As in any human activity, an industrial enterprise should be managed from the point to view of risk (threat and opportunity). The set of risks, is also the set of elements that define the sustainability of the enterprise. With time, the environmental evaluation of enterprises has expanded to cover sustainability, thus addressing the set of risks associated with the operation. The decision to advance an enterprise should look at the sustainability in all senses, from the risk point of view.

The process for obtaining permits and licenses to materialize a project should be designed with anticipation, in order to identify the elements that require permitting, the regulators that are involved and the processes that are required. The plan should take into account the final objective of the Enterprise, which is not the presentation of the application, nor the obtaining of the permit, but the successful materialization of the project.

The design of an Environmental Impact Study requires an understanding of the environment and of the project under evaluation, in order to be able to forecast the effects of the project in the environment. There is a range of appropriate methods, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques to achieve a good study. The study should conclude in an environmental management plan con practical and effective environmental measures.

Environmental management plans should follow the concept of continuous improvement or the virtuous cycle of “Plan – Do – Check – Adapt”. The analysis task in the “Adapt” phase of the cycle is critical, in order to learn from what has been observed at the site, and achieve effective environmental control measures. The documentation of the process is also an essential part, because it is necessary no only to do, but also to show.

Verification of compliance with objectives and expectations in sustainability and environmental matters, takes various forms. It requires a combination of monitoring, inspections and audits. Each one of these processes obeys a particular type of protocol. However, in the protocol it is essential to discriminate the objectives and expectations that are to be verified.

The evaluation of environmental risk is based on the theory of cause and effect, and the transmission of a phenomenon from a source to a receiver. If the processes are carefully discriminated, it is possible to compile an appropriately weighted environmental risk register that permits good management of those risks.