ABSTRACT
What management tool was used by large and high profile companies (mostly in the US and Europe) in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, but by the late 1990s was being used by thousands of organizations in the public and private sectors across the world? The answer is environmental auditing. Except that by the late 1990s the nature of environmental auditing had altered quite significantly. From its original use as a strategic tool in the development of environmental policies and strategies it has evolved to become a multipurpose tool with both strategic and operational applications. In many ways it is the Swiss Army knife of environmental management.
