Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance | Page 20 of 36

Aquam Corporation selects Locus Technologies software for IoT integration

Aquam Corporation integrates Locus software to Orbis Intelligent Systems platform, ensuring a robust, reliable, and secure data platform

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 5 June 2018 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for environmental compliance and sustainability management, will provide its IoT integration capability to Aquam Corporation (“Aquam”), a global provider of risk mitigation technologies for water and energy transmission and distribution assets, to create a robust data platform for its customers via Orbis Intelligent Systems. The Locus software will be integrated with the Orbis platform to allow interconnectivity across multiple devices, data streams, and geographical locations.

Orbis Intelligent Systems is positioned to be a market leader in infrastructure and water quality data-driven monitoring for commercial, domestic and utility applications.

“We chose Locus software for the reliability and data security that enables our technology platform to operate with robust, data-driven communication for all Aquam customers around the world to utilize. With the integration of rapidly scalable Locus software, we are at the forefront of IoT and well-positioned to offer asset ‘active management’—a core value to our customers and value proposition,” said Danny Krywyj, president for Orbis.

Locus Technologies’ multi-tenant cloud platform can help organizations to manage, organize, and monitor the structured and unstructured data coming from various sources. This allows customers to create a centralized data repository to analyze the key indicators for environmental data management, sustainability, and environmental compliance.

“Aquam Corporation will reap the benefits of IoT integration for monitoring data generated by different streaming devices, by centrally connecting these sources in a scalable cloud-based application for better managing compliance. Real-time monitoring of data directly and effectively solves many challenges related to smarter environmental management and sustainability initiatives,” said Wes Hawthorne, president of Locus Technologies.

ABOUT AQUAM CORPORATION

Aquam Corp is a global provider of technology solutions for water and energy distribution infrastructure. We ensure the health, longevity, safety, and reliability of vital resources for water and gas utility, municipal, commercial, residential, and industrial markets. Our award-winning proprietary technologies address water scarcity issues by the diagnosis, cleaning, and remediation of aging infrastructure. Aquam also provides end-to-end service solutions and technologies for the maintenance, life extension, and full rehabilitation of network distribution infrastructure, which include: Nu Flow Technologies, a leader in small-diameter infrastructure rehabilitation technologies; Specialized Pipe Technologies (SPT), a pipe assessment and rehabilitation services provider; Aquam Pipe Diagnostics, a global pipeline assessment specialist. Aquam services are available in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australasia, and the Middle East. For more information visit www.aquamcorp.com or contact aquam@missionC2.com.

Locus is ready for e-Manifest

EPA is establishing a national system for tracking hazardous waste shipments electronically. This system, known as “e-Manifest,” will modernize the nation’s cradle-to-grave hazardous waste tracking process. EPA is on schedule to launch e-Manifest on June 30, 2018.

Download the latest fact sheets for e-Manifest stakeholders.
These fact sheets provide an overview of the e-Manifest program and the impacts it will have on each stakeholder. Each fact sheet outlines basic information about the e-Manifest system, how the specific stakeholder will be impacted, and what actions they need to take to use the e-Manifest system.

Learn more about Locus’ Waste Management application.

Locus Technologies to offer its EHS multi-tenant SaaS Locus Platform on Amazon Web Services

Locus and AWS will simplify and expand how customers capture, analyze and take action on EHS compliance and sustainability activities

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 24 April 2018 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environmental compliance and sustainability management, today announced it will offer its award-winning EHS Locus Platform SaaS on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Locus announced it will deliver Locus SaaS services designed to simplify and expand how customers capture, analyze and take action on their data and EHS compliance activities. Additionally, Locus announced that the AWS US West (Oregon) Region will be the first new AWS Region supported in Locus’ planned international infrastructure expansion on AWS. Locus’ customers will be able to use the company’s core service—including Locus Platform and more—delivered on AWS, with general availability expected in May 2018. Locus Environmental Information Management (EIM) will be moved to AWS in early 2019.

Locus also plans to deliver integrations that will connect the Locus Platform with AWS Internet of Things (IoT), Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). Locus intends to leverage AWS IoT by building a new native integration to help businesses generate value from the billions of events generated by connected devices such as real-time environmental monitoring sensors and environmental treatment systems controls.

