Is Your Business Ready for Environment Inspections?

Environmental inspections are critical to ensuring that businesses comply with the laws and regulations put in place to protect the environment. Failing to comply with these laws can lead to hefty fines, negative publicity, and, in some cases, even legal action. In this article, we will discuss why environmental inspections are important, what they entail, and how you can ensure that your business is prepared for them.

Why are Environmental Inspections Important?

Environmental inspections ensure that businesses comply with the laws and regulations governing the environment. These laws are in place to protect the environment and ensure that businesses operate in a sustainable manner. Failing to comply with these laws can lead to significant environmental damage, which can have a detrimental impact on the health and well-being of the surrounding community.

In addition to protecting the environment, environmental inspections also protect businesses. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations can help businesses avoid fines, negative publicity, and legal action. By ensuring that your business is prepared for environmental inspections, you can safeguard your business's reputation and avoid potential legal consequences.

What do Environmental Inspections Entail?

Environmental inspections involve an assessment of a business's environmental impact. This assessment includes an evaluation of the business's operations, facilities, and waste management practices. The inspection may also involve the collection of samples for analysis and an assessment of the business's compliance with environmental regulations.

During an environmental inspection, inspectors will look for any environmental hazards or risks posed by the business's operations. They will assess the business's compliance with environmental regulations and identify any areas where improvements can be made. Inspectors will also evaluate the business's waste management practices and ensure that any waste generated is disposed of in a safe and sustainable manner.

How Can You Ensure that Your Business is Prepared for Environmental Inspections?

To ensure that your business is prepared for environmental inspections, you need to take proactive steps to assess your business's environmental impact and identify areas where improvements can be made. Here are some tips to help you prepare for environmental inspections:

• Conduct an Environmental Audit

An environmental audit is a comprehensive assessment of a business's environmental impact. It involves a review of the business's operations, facilities, and waste management practices. The audit will identify any areas where the business is not complying with environmental regulations and provide recommendations for improvement.

 

• Implement an Environmental Management System (EMS)

An EMS is a system that helps businesses manage their environmental impact. It involves the implementation of policies and procedures to ensure that the business operates in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Implementing an EMS can help businesses comply with environmental regulations and improve their environmental performance.

• Train Employees on Environmental Compliance

Employees play a crucial role in ensuring that a business complies with environmental regulations. Providing employees with training on environmental compliance can help ensure that they understand the importance of environmental regulations and their role in compliance. This can help businesses avoid fines and legal action and improve their environmental performance.

 

• Monitor and Measure Environmental Performance

Monitoring and measuring environmental performance is essential to ensuring that a business is complying with environmental regulations and operating in a sustainable manner. Businesses should regularly assess their environmental impact and track their progress toward meeting environmental goals.

Conclusion

Environmental inspections are critical to ensuring that businesses comply with environmental laws and regulations. Failing to comply with these laws can lead to significant environmental damage, negative publicity, and legal action. By taking proactive steps to assess your business's environmental impact, implement an EMS, train employees on environmental compliance, and monitor and measure environmental performance, you can ensure that your business is prepared for environmental inspections and operates in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

Below are the points that need to be reviewed before any third-party environmental audit:

