The Value of True SaaS for EHS Compliance

What if there was a better way to manage your EHS, compliance, and sustainability information?

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Rogue Disposal & Recycling, Inc. Selects Locus Technologies’ ePortal Software for Compliance Management

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 12 August 2013 — Rogue Disposal & Recycling, Inc. (Rogue), a company that’s been providing Southern Oregon with innovative solid waste disposal and recycling services for over 73 years, has selected Locus Technologies’ cloud-based ePortal software for its compliance management.Rogue will use ePortal to take a more holistic view of its operations, and to proactively manage all compliance activities associated with its Dry Creek Landfill site. The company’s decision to use ePortal for compliance management stems from its continuous commitment to environmental responsibility. Rogue has always strived to become an environmentally conscious leader, and has enacted various innovative “green” policies and programs in order to do its part to both improve and protect the environment.

“Rogue’s overall goal is to be the leading environmental company in Southern Oregon,” said Lee Fortier, Dry Creek Landfill’s General Manager. “Locus’ ePortal system will help us to actively monitor all of our environmental compliance activities as we embrace the environmental regulations as our minimum commitment to our clients.”

“We are very pleased Rogue has chosen Locus to assist it with managing its compliance,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “We believe Rogue will reap the benefits of tracking and reporting on all compliance activities in a single cloud-based secure system.”

About Rogue Disposal & Recycling, Inc.
Rogue management’s goal is to be the greenest company in Southern Oregon. The company has worked hard to become an environmentally conscious leader by continually looking at ways to both improve and protect the environment. The company features: solar panels at its main transfer station facility to produce clean, renewable energy; two waste collection trucks powered entirely by compressed natural gas (CNG); and the innovative Dry Creek Landfill gas-to-energy facility that converts methane gas from landfill refuse to electrical energy. Rogue is dedicated to new technology and the best management practices that exceed governmental mandates in a continued effort to provide superior service, affordable rates and a commitment to recycling and environmental protection.

Metals and Mining Companies must Work Ahead to Manage Water Risks

According to analysis from Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Eurizon Capital, metals and mining companies that take action now to manage their water risks will be much better off financially in the future.

The research findings state that water stress is the most reported risk to operations- being identified as so by more than two-thirds of the sample. The majority of participating businesses were severely hit by water-related issues in the past five years, and almost half of the companies expect water stress to affect their businesses in the next five years. Also, with these negative water impacts comes increased spending.

However, the CDP report also finds that companies that manage and report on these water issues are also the ones that experience better financial returns. Companies that properly plan for the future get to avoid the increased operating costs, lower revenues, and decreased shareholder value that comes along with poor water stewardship.

An inadequate volume or quality of water can significantly decrease access to commodity reserves that are essential to the business operations of mining and metals companies. With such an important resource, it is obviously critical that it be properly managed and reported on. Luckily, there are tools that exist today, such as Locus’ robust environmental management software systems, that can help these companies effectively manage their water risks.

Cloud Apps Critical Requirement No. 2: Regularly Delivered, Vendor-Managed Updates–Rolling Upgrade Program

A cloud application is a single version of software that is regularly updated, often several times a year, for all customers. To realize the true cost benefits of SaaS, the provider should be managing all of those elements to adopt the latest capabilities in the updates on their own timelines. Software that has to be upgraded at the customer’s expense, even if the vendor hosts it, does not meet the requirements for a cloud application.

The update v. upgrade approach benefits both the vendor and the customer. The customer is not burdened by IT upgrade projects, while the vendor can focus on what it does best, which is maintain its own software. Vendors have a strong technical understanding of the software they developed, but the on-site world requires vendors to share this knowledge with customers, which is not an easy feat. When customers do not have deep insight into the software, or have difficulty obtaining employees or contract workers skilled to work on that software, the result can be problematic and even result in failed upgrades.

Vendor-managed updates deliver continuous improvement and allow companies to stay compliant with new laws and regulations. Traditional software vendors might offer some big, new changes every four to five years. With Locus, for example, customers receive consistent improvements through updates several times a year, and do not have to pay extra for any of them.

Locus Achieves a Microsoft Gold Application Development Competency

Locus demonstrates best-in-class capability and market leadership through demonstrated technology success and customer commitment

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 30 July 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, today announced it has attained a Gold Application Development competency, demonstrating a “best-in-class” ability and commitment to meet Microsoft Corp. customers’ evolving needs in today’s dynamic business environment and distinguishing itself within the top one percent of Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.