AWS IoT is a set of cloud services that let connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications like Locus Platform and other devices. Locus IoT Cloud will connect with AWS IoT to combine device data with customer data in Locus Platform, allowing businesses to create meaningful customer experiences based on real-time activity and emissions monitoring across all their connected sensors and devices.

For example, a water utility company that maintains millions of IoT-enabled sensors for water flow, pressure, pH, or other water quality measuring devices across their dispersed facilities can use AWS IoT combined with Locus Platform as a whole solution to ingest and manage the data generated by those sensors and devices, and interpret it in real time. By combining water sensor data from AWS IoT with Locus IoT customer data, the water utility company will be able to automatically create an emergency shutdown if chemical or other exceedances or device faults are detected and will be better prepared to serve their customers.

By combining the powerful, actionable intelligence and rapid responsiveness through Locus Platform with the scalability and fast-query performance of AWS, customers can seamlessly analyze large datasets on arrival in real time. This will allow Locus’ customers to instantly explore information, find insights, and take actions from a greater variety and volume of data—all without investing the significant time and resources required to administer a self-managed on-premises data warehouse.

Locus Platform offers a highly configurable, user-friendly interface to fully meet individual organizations’ environmental management needs. “Locus Platform, when combined with the power and security of AWS, can improve companies’ data collection, analysis, and most importantly, reporting capabilities, resulting in streamlined EH&S compliance and the mitigation of regulatory risks and fines.” said Wes Hawthorne, President, Locus Technologies.

Shipping industry to discuss cuts in CO2 emissions

International shipping produces about 1,000 million tons of CO2 annually – that’s more than the entire German economy.

A meeting of the International Maritime Organisation in London that starts tomorrow will discuss how shipping industry can radically reduce its CO2 emissions. The shipping industry, if it does not change the way it operates, will contribute almost a fifth of the global total of CO2 by 2050. A group of nations led by Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Panama, and Argentina is resisting CO2 targets for shipping. Their submission to the meeting says capping ships’ overall emissions would restrict world trade. It might also force goods on to less efficient forms of transport. This argument is dismissed by other countries which believe shipping could benefit from a shift towards cleaner technology. European nations are proposing to shrink shipping emissions by 70-100 percent of their 2008 levels by 2050.

The problem has developed over many years. As the shipping industry is international, it evades the carbon-cutting influence of the annual UN talks on climate change, which are conducted on a national basis. Instead, the decisions have been left to the IMO; a body recently criticized for its lack of accountability and transparency. The IMO did agree on a design standard in 2011 ensuring that new ships should be 30 percent more efficient by 2025. But there is no rule to reduce emissions from the existing fleet.

The Clean Shipping Coalition, a green group focusing on ships, said shipping should conform to the agreement made in Paris to stabilize the global temperature increase as close as possible to 1.5C. The pressure is on the IMO to produce an ambitious policy. The EU has threatened that if the IMO doesn’t move far enough, the EU will take over regulating European shipping. That would see the IMO stripped of some of its authority.

Some say huge improvements in CO2 emissions from existing ships can be easily be made by obliging them to travel more slowly. They say a carbon pricing system is needed.

Webinar: IoT technology for enhanced environmental compliance

IoT is considered one of the fastest growing trends in technology and has a potentially huge impact to automate how we manage water quality, air emissions and other key environmental performance indicators for data monitoring.

EHS&S in the age of blockchain technology

Blockchain is a highly disruptive technology that promises to change the world as we know it, much like the World Wide Web’s impact after its introduction in 1991. As companies look to the blockchain model to perform financial transactions, trade stocks, and create open market spaces, many other industries are looking at utilizing blockchain technology to eliminate the middleman. One sector well-positioned to benefit from blockchain technology is the data-intensive Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHS&S) space.

In particular, I see three major ways that the EHS industry can utilize blockchain technology to change how they manage information: 1) Blockchain-based IoT monitoring, 2) emissions management, and 3) emissions trading.

My belief is that blockchain technology will help to quantify the impact of man-made emissions on global warming trends and provide tools to manage it. One cannot manage what one cannot measure!

