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A key ideal behind environmental performance evaluation is the notion that "you can only manage what you can measure." Thus, the first basic requirement in checking and corrective action is establishing and maintaining documented procedures for regular monitoring and measurement of the key characteristics of an organization's operations and activities. The most important of these are those that have significant environmental impacts. The documented procedures required in Clause 4.4.1 of ISO 14001 include: Recording information to track performance, operational controls, and conformance and objectives and targets. Calibrating and maintaining monitoring equipment such as instruments, test equipment, software, and hardware sampling to ensure reliability. Maintaining calibration and maintenance records. Periodically evaluating compliance with relevant environmental legislation and regulations.
The requirements to evaluate compliance with legislation and regulations can be accomplished by environmental compliance auditing, as the term is understood in the United States. However, to maintain flexibility in EMS methods and also because the term "compliance auditing" does not necessarily refer to the same process worldwide, the standard does not specifically call for compliance auditing but for whatever procedure the organization needs to ensure "compliance with relevant environmental legislation and regulations."
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