse publicity
0 No adverse publicity / positive publicity

Likelihood scoring Methodology

Likelihood: How often does the aspect occur?

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= Severity X Likelihood

Legislation & Regulation

+
Environmental Impact
= + X Likelihood
Stakeholders & Reputation

Sorting the results

Boundaries are set for the significance scores which qualify an aspect as being “highly
significant” “significant” and “not significant,” see below:

Significance value Significance Symbol

description
< 30 Not significant
30 - 50 Significant
> 50 Highly significant

 Aspects are ranked in descending order of significance in a separate sheet within the
Aspects and Impacts Register.
 Identification of Environmental Aspects & Impacts Procedure

 Using this methodology, aspects that have a positive environmental impact will have a
low score.
 Where there is a procedure relating to the management of this aspect this is recorded in
the ‘Relevant procedures & methods of control’ column of the Aspects and Impacts
Register.

Document Control
 The Aspects & Impacts Register is located in folder Core Documents/ Aspects & Impacts
Register in the document control system or is available from the Head of Sustainability.
 The Head of Sustainability is responsible for ensuring that information such as: previous
environmental incidents; changes in environmental practices and procedures; audits;
complaints; and changes in regulations and legislation are recorded, evaluated and
environmental aspects and impacts are reviewed and revised regularly as appropriate.
The Head of Sustainability is responsible for ensuring that planned or new developments
or changes in the institution’s activities, products or services that will be covered within
the scope of the EMS are recorded, evaluated and environmental aspects and impacts
reviewed as appropriate.

Effects and Actions on Non-conformance

If this procedure is not applied it will result in:

 a failure to identify the institution’s significant environmental aspects and impacts;

 non-conformance with the requirements of the Scheme and/or the clauses of the ISO
14001 standard.

Departures from this procedure are addressed using procedure for Nonconformity,
corrective action & preventive action.