1. Determining the Significant Aspects
EPA Regions 9 & 10
and
The Federal Network for Sustainability

2. Objectives After this discussion, you should :
Describe the importance of significant environmental aspects for your EMS.
Describe factors to consider in evaluating the significance of environmental aspects and impacts.

3. Overview
Definition
EMS Requirements
Risk Assessment
Decision Matrices

4. Definition
A significant environmental aspect is an environmental aspect that has or can have a significant environmental impact.
Significance could be tied to:
Environmental concerns
Natural resource concerns
Regulatory or legal exposure
Business or mission concerns
Concerns of interested parties

5. EMS Requirements
ISO uses “significant” aspects and impacts as the basis for developing objectives and preparing programs.
The facility determines which aspects and impacts are “significant.”
The EMS must address all significant aspects.

6. Considerations for Determining Significance
Legal and other requirement
Toxicity
Consequence / Magnitude
Risk / Likelihood
Sustainable
Others

7. Several Methods for Determining Significance
Risk Assessment
Decision Matrices
Significance Set by Management

8. Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is a tool used by managers to provide information for decision making.
Risk assessment may be formal or informal, but it is always there.

9. Risk Management Risk management addresses unacceptable risk.
Residual risk is the unidentified risk plus any acceptable, identified risk remaining after risk management.

10. Characterizing Risk Exposure - How big of a problem is it?
Global, regional, local?
Severity - How bad will it get?
Probability - How likely is it to occur?
Daily, weekly, monthly, annually, in emergencies, only when a certain event happens, when a new project starts?

11. Risk Assessment
Estimate exposure, severity, and probability for each aspect
Prepare relative rank for each aspect
Compare ranking to determine significance

12. Risk Assessment Example
Aspect
Exposure
Severity
Probability
Total
Vehicle exhaust 4 2 3 24
Hazardous waste 1 8
Food waste 6
Not real data. Scale of 1 to 5 used with 1 being low and 5 high. Numbers were multiplied to give totals. No weighting factors used.

13. Decision Matrices
A decision matrix is a tool used to quantify a risk assessment
Identify key criteria
Determine relative ranking
Evaluate significance

14. Key Criteria for Significance
Environmental impact
Health & safety
Regulatory or Executive Order requirement
Cost
Mission impact
Environmental policy commitments
Community impact

15. Decision Matrix Example
Aspect
Env.Imp
H&S
Cost of
Mission
Comm.
Total
Change
Vehicle 3 2 - 1 1 3 8
exhaust
Hazardous 4 3 - 2 2 2 9
waste
Food 1 1 - 1 1 1 3
waste
National data. Scale of 1 to 5 used with 1 being low and 5 high. Numbers were added to give totals. No weighting factors used.

16. Significance May Be Defined by Management
Environmental Goals
Management Priorities

17. Determining Significance
Risk Assessment and Decision Matrices are only suggestions
Refer to your agency’s risk management procedures
Establish a procedure and stick with it
Make a list of significant aspects and the impacts associated with them

18. Where Do Significant Aspects Fit in Your EMS?
EMS manages your significant aspects, impacts
Objectives and targets for your significant aspects shall be considered
Employees need to be aware of significant environmental aspects of their jobs
Organizations shall consider processes for external communication of significant aspects and document decision
Organization shall have procedures to monitor operations & activities that can have signif. impact(s)

19. Summary
Significant aspects are defined based on facility-specific criteria
A formal procedure is used to evaluate significance
Preparing a list of significant aspects is a big part of an EMS

20. Exercise 4: Determining significant Aspects
Use reproducible methodology; e.g., rank using a formula containing factors the organization considers important
Potential factors
severity
probability/frequency
risk (environmental/
health/financial)
toxicity
external concerns
ability to control/
influence/investigate
duration
regulatory concern

21. Examples of Factor Ratings
Severity
5 Catastrophic
4 High
3 Moderate
2 Low
1 Slight
0 Positive Impact
Regulatory Importance
Current violation
Non-compliance, past 3 yrs
Non-compliance, past 5 yrs
2 In compliance
1 Below regulatory cut-off
0 Unregulated

22. Examples of Factor Ratings
Probability
5 Certainty
4 Likely
3 So/So
2 Unlikely
1 Very unlikely
Potential for Increased Control
5 High, with cost savings
4 High at low cost
3 Moderate
2 Low
1 Low and very costly

23. Example of Rating Scheme
Significance =
(Severity + RI + Prob) Control