Our Approach
The Areas Environmental Audit program and CFEMS plan was originally developed by Straughan Environmental for Areas USA in 2017 to summarize the progress Areas USA made in the previous fiscal year in all areas of environmental management, required by contract or local, state, and/or federal regulations. Straughan was retained once again in 2022 to audit the environmental management performance of Areas USA and its subsidiary, Sunoco LP, on continuous improvement efforts on its I-95 travel plazas and provide transparency in response to disclosure requests by stakeholders (including regulators, investors, industry groups) with current and verifiable environmental performance information. The project involved further coordination with Areas and MDTA to clarify documentation and environmental compliance, gather as much information as possible, and consolidate that information into the main deliverable, the final Third-Party Environmental Compliance Self-Audit report for FY 2021-2022.
Straughan updated checklists of regulatory and CFEMS requirements based on the annual audit program as designed by Straughan in 2017, reviewed updates to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR), performed the environmental audit, and assembled a final Audit Report to submit to Areas. This audit report summarized the results for both plazas, the Maryland House and the Chesapeake House, and any changes that needed to be made to ensure continued environmental compliance. Straughan also completed a site visit to both travel plazas to gather photo documentation of licenses and permits as well as photograph bioretention facilities to evaluate stormwater management practices.
