REPA study guide
REPA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Registered Environmental Professional Auditor (REPA) is an independent credential for practitioners who plan, conduct, and report environmental audits - whether internal audits of an environmental management system, supplier and contractor audits, or compliance assessments against permit and regulatory obligations. Candidates typically come from EHS and quality roles, environmental consulting, manufacturing and utilities operations, or regulatory affairs, and usually combine some audit exposure with working knowledge of ISO 14001-style management systems and applicable environmental law. The REPA study guide has 8 sections and about 2,602 words.
01Environmental Management Systems and Standards
Domain 1 tests whether you can read an ISO 14001:2015-based EMS the way an auditor must: clause architecture, mandatory documented information, and what actually changed in the 2015 revision. The standard follows PDCA across Clauses 4–10: context, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, improvement.
351 words, about 2 min02Environmental Law, Regulations, and Compliance
Domain 2 tests whether you can identify the requirement that actually applies, then test compliance against it rather than against the organization's own habits. US statutes map to duties: Clean Air Act (Title V, New Source Review), Clean Water Act (NPDES permits, stormwater), RCRA (cradle-to-grave manifests, land disposal restrictions), CERCLA (strict, joint and several, retroactive liability), EPCRA (TRI, release notification), TSCA, and OPA 90/SPCC planning.
331 words, about 2 min03Audit Planning, Scope, and Objectives
Domain 3 tests whether you can define an audit so that its conclusion means something: objectives, scope, criteria, programme, and plan are separate artifacts that must not be blurred. An audit programme is the set of audits planned over time; an audit plan is the schedule and logistics for one audit.
332 words, about 2 min04Audit Execution and Evidence Gathering
Domain 4 tests evidence discipline: what counts as objective evidence, how much is enough, and how to convert it into a defensible finding. Evidence comes from interviews, observation, document and record review, and sampling; all of it must be verifiable and traceable.
310 words, about 2 min05Audit Reporting and Follow-up
Domain 5 tests whether your report can be defended line by line, and whether corrective actions are verified rather than simply accepted. ISO 19011 report content: objectives, scope, criteria, dates and sites, team, findings, conclusions, and any statement of conformity.
298 words, about 1 min06Environmental Aspects, Impacts, and Risk Assessment
Domain 6 tests the core analytical skill of environmental auditing: separating activities from consequences, and judging significance defensibly. An aspect is an element of an activity, product, or service that interacts with the environment; an impact is the resulting change.
317 words, about 2 min07Pollution Prevention and Environmental Performance
Domain 7 tests whether you can distinguish real pollution prevention from end-of-pipe treatment, and whether you test performance improvement rather than promises. The hierarchy runs source reduction, then reuse, recycling and recovery, treatment, and disposal last.
329 words, about 2 min08Auditor Competence, Ethics, and Professional Conduct
Domain 8 tests judgement about the auditor as much as about the client: competence, independence, and conduct under pressure. ISO 19011 frames competence as knowledge (audit principles, ISO 14001, environmental science, legal requirements, the client's sector), skills (interviewing, note-taking, reporting, sampling), and personal attributes (ethical, open-minded, diplomatic, perceptive, tenacious, decisive).
334 words, about 2 min