This checklist checks environmental awareness and how environmental legal requirements are identified, kept up to date and communicated.

Effective Audit Checklists

Prepared using the F-Q2A Audit Checklist form template.

The file is supplied in fully editable MS Word format and can be easily customised, with all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The following document labelling is included in the footer:

• Checklist number and title
• Information-classification
• Version
• Page number / total pages

alphaZ documents - beautifully designed, tried and tested audit checklists. No junk, jargon or unnecessary questions. Simple and usable audit checklists developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.

Further Reading

Further guidance on environmental management and internal auditing:

• UK Environmental Legislation and Compliance
• Environmental Policy
• ISO 14001 Clause 7.3 - Awareness
• Internal Auditing knowledge base

Logo Update Service

Download this audit checklist template with your company name and logo already added!
Document Preparation is included with the alphaZ subscription.

How to Download

This file is included in the alphaZ subscription. This checklist is also included in the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 toolkits, including the integrated toolkits that combine them, so the toolkit route gives you this file plus everything else you need in one download.

Need Help Implementing?

If you'd like hands-on help completing your internal audits or training your internal auditors, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.

Commitment to Environmental Protection Audit Checklist Template

A process audit checklist for auditing commitment to environmental protection: how environmental awareness is communicated, and how the environmental legal requirements are identified, reviewed and communicated. It is set out on the F-Q2A Audit Checklist format, with the scope, criteria, site, participants, auditor and date recorded at the top, and each question alongside the auditee and the evidence viewed, response and findings.

Questions Covered

• How environmental awareness is communicated within the organisation
• What the legal requirements relating to the environment are for the organisation
• When the environmental legal requirements were last reviewed or updated
• How the organisation keeps up to date with changes to legal requirements
• How updates to legal requirements are communicated within the organisation

Carrying Out the Audit

Ask a few people what they know about the environmental policy and the environmental issues in their own work, then compare the legal register with the activities seen on site. A permit, registration or similar requirement that applies to the business is a good item to follow through to the evidence.

Planning the Audit

Have the environmental policy, the legal register and the record of its last review to hand, along with any recent environmental communications such as toolbox talks or notices. If the organisation holds an environmental permit or exemption, have its conditions to hand as well.

Who Should Carry Out the Audit?

Anyone trained in internal auditing who is independent of the area being audited. The questions are written in plain language, so the checklist also works well for training new internal auditors.

Included in the ISO Toolkits

This checklist is part of the ISO 9001 Toolkit and is also included in the ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 toolkits, including the integrated toolkits that combine them.

Related Documents

Documents that work alongside this checklist:

• P-2 Environmental Policy
• ER9 Legal Register
• PP-6-01 Environmental Management Policy Procedure
• F-IMS60 Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register

Part of the Process Audit Checklists

This is one of the alphaZ process audit checklists, each covering a single area of the management system, so audits can be spread across the year using the ER11 Audit Schedule. The completed checklist becomes the record of the audit, and the results can be written up using the F-Q31 Audit Report.

Adapting the Checklist

The questions can be edited, added to or removed to suit the way the organisation works, and the scope and criteria at the top changed to match the area being audited. Because every alphaZ audit checklist uses the same F-Q2A layout, audit records look the same whichever area was audited, which makes them easier to review and compare.

Using the Findings

Gaps in awareness or out of date legal requirements are raised as actions, with any legal requirement not being met dealt with straight away.