C3.2.3 Emissions Monitoring
An organisation may have a statutory requirement to monitor something. For example, an organisation with a Trade Effluent Discharge Consent may be required to conduct water monitoring as a condition of that consent. If the consent requires that the discharge is under a certain temperature, monitoring may be required to ensure that the temperature remains low enough.
It may be that an organisation simply wishes to monitor an input or output.
Output:
Outputs are waste generation, air emissions, noise or water discharge etc. Monitoring may be to satisfy internal objectives and targets or to monitor the quantity of waste produced to track progress with waste reduction. Noise monitoring may be required for safety reasons or it may be conducted in response to complaints received regarding noise.
Inputs:
Inputs would include electricity, gas, water or material use. Monitoring may also be to satisfy internal objectives and targets or to monitor the amount of energy used to track progress with energy reduction.
If an organisation sets a target of reducing waste by 10% and a target of reducing electricity use by 5%, it must monitor the waste produced and energy used in order to record the change.
The IEMA produced a practitioner book called “Environmental Data Management: for emissions trading and other purposes” (Volume 5 of the Best Practice Series) in October 2005. This is available here: Vol 5 Environmental Data Management