The industrial development, spurred by the rapid advancements in technology and economic growth, has caused a negative impact on the environment. To control these impacts, many organizations have taken initiatives to report ecological and environmental performance, and studies have found that most of the companies also audit there environmental reports independent of the financial reports.

The ‘Audit-Report’ in the current issue of the WISTA: Environment Audit, based as it is on a paper by Ienciu Ionel Alin and colleagues of Babes Bolyai University, highlights the environmental audit and environmental risk involved while auditing financial statement. A model, as development by the authors for environmental accounting and audit of information, has also been reported.

In Focus’ deals with climate change and sea level rise. Though level of the sea at the shoreline is determined by many factors that operate on a wide range of time scales, yet some of the influences that impact on the average levels of the sea are linked to climate change processes. As per Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a rising sea level can have a wide range of impacts on coastal environment and infrastructure. The feature presents in brief the possible impact of sea rise on countries like the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Nauru islands and Maldives.

The ‘Audit Guide’ presents the results of verification tests conducted by NSF International on behalf of US Environmental Agency on the ‘Big Fish Environmental Septage and High Strength Wastewater Processing System’ developed by the Big Fish Environmental, LLC of Charlevoix, USA. All the evaluations were carried out in accordance with the vigorous quality assurance protocols to ensure defensiblity of results

Other Features covered are : New Technologies; New Products; Water; Solid/Hazardous Waste; Legal Scene; Crime and Damage; Awards; Energy Scene; Health; Forest & Wildlife; Scan Around The Globe; Experts Converge; and Knowledge Spreads.

We wish our readers a happy, healthy and intellectually rewarding Year 2011

Dr. K V Swaminathan

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS TEAM

Mr K N Julka - Sr Res Fellow
Mr Suresh Kumar - Joint Director
Mr D. P. Singh- Jt Director
Mr S S Kalra - Director

This publication aims at disseminating information on pertinent developments in its specific field of coverage. The information published does not, therefore, imply endorsement of any product /process / producer or technology by WITT.