The search for sustainable development has transformed environmental policies around the world, including in Brazil, where compulsory environmental audits are found to assist the environmental agency in diagnosing compliance with legal conditions and the environmental licensing of companies. Although there are different methodologies for evaluating companies' environmental performance, none guarantees real environmental quality in their operations, calling into question the validity of the evaluations, whether for the lack of quantitative and qualitative analyses or even the lack of standardization of the evaluation methodologies of these directives. Thus, this study analyzed four environmental audit reports prepared according to INEA Guideline 056 (Revision 3) to identify relevant elements for the environmental performance evaluation process of companies in the maritime sector. We discovered good practices developed by ANTAQ to qualify the interaction of maritime units with the environment that have the potential to improve the environmental performance assessment process proposed by Guideline 056. Therefore, we conclude that the reports analyzed did not thoroughly discuss the environmental performance of the companies, and thus, we indicate the EPI-ANTAQ as the basis for the performance evaluations related to Guideline 056.
Keywords: INEA Directive DZ 056; ABNT Standard ISO 14001:2015; ANTAQ Environmental Performance Index.