NPI reporting is triggered facility by facility, not company by company. The obligation sits with the occupier of each facility that trips a threshold.
Key points
- The occupier of each facility carries the obligation
- Operational control decides who the occupier is
- A threshold must be exceeded and the ANZSIC industry covered
- Every substance that trips a threshold must be reported
- Some activities, such as petrol retailers, are excluded
Who the occupier is
The NPI NEPM defines the occupier as the person in occupation or control of a facility, whether or not that person is the owner. Where a business entity has operational control of a facility, that entity is the occupier. Operational control means the entity, or one of its subsidiaries, has full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the facility.
NGER also uses operational control, but defines it as the authority to introduce and implement operating, health and safety or environmental policies, and uses it to decide which corporation reports. The two tests can point to different entities, so each must be applied on its own terms.
When a facility must report
Two conditions must both be met:
- the facility exceeds a reporting threshold for at least one NPI substance in the reporting period, and
- the facility’s activity falls under an ANZSIC code that participating jurisdictions have agreed, the Commonwealth has published, and for which industry reporting materials have been published.
Once industry reporting materials covering an ANZSIC code are published, every facility under that code that exceeds a threshold must report, even if its particular type of facility is not described in the manual. Once a threshold is tripped, the facility must report every substance whose threshold it exceeds. Reporting fewer substances than were triggered is not compliant.
Facilities that are excluded
Clause 9(11) of the NEPM excludes some facilities from reporting even if they exceed a threshold. These are mobile sources operating outside a fixed facility, petrol retailers, dry cleaners with fewer than 20 employees, scrap metal traders that do not smelt or reprocess batteries, and agricultural production other than processing and intensive livestock.
An EPA licence is not the test
NPI reporting does not depend on holding an environmental licence. EPA Victoria and EPA South Australia both state that a business may need to report even if it is not licensed.
Why it matters
Because the obligation follows operational control rather than ownership, a contractor or operator running a site for its owner may be the occupier. Joint ventures and outsourced operations should confirm in writing who holds operational control and therefore who lodges each report.
References & sources
Primary regulatory documents and authoritative references underpinning this answer.
- DCCEEW: Reporting emissions and transfersdcceew.gov.au
- DCCEEW: Industry reporting frequently asked questionsdcceew.gov.au
- National Environment Protection (National Pollutant Inventory) Measure 1998legislation.gov.au
- DCCEEW: National Pollutant Inventory Guide (Version 6.1)dcceew.gov.au
- EPA Victoria: National Pollutant Inventory reportingepa.vic.gov.au
- National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007legislation.gov.au