NEBOSH Environmental Diploma flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Environmental aspect

An element of an organisation's activities, products or services that interacts or can interact with the environment, for example emissions to air or water use.

Environmental impact

Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partly resulting from the organisation's environmental aspects.

Significant environmental aspect

An aspect that the organisation has judged, against documented criteria such as severity and likelihood, to have or potentially have a significant environmental impact.

Plan-Do-Check-Act

The continual improvement cycle underpinning ISO 14001: establish objectives and processes, implement them, monitor and report results, then take action to improve.

Life cycle perspective

Consideration of environmental aspects across consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition to end-of-life treatment.

Context of the organisation

External and internal issues, interested parties and their relevant needs, and the scope and boundaries of the environmental management system.

Environmental policy commitments

The policy must include commitments to protection of the environment, fulfilment of compliance obligations, and continual improvement of the environmental management system.

Hierarchy of control

Preference order for risk control: eliminate the hazard, substitute, engineer controls such as containment or treatment, apply administrative controls, then use PPE last.

Pollutant linkage

The relationship between a contaminant source, a pathway such as groundwater flow, and a receptor such as a watercourse or human population.

Bunding capacity rule

Secondary containment for a single container is at least 110% of its volume; for multiple containers, 110% of the largest or 25% of total, whichever is greater.

Spill response sequence

Stop the source, contain the spill, protect drains and watercourses, notify as required, record the event, then investigate causes and revise controls.

Waste hierarchy

Preference order for waste: prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery including energy recovery, and disposal as the least preferred option.

Noise decibel scale

A logarithmic scale; a 3 dB rise doubles sound energy, while about a 10 dB rise is perceived as roughly twice as loud.

Environmental risk assessment

A structured evaluation of likelihood and severity of environmental harm from a hazard, used to prioritise controls and define acceptable residual risk.

Air dispersion and stack height

Ground-level pollutant concentration generally decreases as effective stack height and exit velocity increase, but dilution does not remove the pollutant from the environment.

Accident notification

Prompt reporting of environmental incidents to the regulator and internal management as required by permits and law, with records of timing, content and response.

Polluter pays principle

The principle that the party responsible for pollution bears the costs of prevention, control and remediation, usually embedded in permits, taxes and liability rules.

Precautionary principle

Where there is a threat of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty is not a reason for postponing cost-effective preventive measures.

Environmental permit

An authorisation setting operating conditions, emission limits, monitoring and reporting duties, and surrender or restoration obligations for a regulated activity.

Compliance obligations

Legal requirements an organisation must comply with, plus other requirements it subscribes to such as group policy, contracts or industry commitments.

Compliance register

A record of each compliance obligation with its source, responsible person, evidence of compliance, current status and scheduled review date.

Due diligence defence

A defence requiring proof that all reasonable precautions were taken and all due diligence exercised, evidenced by documented systems and records.

Extended producer responsibility

A policy placing end-of-life obligations on producers for products placed on the market, often through registration, take-back schemes and modulated fees.

Environmental liability

Legal responsibility for damage to protected habitats, water or land, requiring prevention, notification to the regulator and remediation by the operator.

Economic instruments

Regulatory tools using market signals such as environmental taxes, charges, deposit-refund schemes and emissions trading to influence behaviour.

Enforcement notice

A formal regulator instruction requiring specified remedial action or improved compliance within a stated period, often a precursor to suspension of the permit.

Environmental performance indicator

A measurable, normalised metric such as emissions or energy per unit of output, used to track trends and compare performance against objectives.

Scope 1 emissions

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources owned or controlled by the organisation, such as fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces and vehicles.

Scope 2 emissions

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, heat, steam or cooling that the organisation consumes.

Scope 3 emissions

All other indirect value chain emissions, including purchased goods, business travel, transport and distribution, use of products and end-of-life treatment.

Energy baseline and EnPIs

Reference energy consumption and energy performance indicators used under ISO 50001 to measure whether energy performance is improving over time.

Management review

A top-management evaluation of the environmental management system, using audit results, compliance status, objectives and stakeholder concerns, to decide improvement actions.