scope:

General

This Standard establishes the principles and practices of an environmental compliance audit. It is intended to provide a consistent framework and minimum requirements for conducting ECAs to ensure that the ECAs address regulatory, as well as site-specific requirements.

Application

This Standard may be applied to any organization, its sites or operations, or processes or parts thereof, regardless of size or sector. The Standard may be applied to ECAs conducted by internal personnel or by external auditors.

Limitations

This Standard does not include a specific audit protocol. This Standard does not attempt to provide direction for the decision-making that can follow an ECA. These business decisions are based on casespecific details that cannot be generalized for the purposes of this Standard. Decisions of this nature are best addressed on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the appropriate environmental, legal, and business counsel.

Terminology

In this Standard, "shall" is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the Standard; "should" is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; and "may" is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the Standard.

Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.

Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements.

Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.