WSK produces chemicals for use in the agricultural sector, some which are highly toxic in

both liquid and gaseous states. They need to be safely stored on site after processing until they are shipped out to customers either by road or rail.

Analysis of recently published data, detailing the frequency and impact of earthquakes around the world, suggest that the likelihood of a strong earthquake occurring in the area where WSK has its only manufacturing and chemical storage facility is high. This very serious claim was made by the operations director at a recent board meeting following consultation with the senior scientific team. It has always been recognised that the WSK factory was situated in an area where earthquakes could occur, but the area had not experienced any major tremors for several years.

The possibility of an earthquake which could destroy the WSK factory and then cause a major environmental incident was of grave concern to the board, who decided that it needed to be fully evaluated and then effectively managed. The board asked the scientific team to calculate the probability of a toxic chemical emission being caused by an earthquake together with the consequential effects on the local environment and population, many of whom depended on WSK for employment and commercial activity. However, the scientific team were unable to provide any objective analysis to support their initial claim, they merely offered their best guess of what they perceived the risk to be.

The board concluded that this was inadequate, so they tasked the internal audit team to conduct an environmental audit, and to determine WSK’s environmental footprint.

Required:

(a) Evaluate the difficulties of risk perception, and describe the problems with the perception of risk shown by the scientific team at WSK. (8 marks)

(b) Explain the stages and benefits to WSK of conducting an environmental audit, and assess the importance of then reporting good quality information to the board. (10 marks)

(c) Explain the term environmental footprint, and assess how the activities of WSK contribute to its footprint. (7 marks)