1. Proper waste management

2. Spill management

3. Sewage leakage management

4. Waste segregation signs to be displayed

5. Control of noise

6. Availability of spill kits

7. Remove or clean concrete from washing areas

8. Maintain proper storage for chemical material

9. Maintain record for environmental training and TBT

10. Stockpiles of dusty materials (size with more than 20 bags of cement) covered

11. Dusty Road sprayed with water

12. Dark smoke controlled by machinery

13. Enclosures around the main dust-generating activities

14. Equipment well maintained to prevent noise - oil leakage - black smoke

15. Manholes on-site are covered and sealed to prevent wastewater from discharged into it

16. Vehicles and plants are to be cleaned before leaving the site

17. Avoid overflow or flooding of septic tanks for toilets

18. Public road/area around the site entrance and site hoarding kept clean and free of waste OR muddy water

19. Hygiene of toilets, ventilation, cleaning

20. Noise record and ear plug provided to protect hearing

21. Air compressors and generators operate with doors closed to reduce sound

22. Idle plant/equipment turned off and stored in the appropriate storage area

23. Site is to be maintained clean and tidy

24. Oil drums and plants/equipment provided with drip trays

25. Clean up the contaminated soil immediately

26. Chemicals stored and labeled properly

27. Diesel-powered plants and equipment shut off while not in use to reduce excessive noise

28. Materials stored in good condition to prevent deterioration and wastage

29. Readiness of emergency response

30. PPE

31. Hazards controls

32. Inspection and maintenance

33. Record of safety equipment

34. Environmental policy and communication record

35. List of chemical

36. Safety Datasheets

37. Evidence of training

38. Treated effluent water testing record

 

Take these free courses to learn more:

• Environmental Quality Monitoring and Analysis - https://cutt.ly/H7cewMV
• EHS Guidelines - Environment, Health, and Safety - https://cutt.ly/17ceiV2
• ISO 14001 - Environmental Management Systems - https://cutt.ly/87cegVT
•  The Essentials of Internal Auditing - https://cutt.ly/07cexXM
•  Understanding Environmental Law - https://cutt.ly/y7ceYxe
•  Introduction to Environmental Issues - https://cutt.ly/87cePJz

You can share with your team and network.

From

Kingsley Ahanonu

kingsley.ahanonu1@gmail.com

08132869262, 08114857468

Other Resources:

• Audit Environmental (French)
• Environment Handbook
• Environment, Health, and Safety Manual
• Environmental Audit Checklist ISO 14001-2015
• Environmental Management in Oil and Gas
• Environmental Management
• Environmental Policy
• Environmental Sanitation and Pest Control
• Guide complet gestion des dechets (French)
• Hazard Communication Standard  Pictogram
• Hazard of Air and Oxygen
• ISO 14001 EMS Audit Checklist
• ISO 14001
• ISO 14644-1 Clean Room Air Cleanliness
• ISO 50001
• Les produits et déchets dangereux (French)
• Presentation ISO 1400-9001 v201510 (French)
• Produits chimiques stockage et élimination (French)
• Test de connaissances 14001 (French)
• Transport des substances chimiques dangereuses (French)
• Waste Management Dashboard

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What You Should Know About Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) refers to a vast group of products, such as safety helmets, safety footwear, harnesses, eye protection, gloves,

high visibility clothing, etc…, designed to protect workers against the low medium, and high-level hazards. This group of products is regulated by the European directive EU 2016-425 and by the American Standard 1926.95

Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment is the last line of defense against workplace hazards after using the hierarchy of control method. 

Every worker in the workplace should have and use the appropriate PPE; it minimizes exposure to a variety of hazards while working on the job. PPE that is typically used in the construction workplace includes your hard hat, safety glasses, face shields, gloves, safety boots, earplugs, muffs, and respirators.

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How to manage confined spaces in your workplace

Many workplaces contain equipment and facilities considered to be "confined" because their configurations hamper the activities of employees who must enter, work in, or exit from them. In many instances, employees who work in confined spaces also face an increased risk of exposure to serious physical injury from hazards such as entrapment, engulfment, and hazardous atmospheric conditions. Confinement itself may pose entrapment hazards and work in confined spaces may keep employees closer to hazards such as machinery components than they would be otherwise. For example, confinement, limited access, and restricted airflow can result in hazardous conditions that would not normally arise in an open workplace.

What is a confined space?

A confined space is a space that: (i) is large enough and configured so an employee can enter and perform assigned work; (ii) has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and (iii) is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

Confined spaces as per OSHA.

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The Best Effective Safety Training Plan

Why You Need a Safety Training Plan

All employees do need to be trained to face and mitigate the hazards that they are exposed to, because every employee's safety matters when it comes the health and safety in the workplace, and it is the employer's responsibility to create a workplace free from any recognized hazards. Training is one of the key factors to eliminate or reduce those hazards.

Effective safety training helps prevent work-related injuries and illnesses; it also encourages workers by educating and empowering them to advocate for a safer workplace environment.