Imagine this: every emissions source in your company, whether to water, air, or soil, is connected wirelessly via a sensor or another device (thing) to a blockchain ledger that stores a description of the source, its location, emission factors, etc. Every time that the source generates emissions (that is, it is on), all necessary parameters are recorded in real time. If air emissions are involved, equivalent tons of carbon are calculated and recorded in a blockchain ledger and made available to reporting and trading entities in real time.

Blockchain ledgers may exist at many levels. Some may record emissions at a given site. Others at higher levels (company, state or province, country, continent, etc.) may roll up information from lower level ledgers.

Suppose that emissions are traded so that they are not yours anymore. In that case, someone else owns them, and you do not need to report them again, but everyone knows that you were the generating source. The same logic can be applied to tier 1, 2, and 3 level emissions. Attached to the emissions ledger are all other necessary information about the asset generating those emissions, financial information, depreciation schedule, time in service, operating time, fuel consumption, operators’ names, an estimate of future emissions—the list goes on.

To learn more how blockchain technology will impact emissions monitoring, management, reporting, and trading click here.

Salt River Project selects Locus SaaS for waste information management

Locus Platform provides “out-of-the-box” configurable software to streamline SRP’s Waste Management compliance tracking and reporting

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 27 February 2018 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in EHS, sustainability, and compliance management software, is pleased to announce that Salt River Project (SRP) selected the multi-tenant SaaS Locus Platform to streamline its waste management and tracking, as part of its ongoing environmental stewardship and sustainability initiatives. A key factor for SRP was the “out-of-the-box” configurability of Locus Platform, plus the ability to perform their own data migrations and build APIs to integrate with internal tools, such as their LIMS system.

“The scalable, easy-to-use configuration in Locus Platform will allow us to standardize our waste management and reporting process, and integrating with Locus Mobile will simplify data collection and container management at our waste-generating facilities,” said Noah Manwaring, environmental systems development lead at SRP.

”Locus Platform will help our Waste Management resources to more effectively track, manage, and report information to regulatory agencies, facility managers, and corporate staff, and we can completely customize the solution using the built-in Configuration Workbench tool.”

Locus Platform’s Waste application allows waste-generating facilities to manage waste cradle to grave—including waste streams, processes, detailed profiles, container details and weights, and storage locations—and to produce various report outputs like labels, manifests, and LDR generation.

At the enterprise level, powerful dashboards and reports show users how each facility is generating and managing its waste, and built-in labeling and tracking streamlines workflows to create a full EHS compliance solution.

“By taking our existing Waste application and adding in their API integrations, SRP is combining the advantages of off-the-shelf software with Locus Platform’s powerful configuration tools. This means SRP will get exactly the software solution they need to fit their business processes,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus.

Locus Technologies receives the prestigious EBJ Award for innovation and growth for 12 consecutive years

Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognized the firm for record sales and innovation in automating compliance and sustainability at enterprise level

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 8 February 2018 — Locus Technologies, a leading provider of multi-tenant, SaaS-based EHS software, was awarded its 12th consecutive award by Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) for growth and innovation in the field of Information Technology. EBJ is a business research publication providing high-value strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry. Locus received the award for reporting record sales of its multi-tenant, SaaS-based EHS software as an independent company, while most of its competitors were bought out, merged, or disappeared.

In 2017, Locus launched a SaaS financial management application on Locus Platform for Honeywell International, a long-term customer of their Locus EIM and ePortal products. The app will help Honeywell to better manage their environmental liability risk management and purchase orders associated with environmental projects. Locus also released an upgraded Sustainability app for Locus Platform, which allows XML submission to multiple climate programs and tracking/reporting of sustainability indicators.

Locus’ products are evolving to support the future of EHS software, which will inevitably comprise AI, IoT, and virtual reality applications. The company intends to revolutionize the way its EHS software is automating compliance and sustainability at the enterprise level.

“We are honored to receive the EBJ Information Technology award once again, and we shall continue to build robust solutions in the emerging space of cloud and mobile-based environmental information management and EHS compliance,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies.

Along with Locus Platform, Locus’ flagship Environmental Information Management (EIM) software service continues to grow with new customers in the mining, water utilities, water engineering, and US DOE environmental surveillance sectors.

The world’s most sustainable companies

One notable difference among attendees of the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland last month was the presence of Chief Sustainability Officers in much larger number than ever before.

