Environmental Auditing: A Useful Tool that Can Improve Environmental Performance and Reduce Costs.

As the estimated costs of cleaning up contamination on federal lands rise to hundreds of billions of dollars, environmental auditing is increasingly viewed as a way to foster better environmental practices in operating federal facilities. Environmental audits are comprehensive and systematic reviews of environmental performance used to improve compliance with environmental laws and minimize future environmental damage and cleanup costs. The Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs asked GAO to examine the potential for increasing the use of environmental auditing in the management of federal agencies operations. Specifically, he requested that GAO 1 examine the experience of organizations that are leaders in environmental auditing and identify the characteristics that distinguish their programs, 2 determine the extent to which federal agencies use environmental auditing and the benefits that could accrue from its wider use, and 3 identify obstacles and disincentives to the more effective use of environmental auditing by these agencies.