Green Audit
The Green audit process was begun in the 1970s with an intention of identifying the activities carried out in each institution or company. This was initiated against the background of growing concern over changing climate and related aspects.
Green audit is a tool to identify the range of environmental impacts and assess the compliance of the operations on the development and regular activities within an organization. It may also assess the compatibility of the operations within an organization or a company with existing applicable laws and regulations and the expectations of their various stakeholders. It further assesses the possible implications and effect of pollution due to the operations within the organization. The audit also seeks to identify possible means and methods to save investments, enhance work quality, improve health and safety of their employees, reduce liabilities and reduce the rate of environmental pollution. A continuous process of such audit might result in maintaining the quality of these aspects within the premises of any organization.
Most companies, government and non-government bodies and other institutions conduct green audit aiming:
• to ensure that the performance of the institution with respect to environmental activities they are involved in, is following existing laws and regulations.
• To check the functionality and their operating success including water supply, energy related matters and other similar matters that are related to green operations in the campus
• To formulate or update the institution’s environmental policy, if warranted.
• To measure the environmental impact of operational process related to green activities on the campus.
• To measure the performance of each green related operations and actions in the campus.
• To generate a database of green activities for continuous monitoring to assess the success of each of them.
• to identify future potential liabilities.
• to align the institution’s developmental and day to day activities with the stated vision, mission, strategies, etc.
• to identify possible ways to reduce expenditure and running costs on equipment, appliances, etc. or try enhancing revenue income.
• to improve process and materials efficiency, and in response to stakeholder requests for increased disclosure.
Inspection
The preliminary visit in connection with the pre-audit process to the campus had identified criteria for audit, parameters to be evaluated and time schedule of green audit of College. It included meeting with the Principal, IQAC coordinator, teachers in charge of different green activities of the campus and students representing different departments, clubs etc. This enabled the auditing to gather all necessary preliminary information that is useful in preparing pre auditing questionnaire and data sheets. The on-site audit team collected information based on questionnaire and data sheet.