ISO 14001 Environmental Auditor

ACTIVITY 3.3

Character profile of a typical and good ISO14001 environmental auditor

Environmental Auditors (2015) had indicated that ISO 14001 Auditors should have personal attributes such as ethics, tact, and open-mindedness and be perceptive. They should also have an understanding of audit principles, procedures and techniques, as well as having gained experience through conducting audits. ISO 14001 Auditors should also know the subject matter they are auditing against and how this applies to the organisation.
ISO 14001 Auditor should be able to plan and resources effectively, have good communication and leadership skills. Preferably ISO 14001 Environmental Auditors should complete environmental auditing training and have gained an appropriate

Therefore by performing an environmental audit, it will help companies to know which problems the company could be facing. This will allow companies to create a competitive advantage if they understand where they stand with the environment (Hamand, n.d).
Another benefit of the environmental auditing is that, it assist companies in provision of management decision support data, liability assurance, the creation of an additional measurement tool, better compliance management, an aid in educating the employees and tool for public relations and marketing (Hamand, n.d).
EPA (2015) had indicate that environmental audit helps companies to have better compliance with regards to environmental legislation and it also assist companies not to have surprises as they will know compliance status as soon as possible ad not to discover it when too late. EAPA (2015) further indicated that environmental audit also assist companies to have fewer penalties and suits and assist them to have a better public image with local. community and regulators. Environmental auditing also assist in potential cost saving, increase information transfer, manage regulatory overload and also boost the role of an organisation/company (EPA,

This is due to that the way that environmental audits are designed raises the question of who should be responsible to the cost of the collection and disclosure of environmental information. In addition the questions are raised on whether the company or the stakeholders in whose interest the information is collected should bear the cost or not..
Environmental audit is not good due to that it discloses environmental information to public and the environmental audit can also reveal violation of environmental rules that might affect the company financial or can have negative consequences for its corporate image Hamand (n.d). The audit also disrupts the company’s operation, although proper scheduling might mitigate risk. Environmental audit also increases the risk of liability if the response to the audit is insufficient or if the environmental audit reveals problems simultaneously, which can cause difficulties in setting priorities Hamand