This makes sense given the themes of many of the discussions. None more than a panel that focused on integrating sustainability risk into enterprise risk management.

This is an important evolution for the sustainability community—one that we welcome at Locus and are working with our clients to achieve using our fully-integrated, multi-tenant software platform.

Just in time for the World Economic Forum, an annual assessment of the world’s most sustainable companies emerges, highlighting large firms from around the world whose sustainability in various categories puts them in a league of their own.

The report, now in its fourteenth year of publication, is compiled by Corporate Knights, a Canada-based financial information company and magazine with a focus on how business and societal and ecological benefits can go hand in hand.

In compiling its report, Corporate Knights looked to publicly-disclosed data—financial filings, sustainability reports, etc.—from some 6,000 financially healthy companies across the globe, in all industries, with minimum annual revenue of $1 billion. Key factors Corporate Knight included in its analysis included energy use, carbon, waste, and clean air production. Top 900 companies were contacted for data verification before the results were boiled down to a final 100.

Topping the list this year was Dassault Systemes, a French firm that designs engineering software to assist organizations in waste reduction.

Behind Dassault is Neste, a Finnish company that deals in renewable diesel and other petroleum products. Within the next five years, according to Corporate Knights, more than half of its revenue will come from renewable fuel and bio-material.

Overall, the U.S.-based companies held 18 spots in the ranking.

Thinking of buying configurable EHS software? Make sure to focus on the right questions

As most people researching EHS software know, the words “configurable”, “multi-tenant”, and “platform” are being discussed everywhere. There are plenty of other great discussions on Platform as a Service (PaaS) and multi-tenancy. Let’s look at some tips for getting the most out of configurable software.

Ask yourself “What sets us apart?”

A key question to ask (as soon as you start thinking about configurable software) is “what sets my company apart?” What special challenges or circumstances make your EHS needs more nuanced or complex?

Are you in an industry or segment of the industry that may have unique tracking and reporting needs? Maybe you are an organic milk producer or only manufacture snacks from sustainable sources following global fair-trade policies. These more specialized practices may require additional or unique reporting to maintain accreditation.
Do you handle non-standard materials in highly regulated environments (such as radioactive materials, for example) that impose additional handling, tracking, disposal, and reporting requirements?
Are you a global enterprise with highly variable reporting needs in multiple jurisdictions? Or are you operating in a location with demanding local regulations?
Are you operating in an uncertain regulatory environment?

These are just a few of the things that could set EHS customers apart. The more unique or specialized tracking and reporting needs you have, the more you will value the ability to have software easily configured for requirements that are typically not supported in “off-the-shelf” solutions.

Most modern software handles the “basics” very well, but when you have unique or emerging needs—including future needs that you don’t even know about yet—having a configurable option really pays off.

When needs change, configurable software can be updated easily and quickly by the vendor or even your own in-house staff, saving time and avoiding the agony of “waiting for the next release”. And, best of all, those changes can be done by trained configuration staff, without the need for software developers and the cost and time usually associated with software development.

Follow best practices and engage with industry peers

Learning and internalizing industry best practices, a hallmark of the EHS professional association NAEM and its outreach events, can help any software buyer make better choices and evaluate software features, platforms, and key differentiators. Check out the excellent library of resources, including publications, newsletters, and webinars from industry peers. By taking advantage of shared industry knowledge, you can dramatically streamline and expedite your search for the right solutions.

One word of caution: many industry publications can be influenced by sponsors. This is not only true in the EHS domain, but in all industry expert reviews. That’s why actually talking and comparing notes with industry colleagues is an invaluable resource to get beyond the reviews and hear about real-life experiences with the EHS domain itself and the software options that others have actually used.

If you’re looking for advice on how configurable software may be used to address your EHS needs, talking to actual software users will help. Locus, along with many other vendors and hundreds of EHS professionals, routinely attends NAEM’s EHS and Sustainability Software and Data Management Conference in order to meet with potential customers and dive into any questions you may have.

Know the boundaries of configurability

“Configurable” means something different to each software vendor. Some will say “everything is configurable”—for a price. Others will tell you that you can change report names and add a few fields to outputs, and they call this being “configurable”.

