Impacts
An environmental impact is any change to the environment that results from the environmental aspects of an activity. Environmental impacts are the outcomes of an activity that affect the environment positively or negatively. For example, the activity of fertilizing a lawn can result in the aspect of chemicals being disposed off on the soil, and the disposed chemicals can contaminate the soil or seep into the ground and affect water quality. Therefore, the activity is “fertilizing the lawn”, its aspect is “chemical use and disposal”, and its impact is “soil or groundwater contamination”.
Identifying the aspects and impact of an activity requires knowing the inputs and outputs of the activity, the materials and resources (energy, water, etc) used, and reading the labels of materials to know the chemicals involved and their acceptable or unacceptable quantities of use, etc. For commercially available products such information is usually available from the suppliers or on product labels, and knowledge of environmental science, safety, health sciences, and regulations is necessary for analyzing the impacts.
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