Guidance on Developing an Environmental Compliance Obligations Register
16 April 2024
A common form of document that is often produced by organisations to help them with their process for managing environmental compliance obligations is a compliance obligations (CO) register (sometimes known as a legal register or legal and other requirements register). As a consultant I have developed and maintained many of these over the years.
A CO register is not an explicit requirement of an ISO 14001:2015 environmental management system (EMS), there is no mention of such a register in the standard, but it is a common way of proving the legal and other requirements to which the organisation subscribes, which is a requirement of the standard.WHERE TO START
To understand what compliance obligations are applicable to an organisation we must first have a good understanding of what activities, products and services are undertaken or delivered by an organisation. Subsequently, the environmental aspects and impacts of the organisation can be determined and prioritised. As with most work tasks I wouldn’t start trying to develop a CO register without a good overall knowledge of the organisation.
DEVELOPING THE REGISTER
Once this has been achieved then it is time to start thinking about the content and format of the register. As with all work activities, the person who develops the CO register must be competent. In this case important aspects of competency include understanding the organisation and the myriad of environmental COs that could apply to it. This is not an easy task in the UK at least as there are numerous laws and amendments to law that could be relevant to an organisation. You will need to develop a good knowledge of environmental law although there are many sources of information and training courses that will help achieve this.
The whole purpose of a CO register is to give the reader a summary of the environmental COs that apply to the scope of the register (usually an organisation). This aim plays a key role in how a CO register should be structured. It should not be a long and complex document, being functional is important.
There are many versions of a CO register I have seen over the years. I personally think a good approach is to use a landscaped table. The first column of the table would contain the category of the CO, so terms such as ‘Waste’, ‘Air Emissions’ or ‘Generic’ etc.
The second column would contain the name and date of enactment of the CO, for example ‘Environmental Protection Act 1990’. Always make sure you quote the full name and date of the CO as laws and other COs change over time.
The third column would contain a short summary of the CO. Remember the register should not contain an in depth description of the requirement, just an outline. Therefore, short sentences and bullet points could be used.
The next column would consist of information regarding how the CO applies to the organisation. Basically, what it needs to do to ensure compliance. It could be something as simple as ‘retain waste transfer and consignment notes for two and three years respectively’ or it could be more, it really depends on the complexity of the CO.
Be aware that not all CO are law. Often organisations would add ‘other requirements’ to the CO register. These would cover obligations that can be as important as law but are not law such as standards, contractual requirements and guidance.
You could potentially add more to the register such as the aspect and impacts it links to or reference relevant operational controls. As a minimum the above format generally works quite well in my opinion.
FINAL NOTE
A CO register is a fundamental tool in outlining the legal and other requirements to which an organisation subscribes. It is important to keep the register simple as its purpose is an overview. A recommended approach would be to provide a category, name of CO, a summary of the CO and what the organisation needs to do to comply with the CO.
