NEBOSH Environmental Management Certificate Environmental Management Systems, Auditing & Standards: practice questions

1 · The ISO 14000 family · medium

Which national standard is regarded as the first environmental management system standard, a precursor of ISO 14001?

1. ANSI Z10 (United States, 2005)
2. BS 7750 (United Kingdom, 1992)
3. DIN 4000 (Germany, 1981)
4. JIS Q 9100 (Japan, 2004)

2 · The ISO 14000 family · hard

What did the 2024 amendment to ISO 14001 (and other management system standards) add?

1. A requirement for every certified organisation to become carbon neutral by 2030 at the latest
2. A requirement to consider whether climate change is relevant to the organisation's context
3. A ban on certifying organisations in the agriculture and food sector
4. A requirement to replace internal audits with annual government inspections

3 · ISO 14001: context, policy, planning, operation, evaluation, improvement · medium

In ISO 14001:2015, which term replaced the separate terms 'documents' and 'records'?

1. Controlled forms
2. Evidence files
3. Documented information
4. Procedural manuals

4 · Environmental aspects and impacts register · medium

An aspects register scores significance = severity × likelihood (each 1–5) with a threshold of 12. Slurry store overflow has severity 5 and likelihood 3; office paper use has severity 2 and likelihood 4. Which statement is correct?

1. Slurry overflow scores 8 and paper scores 15, so only paper is significant
2. Slurry overflow, at 15, is significant; paper, at 8, is not
3. Both score above 12, so both are significant under the stated criteria
4. Slurry overflow scores 8 and paper 6, so neither is significant

5 · Environmental aspects and impacts register · medium

Which data source is most useful for identifying aspects of a food processing line?

1. The company's advertising budget and its list of marketing campaigns for the year
2. The personal opinions of the managing director, collected without any site visit
3. An input–output balance of materials, energy, water, products, wastes and emissions
4. The share price history of the parent company over the last ten years

6 · Environmental aspects and impacts register · hard

A dairy scores aspects with severity × likelihood and treats 12 as the threshold. An effluent discharge subject to a permit limit scores 9. What is good practice?

1. Treat it as significant because it is subject to a legal requirement, and document this rule
2. Ignore it, because the numerical score is below the threshold and the score cannot be overridden
3. Delete it from the register so that auditors cannot question the score
4. Raise the threshold to 20 so that fewer aspects become significant

7 · Environmental performance indicators · easy

Water intensity falls from 4.0 to 3.4 m³ per tonne. What is the percentage improvement?

1. 0.6 %
2. 18 %
3. 85 %
4. 15 %

8 · Environmental performance indicators · hard

A plant processing 13000 t at 4.0 m³/t cuts intensity to 3.4 m³/t while throughput rises 20 %. What happens to absolute water use?

1. It falls from 52000 to 44200 m³
2. It stays at 52000 m³
3. It rises from 52000 to 53040 m³
4. It falls from 52000 to 41600 m³

9 · Environmental performance indicators · easy

A food factory generates 240 t of waste, of which 180 t is sent to recycling, composting or digestion. What is its waste diversion rate?

1. 75 %
2. 25 %
3. 133 %
4. 60 %

10 · Environmental auditing: types, process and auditor competence · medium

Which finding would a certification auditor normally grade as a major nonconformity?

1. One training record is missing a signature among many complete records
2. A waste label is faded but the waste is correctly segregated and recorded
3. The policy is displayed in one canteen but not in a second canteen
4. No internal audit of the EMS has ever been done