Ethics is not synonymous with either legal compliance or corporate social responsibility (CSR). Ethics involve long term, unchanging values that are not culturally or geographically determined. Examples include respect for life, property, and the environment. By way of contrast, corporate social responsibility is an expression of culturally-determined, changing and changeable values. Appropriate health, child labour, and environmental practices, expectations or corporate best practices are an evolving product of social, religious, national, technological or other considerations. What is morally right in Teheran is often different in Tokyo, Toronto, and Timmins. What is common practice or legal in one jurisdiction may be unethical as well as immoral in not only another but also in that same location. There are three hierarchical levels of CSR - company standards, best practice, and international ethical standards. Be cautious of attempting to fully assess or understand a company's standards by only its own criteria. Or by assuming that best practice in that activity or economic sector is necessarily the desirable or optimal practice in the mind of other important stakeholders.

The purpose of an environmental audit is to "identify, implement and reward eco-positive behaviour" as well as "to cumulatively 'green' an organization by building upon such successes" (The Corporate Ethics Monitor, Volume 1, Issue 2, page 9). An environmental audit, much like a financial audit, allows management to see which programs are working and which programs need to be improved in order to further both the financial and environmental elements of the organization's environmental management system. Environmental audits tend to be "technologically sophisticated studies, often performed by engineering specialists and environmental scientists" (The Corporate Ethics Monitor, Volume 2, Issue 1, page 10).

Environmental self-audits (ESA) on the other hand tend to be conducted by employees who work together to come up with multiple solutions to environmental problems they encounter daily at work. Therefore, an ESA is action-driven rather than analysis-driven and tends to focus on small, easily solvable problems rather than on the big picture of the company's environmental management system like an environmental audit does. There are obvious benefits to both types of audits. An environmental audit is regarded as more authoritative and comprehensive if it is conducted by an independent consultant, using international protocols and standards, independently verified, and publicly disclosed. Corporations that are serious about 'going green' should consider conducting both on a regular basis to continue to improve their environmental management systems.