Top Environmental Compliance Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Regulatory compliance is a focus for many businesses, whether it’s related to financials, cybersecurity, occupational safety, product and services, or the environment. Ensuring your organization is in good regulatory standing is important for your business’s reputation and avoids fines and criminal charges. While not required for all industries, fulfilling regulatory obligations for various environmental areas can be a challenge. Having the knowledge and resources is essential for environmental compliance. Let’s dive into some of the common challenges and solutions associated with environmental compliance.  

Lack of Regulatory Knowledge  

There is a plethora of regulations related to topics such as air, water, stormwater, and waste and depending on your business, your organization may be subject to regulations for multiple of these areas. Understanding the requirements for multiple topics and jurisdictions, in addition to knowing what actions need to be taken to comply with the requirements, is a considerable task. Each facility will need its own permits and have different requirements to follow necessitating multiple people within the organization to be knowledgeable. Not every company will have designated personnel for regulatory compliance, such as EHS managers, so the responsibility falls on employees whose background may not have provided them with the skills and knowledge to manage various environmental topics. Employee turnover also results in a lack of regulatory knowledge as experienced employees leave with information and skills that may not be fully replicated by replacements.  

To help ensure that your company doesn’t miss any compliance requirements, it’s important to research the potential regulations and assess applicability. Companies should first identify the environmental topics that their business activities may affect and research regulations at the local, state, and federal level. Most regulatory agencies are willing to answer questions and can help guide you through the requirements for your company’s activities. Utilizing these agencies as a resource, and documenting communication for future reference, is beneficial for identifying the requirements for your organization. Consultants can also be leveraged to conduct this research and communication and can help organize requirements into actionable insights. 

For organizations with multiple locations, having personnel at the group level with oversight on requirements for each location can also help organize information and ensure compliance. It establishes a role with the necessary knowledge for the entire organization and if tasks need to be escalated or there is a compliance concern, a management-level (or higher) employee acquires the responsibility. Record keeping plays a large role by ensuring regulatory and compliance information is stored for reference and for other or new employees to learn.  

Jurisdiction Differences  

Another challenge associated with regulatory compliance is jurisdictional differences. For some federal regulations, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, the states are responsible for its implementation, meaning each state will have different regulatory requirements to follow. This is in addition to their own regulations related to air and water. Local ordinances related to areas such as waste, water usage, and wastewater will also differ between locations. Permits that get issued to a site will likely vary with the conditions that need to be followed. This can complicate environmental management as there are more requirements to keep track of and companies can’t standardize compliance actions. This challenge is especially difficult for organizations with an international presence and facilities in multiple countries.  

When developing an environmental management system (EMS), it’s important to identify all the regulations based on jurisdiction. When researching, it’s a good practice to confirm the jurisdictional authority for each environmental area, as sometimes counties will have authority over certain issues versus a city or town. Creating compliance calendars to track the different actions will also help manage the compliance tasks and permit conditions at each location.  

Missing Regulatory Changes  

Along with jurisdictional differences, new regulations or changes to existing ones also pose a challenge. Not knowing new requirements can put your business at risk of failing to comply with environmental regulations. To ensure you don’t miss these updates, as part of your environmental management strategy, an annual review of requirements should be undertaken for each location. Sometimes, new requirements won’t be implemented for a significant time period, or they are phased in. It’s important that even if there’s no imminent noncompliance risk, these are still put on a roadmap so you can adequately prepare. Additionally, whenever a permit needs to be renewed, thoroughly review the conditions and confirm with the agency that there is no further compliance tasks required. Some agencies also have email updates you can subscribe to that provide regulatory updates. Staying knowledgeable and up to date with regulations is a cornerstone for good environmental management.   

Poor Permit Management  

Managing a facility’s permits goes hand in hand with staying on top of regulations. Permits often need to be renewed and in some cases, fees paid. Permits also generally need to be kept on site and in some cases, displayed in a specific area of the facility (e.g., near the designated hazardous waste area). Agency inspections will check that the necessary permits are in place and ensure that the facility is complying with conditions and other regulatory requirements. Not having the required permits or following necessary protocols poses a significant risk to the company.  

To help manage permits, EHS and EMS software is a useful tool to leverage. Platforms can help send reminders for renewals, create compliance tasks, and support in their completion. Waiting until the last minute for permit renewal can result in delays if applications need to be recompleted or if there are fees that need internal approval or support to pay. Having automated reminders before expirations helps ensure there is no lapse in permit coverage. EHS or EMS software can also store permits so that they are accessible in a centralized location for the necessary personnel. This can be useful for internal auditors who may have oversight of multiple facilities and need to review and have access to permits for each site. Creating compliance calendars can also be used for permit management to provide an overview of tasks and important dates, such as report submissions and renewals.  

