Environmental Management System Tools, Their Role, Integration with EMS Implementation and Interaction – Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – The EIA will provide the organization with the methodology and process necessary to identify potential environmental effects. of their actions and activities before they are carried out. This makes it easier for the organization to take environmental considerations into account at an early stage and allows controls and mitigation measures to be integrated into all plans. An EIA could be carried out on the site to clarify the organization's planned activities regarding the disposal of chemicals from previous occupants and the management of the contaminated land. The EIA would assist in project planning to help identify as few residual negative impacts as possible and could also include a monitoring strategy. Environmental audit Environmental audit has a specific role as an environmental management tool because it is an integral part of any EMS. Environmental auditing gives the organization the ability to verify compliance and evaluate the effectiveness of systems and is also a mechanism to measure the performance of environmental improvements. These improvements may have been implemented following the establishment and operation of the EMS. Environmental audits have four main roles, summarized as follows: • verification – to determine whether the EMS meets the specified standard, for example ISO 14001 • to identify environmental issues associated with the production of goods or services before they become liabilities• to develop benchmarks of good practice• to serve as the basis for a scalable corporate environmental strategyThe audit will verify compliance with legislation and also identify a...... middle of paper..... .ure support from senior management, at least one member of the team must come from the senior management of the organization. The rest of the team should come from across the company, to ensure company-wide cooperation and bring cross-functional experience to the team. In the medium term, an effective EMS should prove at least cost neutral and will often lead to sustainable savings through environmental efficiency in waste and energy management. Organizations can approach the development of their EMS in different ways: for example, in larger companies, staff may be directly employed, while in smaller companies, existing staff can be trained and their tasks extended to include EMS. In some cases, consultants are appointed to assist in the development of EMS and some companies have benefited from subsidized/funded programs promoting the development of EMS..