The Environmental Audit of the Australian cotton industry was a bold initiative at a period in time when the industry was under severe pressure from well organised environmental lobby groups. One course of action could have been to "bury the head in the sand" based on the premise that the pressures would subside when the environmental fad lost momentum. This was not a course the industry regarded as tenable despite concerns within the industry that it would leave it even more vulnerable to attack. The audit was performed. The auditors chose to perform a "Scoping Audit", that is a broad view across the industry to look at the structure. initiatives and impact of the industry cm its environment as a whole. This is significantly different to on-site auditing where all input/outputs are monitored by chemical or physical analysis. The Audit was completed and released in October, 1991. It is now opportune to review the initial impact of the audit.