QEHSEnvironment
Environmental aspect
An element of an organisation's activities that can interact with the environment.
ISO 14001 requires organisations to identify environmental aspects — fuel combustion, wastewater discharge, chemical storage, noise, land disturbance — and determine which are "significant" based on their actual or potential environmental impact. Significant aspects drive objectives, operational controls, and emergency preparedness. The aspect-impact register is the environmental equivalent of a safety risk register.