Since the creation of EPA in 1970, companies have seen growth in the number of environmental regulations, tied key performance indicators more closely to regulations, and shown global acceptance that government-led initiatives are required to drive change.
These conditions led businesses to adopt EHS Compliance Programs: to meet the requirements of increased environmental regulation at the global, national, and local levels and have the processes in place for employees to be accountable to corporate goals when it comes to compliance.
In this blog series, RegScan will examine the six pillars of an EHS compliance program. The first four are implementation pillars meant to provide consistency across a business, create employee-level accountability, and offer transparency to regulators, auditors, and stakeholders. The last two are verification pillars which demonstrates that the organization is serious and committed to implementing its Compliance Program fully and effectively.
Implementation Pillar #1: Legal Registers
The first of the Six Pillars is the Legal Register. The Legal Register is the starting point for any EHS compliance program. This pillar is essential as all sites are required to comply with some form of legislation. This legislation may be in the form of Acts, Laws, Regulations, Directives, Decrees, Orders, or other content published by the government, and may be issued at the national, regional, or even local level. The unique characteristic separating the Legal Register from the other parts of the EHS Compliance Program is that it is specifically created and managed by the government. Governments at the national and local levels are constantly updating their regulations and keeping up can be difficult for most organizations.
Beyond finding the content itself, the legislation within the Legal Register may have wide reaching applicability or it may only be applicable to a specific industry or manufactured product. These registers are often aligned by risks the facility carries as well. Moreover, it is important to note that Legal Registers are a core component of certification processes like ISO 14001 or ISO 45001.
Finding reliable EHS compliance information found in Legal Registers is a challenge, particularly for organizations that have facilities and locations in multiple global jurisdictions. It is why organizations like RegScan exist: to find and interpret what regulations mean to you and your business.
RegScan’s team of lawyers continually researches countries around the world to make certain that RegScan is bringing our clients the most up-to-date Legal Registers in the industry. The team works with in-country resources to ensure that all the laws which apply to our clients are the most up to date. As a core component of any EHS Compliance Program, Legal Registers form the foundation of regulatory content for service providers like RegScan and our strategic partners.