Environmental Auditing and Management in Local Government

New holistic approaches to environmental management by local authorities are described. Two kinds of audit, the state of the environment report and the internal audit, are defined. State of the environment reports are assessments of the condition of the local environment, generally based on existing data. They provide information about the environment to the general public and enable councils to determine environmental strategy priorities. They are giving local authorities a new environmental stewardship function. An internal audit is an assessment not only of the authority's impacts as a producer but of its environmental interactions as a regulator, influencer and manager of the environment. For some councils, auditing is becoming a continuous process through which environmental factors can be taken into account as a routine part of policy making and implementation.
Both kinds of audit are changing the relationships of local authorities, reducing internal departmentalism and leading to wider consultation and partnership with local communities.