Environmental reporting deals with the disclosure by an entity of environmentally related data like environmental risks, impacts, policies, strategies, targets, costs etc to those who have an interest in such information as an aid to enabling / enriching their relationship with the reporting entity. These reports may be provided along with annual reports, a stand-alone corporate environmental performance report or in any other form. The reports of such audits can be compliance based reports or impact based reports.
Environmental audit deals with verification of the information contained in such reports with a view to expressing an opinion there on. Internal or external auditors can perform environmental audit. Since the subject matter of environmental audit involves multi disciplinary knowledge and skill, it is preferable to form a team of auditors from different disciplines to assist the Chartered accountants. Generally, environmental audits are not required by any statute but are some times done at the request of the management to address issues like compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
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