An effective training, workers should learn:

●        How to identify the safety and health hazards at their workplace;

●        How to analyze the causes of these hazards;

●        How to bring about a safer, healthier workplace; and

●        How to involve their co-workers in accomplishing all the above.

Education: is a process through which learners gain new understanding, acquire new skills, and/or change their attitudes.

Training: a more specialized form of education that focuses on developing or improving skills. While training incorporates educational theories, principles, and practices, its focus is on performance. The goal of training is for learners to be able to do something new or better than before.

Read this article to know how effective your training is. 

The KSA Education Process: There are three basic strategies to educate workers to gain knowledge, increase their skills, and improve abilities: instruction, training, and experience

●        Knowledge (Instruction): We must know something before we do something.

●        Skills (Training): Once we know something, we can focus on learning how to do something.

●        Abilities (Experience): Once we know how to do something, we must do it outside the classroom to gain experience.

Before discussing those elements, you must make learners understand the importance of working safely. That is the objective of any training.  

This short video shows the need for training in the workplace

Instruction 

usually conducted as a course in a classroom, meeting on the work floor, or workshop, it may also be given through written notices, newsletters, presentations, or videos.

To document instruction you need an Attendance List to know who will be present, for those who will be absent for any reason, you may need to plan other training sessions, Written Test formally documents proficiency, which demonstrates that a learner has learned something. Remember, "If it isn't in writing, it didn't get done”.

Another document that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your training is learner feedback through the Survey, a survey can give you valuable information on the trainer's appreciation of the training topic, presentation quality, trainer qualifications, and how strongly the training met his expectations.

Training

Training differs from instruction because it focuses on improving "how-to" skills through practice, it allows the learner to practice what he has learned during the instruction, and it also allows the learner to apply that knowledge. It may require a “demonstration” of adequate learner knowledge and skills or “hands-on- how-to” that teaches a learner to do hazardous tasks, as part of training.

Whatever the training you plan to implement, click here to see the OSHA training requirements

These are the OSHA Training Guidelines to help you in your training program.

 

The 10 Training core criteria 

1. Training Facility: The training facility should have sufficient resources, equipment, and site locations to perform didactic and hands-on training when appropriate. Training facilities should have sufficient organization, support staff, and services.
2. Training Director: The training program should be under the direction of a training director responsible for the program. The Training Director should have some experience in training.
3. Instructors: Instructors should be competent based on previous documented experience in their area of instruction, and an evaluation of competence by the Training Director.
4. Course Materials: The Training Director should approve all course materials to be used by the training provider; materials should be reviewed and updated at least annually. Materials and equipment should be in good working order and maintained properly.
5. The program for accepting Trainees: The program should include the assurance that the trainee is or will be involved in the tasks subject to the training topics and provide a “Fit-To-Work” certificate from medical services.
6. Ratios: Trainee-instructor ratios should not exceed 30 Trainees per instructor for the instruction courses. “Hand-on” activities (requiring the use of PPE) should have rations of 5 to 10 trainees per instructor.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Proficiency assessment: should evaluate the knowledge and individual skills developed in the course of training. It's important to understand that "individual," not "group" testing should be taken into consideration. If a written test is used, there should be a minimum of 20-30 questions. The trainee should answer all questions and a minimum test score of 70% should be required. If a skills demonstration is used, the Training Director should choose and document the tasks and determine the successful completion criteria.
   
   
8. Course certificate: Each trainee who satisfactorily completes the training course should be provided with a certificate (and/or card), you should provide a permanent record of your training achievements which should be kept in the trainee's possession. The certificate should mention:

●        student name;

●        course title;

●        course completion date;

●        validity period of the certificate;

●        statement that the trainee has successfully completed the course;

●        name and position of the instructor;

●        name and address of the training provider;

●        An individual identification number for the certificate.

 

 

9. Recordkeeping: You should keep records including the dates courses were presented, the names of the attendees, the names of those trainees successfully completing each course, and the number of training certificates issued to each successful student. These records should be kept for a minimum of 5 years.

