ABSTRACT
National efforts to assess the health of an organization's environmental compliance program led to the development of self-auditing programs. The concept behind environmental compliance audits is simple – find and correct problems early to save time, money, and hassles later. Environmental compliance audits are one of the most effective tools for ensuring compliance. The Environmental Protection Agency continually stresses the importance of compliance auditing, with most organizations agreeing to and adopting the concept. The data provides information to managers at all levels so they can determine actual environmental performance of their existing processes over time to the organization's proposed performance. The internal audit team membership should include line employees, shop supervisors, managers, and environmental staff members. The audit plan should be presented to and approved by the environmental steering group. The closing meeting should be a formal presentation to the environmental steering group members on the strengths and weaknesses identified during the audit.
