The main environmental components are:
- Atmospheric air and atmosphere
- The waters
- Soil
- Subsoil, including underground resources
- The landscape
- Natural objects
- The mineral diversity
- Biodiversity and its elements

Below we will look in more detail at 3 of these components - air, water and soil. They are essential for determining the quality of life of people and for business development. The topic of biodiversity, because of its particular importance, is given special attention in another section.

Air

The air forming the atmosphere (the gaseous medium enveloping our planet) is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% argon. There is also water vapor in the air, ranging from 1 to 3% of its volume. Air also contains very small amounts of other gases, including carbon dioxide (0.0314%), neon (0.0018%), methane (0.0002%), helium, krypton, hydrogen, etc.

Currently nearly 92% of the world's population breathes dirty air. Fine particle pollution and household pollution resulting from the burning of solid fuels in homes for cooking or heating lead to a range of health problems.

Air pollution is the second leading cause of death among all global health risk factors after high blood pressure, followed by smoking, diabetes and obesity.

Dust is a major air pollutant, with the main sources being industry, transport and energy. It enters the body primarily through the respiratory system, with coarser particles trapped in the upper respiratory tract and finer particles (less than 10 micrometres - PM10) reaching the lower respiratory tract, causing damage to lung tissue. Children, adults and people with chronic lung disease, influenza or asthma are particularly sensitive to high levels of PM10. PM2.5 is an even finer dust that penetrates the alveoli of the lungs and cannot be expelled.

Other air pollutants are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen and nitrogen oxides, ammonia, methane, hydrocarbons, ozone and many others.

Multiple strategies to reduce air emissions are possible:
- Increasing the share of energy produced from renewable energy sources (water, solar, wind, etc.)
- Improving the energy efficiency of production by replacing obsolete machinery with new, more energy efficient machinery
- Improving the thermal insulation of buildings to reduce energy demand
- Replacement of solid or liquid fuel heating appliances (e.g. coal and wood stoves) with those that do not release harmful emissions into the air and many others

Lead

Water is an extremely important component of the environment and has a huge impact on life and economic activity. They are used for energy development (electricity generation), metallurgy, chemical, cement, textile, pulp and paper and food industries. They also play an important role in agriculture for irrigating arable farmland during the dry summer months. They are also a necessity for the villages, for drinking and domestic purposes.

Contamination of surface water and groundwater is of a different nature and can affect the respective ecosystems differently. In general, they manifest themselves in the following ways:
- Lowering the oxygen content of the water below levels needed to maintain the viability of the aquatic ecosystem
- An increase in the amount of nutrients in the water, whereby some organisms are tolerated over others and the balance is disturbed; the presence of biologically active substances that affect certain organisms or populations; the introduction of substances that affect chemical relationships in the aquatic system
- Increase in the amount of solid particles, which reduces light transmittance and lowers photosynthetic activity
- Thermal impact - when water is introduced at a temperature different from that of the receiver, population changes occur in the basin
- Radioactive contamination - adversely affects the cellular processes of organisms

This degradation of the quality of water resources is the result of the impacts of economic activity on them. The protection of natural and drinking water quality is a primary task of society to ensure healthy living conditions for individuals and a high standard of public health.

Soil

Soil is the top layer of the Earth's crust, lying between bedrock and the surface, consisting of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms. It is responsible for sustaining vital ecosystem functions, playing a major role in the production of food and renewable materials such as wood, providing habitat for subterranean and aboveground biodiversity, filtering and levelling water runoff to water bodies, removing pollutants and reducing the frequency and risk of floods and droughts.

Soil degradation is the process of adverse changes in the structure and/or physico-chemical properties of the soil, leading to the impairment of its ability to perform ecological, economic, social and cultural functions, such as:
- Biomass production, including agriculture and forestry
- Storage, filtration and transformation of nutrients and water
- Source of raw materials and supplies
- Physical and cultural environment for people and their activities
- Conservation of the biodiversity (habitat, species and genes) of carbon stocks and of the geological and archaeological heritage

Soil conservation, use and restoration is based on the following principles:
- Ecosystem and integrated approach
- Sustainable use of soils
- Priority of preventive controls to prevent or limit damage to soils and their functions
- Implementation of good soil use practices
- Public awareness of the environmental and economic benefits of protecting soils from damage and of measures to protect them