Risk management tools

Abstract

Managing environmental risk is an absolute necessity. Risk management includes several aspects. First the risk must be characterised by its two dimensions: hazard and exposition. Environmental hazard of products is generally evaluated by the toxicity and ecotoxicity test. Exposition, evaluation is more difficult. The risk must be assessed which leads to the concept of risk level and therefore of acceptable level, which implies cultural, technical, sociological and economic considerations. After assessment, the risk must be reduced. A good way to approach that issue is to implement environmental management systems (EMS) according to international standard ISO 14001 or Ecoaudit. An often forgotten but very important part of risk management is risk communication.