 

10. Program quality Audit: The Training Director should conduct an annual audit of the training program. The audit should indicate any program modifications to address deficiencies, and the Audit findings should be sent to management for follow-up as part of the HSE Management System review.

 

Trainer Qualifications

Should be deemed competent based on previous documented experience in his area of expertise, statements by co-workers or managers, and an evaluation of competence by the Training Director.

Trainer Evaluation

Should be required to maintain professional competency by participating in continuing education or professional development programs and having an annual review by the Training Director or other competent manager.

Management Involvement

Because of their responsibilities for workers and activities being performed by those workers, managers and supervisors play an important role in health and safety protection; they should be fully involved in safety training programs to send a strong message of personal leadership

“If managers and supervisors can’t train safety, how can they supervise and manage it?”

Managers and Supervisors Training

You can focus on those topics to involve managers and supervisors in safety training:

●        Safety inspection;

●        Hazard Identification;

●        Accident Investigation;

●        Employees Recognition and Discipline;

●        Safety Leadership;

●        Job Safety Analysis;

●        Hazard Control Strategies;

●        Safety Management system;

●        On-the-job training (OJT)

Safety Training Objectives

Objectives state observable and measurable outcomes:

●        Training Objectives: Describe what the trainer will do. For example: “Trainer will start with an introduction of the topic”, then “the detailed elements of the topic”, and finally “the summary and conclusion”.

●        Learning Objectives: Describe what the trainee will learn at the end of the course. For example, “By the end of this course, you will be able to use a fire extinguisher safely”.

“Hands-on” Learning

You will need to include “hands-on” learning activities to show the trainee how to do things; it also means you will need to allow the trainee to practice.

Training Presentation Strategies: You might ask yourself which mode of training work best for you? You can choose one (or more) from those presentation strategies:

●        Classroom Training: This is a classic method that can be an in-house or external source, and can quickly train learners when needed, usually a whiteboard, or data-show is used.

●        On-the-Job-Training (OJT): Considered the best training strategy which requires the trainee to demonstrate adequate knowledge and skill to perform the task with practice. Workers must be trained before exposure to the hazards related to the task, conducting a simulation in the learning environment is the only way to certify adequate knowledge and skill to perform hazardous tasks WITHOUT exposing the workers to real hazards.

●        Mini-Training Sessions: this is the best method used to keep workers updated to last changes in procedures, rules, and processes can be as short as five minutes or up to 30 minutes.

●        Distance Learning: This is the most popular because trainees can fit short training sessions on the computer into their homes.

Training Requirements

The trainee needs to get practice before being exposed to the real hazards in the workplace. There are three roles to consider:

●        Demonstration: Trainee should be able to “demonstrate” that he has both knowledge and ability to perform hazardous tasks safely before he is allowed to being working in the workplace; he should demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) as below:

o    If he can teach the trainer how to perform the tasks;

o    To determine the abilities, the trainer (or a competent person) can evaluate the trainee while performing the workplace procedure.

●        Retraining: At any time the employer (or supervisor) believes a worker lacks adequate knowledge, skills, or ability to perform a task safely, that worker should receive retraining to improve his proficiency level.

●        Certification: a worker who must perform a hazardous task should be certified as “qualified” by the employer or supervisor.

Remember Attendance List should not be considered certification proof.

Training Recording 

Records can provide evidence of the employer’s good faith effort to comply with government regulations, they can also help the employer defend against claims and persecutions. In the case of accident investigations, training records can give answers to whether the injured person was adequately trained to do the task or not.

Attendance Lists

Those lists can help to follow up on the workers' training and help to update scheduled training sessions.

Training Certification

Safety training should include written certification of competency and qualification.

 Here are some additional resources:

• Adrian's Last Day - Safety Training
• Job Hazard Analysis
• NIOSH Training Booklet
• Resource for Development and Delivery of Training to Workers
• Sample of Safety Training Certification
• Training Decision Tree
• Training Objectives Vs Learning Objectives
• Training Plan
• Training Requirements in OSHA Standards
• Training Requirements

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