Ask the vendor to explain in detail exactly what can easily be configured—and what is “off limits” and requires actual development effort (i.e., additional cost). You might ask:

Are application workflows easy to change, along with associated notifications and audit tracking?
Can I change my forms to add five new sections with new lookup values? Will the update be automatically reflected on my mobile forms?
Can I create an entire new application for tracking volume of green recycling vs. plastics (or anything else you need to track)? Will the new application show up on the mobile app, or is that a separate configuration?
Can the user interface look different based on the user’s role in the application? For example, could I streamline the interface for my technicians so they only see what is relevant for them?
Can I change the filter selections on my dashboard reports? How about the charts? Can I add new charts?

By knowing the software’s limitations, you can make better choices on the best fit for your current (and future!) needs. Your software vendor may also identify new configurable features that you hadn’t considered before, but that would greatly improve the usability of the software. Even if you don’t need these options now, knowing you have access to them in the future is critical when selecting software.

Beware the illusion of “the perfect fit”

As we’ve established, “configurable” software can mean anything—from a total blank slate and empty platform, to changing a title of a single data entry field, and everything in between. A “blank slate” may excite more technical people who love to tinker in software programs. For others, the thought of building their software from the ground up might elicit general fear and discomfort.

Most customers want something off-the-shelf that perfectly meets their needs. Honestly, who can disagree? That is the gold standard and what everyone wants. In reality, this solution is hard to find—especially for customers with unique need—and often the software tools that address those unique needs are so focused on a particular niche that they neglect some of the other, more basic EHS needs you might have.

The good news is that configurable software provides almost unlimited options for customers, and it can make a huge difference in how the software fits into your EHS workflow. With some solutions on the market today, you could choose to build one application from a blank slate and make minor tweaks to another pre-built application in the same software.

One of the common pitfalls that EHS professionals frequently encounter in selecting a software solution for a specialized need is the tendency to narrow their options down to limited set tailored to their specific industry. For example, if your organization has requirements for refrigerant handling, you might feel constrained to selecting a solution with specific “out-of-the-box” capabilities for that need. Considering the configurability of the software may allow you to consider new and more robust options, and some simple configurations to an existing chemical inventory application could address your refrigerant reporting needs even more accurately, within a single EHS platform.

Change is inevitable—make sure your software can handle it

Many customers will buy existing applications that meet their general needs, but eventually realize they need another form, a mobile solution, or changes for new regulations. Anyone in the EHS industry knows this is the norm rather than the exception.

According to Forbes, federal departments, agencies, and commissions issued 3,853 rules in 2016, while Congress passed and the president signed 214 bills into law—a ratio of 18 rules for every law. That’s just at the federal level. It’s not hard to imagine the amount of change when you factor in state and local rules and requirements.

Over the anticipated implementation life for your EHS software, you can be reasonably assured that the EHS requirements for your organization are going to be changed in some way. Some of these changes you can anticipate, but not all. Given such routine change, you can safely assume that the more configuration options you have, the more prepared you’ll be for those changes. You’ll be in a better position if you know you can configure your software quickly, rather than waiting for a scheduled vendor update that may be out of your control.

Develop a vision of success—for today and tomorrow

Configurable software can be an effective, sustainable long-term management and reporting solution that integrates smoothly into your existing EHS workflows, but it does require you to do your homework.

You can set yourself up for success with some initial reflection and examination of your organization’s unique needs, a few conversations with industry peers, a healthy skepticism of seemingly perfect “out-of-the-box” solutions, and a willingness to ask tough questions of potential software vendors. Think ahead to the future challenges and regulatory changes that might impact your organization, and make sure your potential software vendor has provided evidence that you’ll be able to handle these changes through configuration. Take the time to truly imagine your perfect application and EHS workflow, and ask the vendor to show how it can be possible through configurability. And finally, don’t be afraid to think outside the box!

About guest blogger— Marian Carr, Locus Technologies

Ms. Carr is responsible for managing overall customer solution deployments and customer relationships with Locus’ government accounts. Her career at Locus includes heading the product development team of the award-winning cloud-based environmental ePortal solution as well as maintaining and growing key customer accounts with Locus’ Fortune 100 enterprise deployments. In addition, Ms. Carr was instrumental in driving the growth and adoption of the Locus EIM platform with key federal and water organizations.