Definition of an aspect

Answer:

According to ISO 14001:2015 environmental aspect is element of an organization’s activities or products or services that interacts or can interact with the environment and environmental impact is change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization’s environmental aspects.

For example, in the process of car repair, the activity can be change of motor oil, inputs in this activity are man power, working order, new oil filters, motor oil, etc. The output of this activity is waste oil, waste oil filters, working order, etc. When you take a look at the activity and its inputs and outputs, you can see that the aspects are those inputs and outputs that interact with the environment, so it would be motor oil, waste motor oil and waste filters. Environmental impact that those aspect have is on water and soil. If they are proclaimed as significant environm ental aspect than the organization must establish operational controls to decrease their impact.

For more information, see:
- List of procedures for managing environmental aspects https://advisera.com/14001academy/blog/2019/08/27/key-iso-14001-benefits-to-customers/nowledgebase/list-of-procedures-for-managing-environmental-aspects/
- 4 steps in identification and evaluation of environmental aspects https://advisera.com/14001academy/knowledgebase/4-steps-in-identification-and-evaluation-of-environmental-aspects/
- Catalogue of environmental aspects https://advisera.com/14001academy/blog/2019/08/27/key-iso-14001-benefits-to-customers/nowledgebase/catalogue-of-environmental-aspects/