Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Auditing

Jim Newton, P.E., DEE

Course Outline

This eight hour course provides valuable information for those individuals who have an interest in conducting environmental audits. Completion of this course will provide the student the necessary information and testing to seek certification from one of several organizations registering environmental auditors. It was designed by an instructor who has conducted numerous similar training courses.

This course requires the completion of a multiple-choice quiz at its conclusion in order to obtain the necessary certification for the individuals who are seeking to conduct any of the three types of environmental audits.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Understand the elements of any of the three types of environmental audits;
• Understand the differences and similarities between the three types of audits;
• Understand the components of any of the three audits;
• Understand how to plan any of the three audits;
• Understand the phases of a regulatory audit;
• Understand the recent US EPA Environmental Auditing Policy;
• Understand how to prepare for a regulatory audit;
• Understand how to conduct a regulatory compliance audit;
• Understand how to hold a scoping meeting;
• Have a brief understanding of which EPA and OSHA regulations may be audited;
• Understand how to interview facility employees;
• Understand which records to search;
• Understand how to hold a post-audit meeting;
• Understand how to write an audit report;
• Understand the follow-up required after an audit is completed;
• Understand how to conduct a property transfer assessment;
• Able to separate the three phases of the property transfer assessment;
• Knowledge of the elements of a Phase I assessment;
• Knowledge of the elements of a Phase II assessment;
• Knowledge of the elements of a Phase III study;
• Understand the EPA and ASTM standards;
• Understand what an environmental management system is;
• Understand the 17 elements of an ISO 14001 EMS;
• Understand the other standards that may apply to an EMS;
• Understand third party certification process; and
• Understand how to conduct an EMS audit.
  

Intended Audience

The intended audience for this course is any professional who is involved in conducting an environmental audit.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendees of this course will meet the requirements for any of the professional environmental auditor certifications that are available.

Course Introduction

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental auditing as a "systematic, documented, periodic and objective review by a regulated entity of facility operations and practices related to meeting environmental requirements." There are currently three types of auditing that is practiced throughout the industry: Regulatory compliance audits, property transfer assessments (also called due diligence reviews or Phase I audits) and environmental management system audits under the ISO 14001 standard. This course provides an introduction to each of these three types. This course will not qualify the student as a lead auditor training under the ISO 14001 standard, but will provide most of the information required to take the lead auditor test. The course material presents introductory information required to obtain proficiency in the required subject matter.

Course Content

The associated course materials are contained in PowerPoint presentation Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Auditing. You need to open or download this document to study this course. If you need to print this document out, you may want to use the Handout version of the same PDF file Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Auditing_Handout.

You also need to study the following two appendices:

Appendix 1
Appendix 2

You need to open or download above documents to study this course.

Course Summary

There are a variety of environmental audits that can be performed on operations and facilities that are subject to a variety of environmental regulations and standards. This course discusses these three types of audits, and presents a basic introduction to them.

Related Links

For additional information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

OSHA Website
US Environmental Protection Agency

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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