An organization is involved in various CSR Activities. It wants to assess whether its CSR activities have realised its objectives as intended and want to engage you in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of its CSR act

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): The International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) defined EIA as the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made. The Association lays down the Principal Objectives of Environmental Impact Assessment as follows; To ensure that the environmental considerations are explicitly addressed and incorporated into the development decision making process; To anticipate and avoid, minimize or offset the adverse significant biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals; To protect the productivity and capacity of natural systems and the ecological processes which maintain their functions; and To promote development that is sustainable and optimizes resource use and management opportunities. There are eight guiding principles that govern the entire Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process: Participation: The process of EIA should provide ample opportunities to involve the interested and affected stakeholders, and their inputs and concerns should be addressed explicitly in the documentation and decision making. Transparency: The process should have clear, easily understood requirements for EIA content, ensure that information gathered and analyzed should have public access, identify the factors that are considered in decision making and acknowledge limitations and difficulties. Efficient: The Process should impose the minimum cost burdens in terms of time and finance on proponents and participants consistent with meeting accepted requirements and objectives of EIA. Accountability: The accountability of the decision made and action taken based on EIA should be upon the decision makers and appropriate environmental protection should be taken care off, any violation in same should be answered by the decision maker. Credibility: The process should be carried out with professionalism, rigour, fairness, objectivity, impartiality, and balance and be subject to independent checks and verification. Cost-Effective: The process should achieve the objectives of EIA within the limits of available information, time, resources, and methodology. Integrated: The process should address the interrelationships of social, economic, and biophysical aspects. Practicality: The process should result in information and outputs which assist with problem solving and are acceptable to and able to be implemented by proponents. Information/ outputs readily usable in decision making and planning is important.