Data Collection  

A major part of maintaining environmental compliance is simply being able to collect data effectively. For many environmental areas, reports are required to be submitted to the regulatory agency, often on a quarterly, annual, or biannual basis. Certain activities require significant data collection and recordkeeping, and having the knowledge of the underlying data needed and the tools and resources to support collection is a challenge. In some cases, complex calculations are needed for final reporting. For example, air emission reporting can require you to collect activity data from different sources and calculate the associated emissions for each regulated pollutant.  

When many environmental topics need data from different sources, managing data collection is difficult but can be made easier with proper preparation and tools. Assigning roles and responsibilities for each facility and educating them on what data needs to be collected is an important first step. Ensuring data is collected throughout the reporting period is critical as not all data can be retroactively collected. In some cases, analytical tools, equipment or specialized support is needed so securing those tools and resources should be completed before the data collection process. For example, stormwater monitoring requires samples to be sent to a laboratory for testing and many companies contract with firms with specialized expertise. Utilizing a centralized data collection system can also help organize and consolidate information. Most EHS and EMS platforms have capabilities for data collection for numerous environmental areas and can guide users through the data collection process. They can also conduct some of the analytical work needed to complete reports.  

Process Changes  

Businesses are constantly changing in efforts to improve. This can include adding or removing products or services or updating processes and procedures. Some operational changes may also bring upon changes to environmental compliance requirements. Expanding certain activities may result in needing additional permits or being subject to additional requirements. It’s important that when planning for process changes, that management also considers the impacts to the environment and any regulatory changes. Blindly making these improvements runs the risk of noncompliance. When road mapping these process changes, it’s important that research is done to evaluate any new requirements that may be associated with them. For certain topics, you may have to calculate potential impacts (e.g,. you need to calculate your potential to emit to determine the correct air permit to apply for). Ensure that the necessary resources are available and that there is proper oversight and any new permits, notifications, and tasks are accounted for.  

Lack of Internal Audits and Inspections  

Internal audit and inspection procedures allow organizations to assess risks and review controls in place, review adherence to internal policies and procedures for environmental compliance and identify and resolve issues prior to external inspections. When internal audits and inspections are not regularly conducted, your organization may not identify gaps in compliance which poses a large risk to the business. These procedures help ensure that facilities are following identified actions and maintaining high standards for environmental, health, and safety.  

Depending on the size and needs of your organization, these audits and inspections should occur at least annually, but monthly or quarterly may be necessary for higher risks environmental areas (e.g., hazardous waste, air emissions). Organizations should prepare detailed audit and inspection procedures that guide employees through topics, processes, and equipment they should be evaluating. Questions to determine if there are any gaps in how the company is currently managing environmental topics should also be asked to assess processes. EHS and EMS software can be used to complete these procedures and communicate findings to the necessary personnel. If there are any corrective actions necessary, those can also be identified and assigned. These internal reviews are extremely valuable in improving business operations and meeting compliance standards.   

Financial Constraints 

A major challenge companies face when it comes to environmental compliance is financial constraints. Not all businesses can afford to hire dedicated employees to handle environmental procedures or an external provider to assist with identifying regulations, completing permits and reports, and monitoring. If feasible, having dedicated and trained individuals to handle environmental compliance is a huge advantage and businesses are more likely to adhere to requirements. The use of EHS and EMS software can also be costly and oftentimes companies are left to manually collect data and prepare reports. It’s important for management to keep in mind that noncompliance can result in large fines or lawsuits so having the necessary resources is an investment to avoid further financial constraints and reputational damage. When there are financial constraints, it’s important that responsibilities to manage environmental requirements are assigned and staff adequately trained and educated on the issues and procedures to follow. Establishing a compliance calendar, data collection and record keeping procedures, and chain of custody for tasks and corrective actions will help your organization address environmental compliance requirements.  

How EHS Insight Can Help 

EHS Insight helps address critical challenges related to environmental management. The platform is easy to use and allows for flexibility and customization. EHS Insight can assist in data collection to help complete reports for compliance purposes. The platform also allows your organization to create customized audit and inspection question sets to review environmental controls and procedures. Any incidents that occur can be documented and reported. Corrective actions can be assigned to incidents and audit and inspection results to strengthen your management system. For reoccurring tasks, management can assign responsibilities to individuals or roles at each facility. Responsible personnel will receive notifications and reminders and tasks can be escalated if not completed.  

Reach out for a complete overview of EHS Insight modules and how we can support your business.