The role of environmental auditing in supporting environmental management (An analytical study of the opinions of a sample of specialists)

Abstract

The trends in support of the natural environment in societies have accelerated due to the apparent deterioration of green nature as a result of the use of unclean energy sources by various companies. A wide segment of companies have responded to these trends demanding environmental protection by adopting green sustainability methods in their work. These methods have played an effective role in Providing a competitive advantage for these companies and reducing some of the costs. At the same time, researchers began writing studies and research related to this aspect in response to the requirements of working according to new methods that guarantee the protection of the green environment. From this standpoint, this research sought to answer the problem that asks about the extent of the impact of environmental auditing in supporting the methods and practices that it adopts. Environmental management policies? From this, the importance of this research becomes clear, as we hope that this research will be a reference for those wishing to engage in scientific studies in this regard, in addition to providing an explanation that shows the extent of the need to use environmental auditing practices or not, in terms of whether it is an important support for environmental management or not. From the above, it can be said that the main objectives of the research are to provide an illustrative presentation of the concepts of environmental management and clarify the impact of using its practices in societies, in addition to explaining environmental auditing as the independent variable in this research, whose impact on the dependent variable represented by environmental management will be tested through several statistical tables. To achieve these goals, the hypothesis will be tested that environmental auditing methods have a supportive role in supporting environmental management, which provides appropriate support for the sustainability of the natural environment. The descriptive analytical approach was adopted in clarifying the results of the statistical tables. The sample included academics and professionals, as well as experts and professionals in Iraqi cement factories. The research concluded a number of results, the most important of which is that environmental auditing is a positive influential factor towards supporting environmental management policies, which in turn works to push towards the sustainability of the green environment. The most important recommendations in this research also included the necessity of adopting environmental auditing in companies, whether as a basic item approved by external auditing or as internal auditing that supports environmental management and external auditing. The researcher suggested conducting future research to show the extent to which internal environmental auditing contributes to supporting the work of the external auditor. And the implications of adopting environmental auditing as part of the external audit items at the country level.