To earn a Microsoft gold competency, partners must successfully complete exams (resulting in Microsoft Certified Professionals) to prove their level of technology expertise, and then designate these certified professionals uniquely to one Microsoft competency, ensuring a certain level of staffing capacity. They also must submit customer references that demonstrate successful projects (along with implementing a yearly customer satisfaction study), meet a revenue commitment, and pass technology and/or sales assessments.

“This Microsoft Gold Application Development competency showcases our expertise in and commitment to today’s technology market and to providing our customers with the most advanced technology and functionality available,” said Neno Duplan, President & CEO of Locus. “We plan to accelerate our customers’ environmental data management success by combining this and other advanced web technologies with our deep domain expertise.”

“By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top one percent of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology.”

Earning the Application Development competency helps partners differentiate themselves as a trusted expert to their customers through development and deployment of commercial or custom applications built using core Microsoft technologies.

Locus Ranked Second Largest Environmental Firm in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Business Journal ranked the biggest environmental firms by the number of professionals in Silicon Valley. Locus Technologies is second out of twenty-five.

Preliminary Fracking Study Boasts Promising Results

A recent federal study on hydraulic fracking has brought a small victory to the natural gas industry. The study, conducted by the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, shows no evidence of chemicals from the natural gas drilling process contaminating drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site.

After one year of monitoring, researchers found that potentially harmful drilling fluid chemicals have stayed approximately one mile beneath any drinking water supplies. This conclusion was reached by tagging drilling fluids with specific markers, and injecting them 8,000 feet into the ground. After closely tracking these fluids, it was ultimately concluded that they did not reach any higher than 3,000 feet below the surface.

This study is a first of its kind; never before has a drilling company permitted government scientists to monitor fracking fluids like this. However, the study is still ongoing and the results remain preliminary at this time. While the findings may be a boost of confidence for the natural gas industry, they do not mean that fracking can’t be a form of pollution.

Despite the promising results, reservations still linger. The fact remains that many aspects of the drilling process can cause pollution when not managed properly. Also, a lack of transparency by drilling companies in revealing certain chemical formulas often leaves the public feeling uneasy.

The preliminary results of this study will not erase the controversy surrounding fracking overnight, but they do pose a few important takeaways. For example, one such key point is that the best way to avoid possible danger and contamination from fracking is to engage in it responsibly, and continuously monitor water quality around drilling sites. This way if leaks do occur, they will be discovered early and contained. Early detection of water contamination is just as crucial as it is with many debilitating diseases. With early detection a cure could be quick and simple, whereas if it goes undetected, the chances of a positive outcome diminish with time. A similar analogy holds true for subsurface water contamination as well.

When it comes to fracking, monitoring for leaks is key and a small price to pay in order to guarantee the protection of our water resources. Designing a comprehensive monitoring program to ensure the proper management of applicable fluids and chemicals is critical for natural gas drilling. With the swift advancements in technology today, companies engaging in fracking are able to take advantage of state-of-the-art software systems, such as Locus’, to assist with the tracking and organization of this pertinent information. The more that this takes place, the more secure we will all be from the potential negative effects of fracking.

Locus Featured in Sustainability Management Software Report by Independent Analyst Firm Verdantix

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 17 July 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has been recognized as one of the top 15 global sustainability management software suppliers in the report “Green Quadrant® Sustainability Management Software, July 2013.” This report by Verdantix, an independent analyst firm who provide data, analysis and advice in the areas of energy, environment and sustainability, reveals that Locus offers solid data management and sustainability reporting capabilities.The Verdantix report acknowledges Locus for its strengths in data input, data management, and data modeling. Locus has been a strong presence within the industry for more than 15 years now, and continues to present its customer base with a wide variety of functionality offered through the cloud. This includes the full gamut of data input options, from meter integration to third party software integration, and aesthetic features to view and manage information.

“For the data management capabilities, Locus Technologies offers the best-in-class solution for geographic information capture,” says Samantha Price, Industry Analyst at Verdantix and author of the report. “The software offers full data capture and management capabilities integrated with mapping tools, displaying full environmental and sustainability data on a web-based, interactive GIS system.”

The report also recognizes that Locus has designed its EH&S software platform, ePortal, to deliver impressive reporting functionality for CDP carbon, GRI and mandatory GHG reporting requirements including U.S. EPA Mandatory Reporting, EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) for which it is certified.

“The concept of enterprise sustainability management may be slightly different from company to company, but its importance remains steady and undeniable, states Neno Duplan, President & CEO of Locus. “It is crucial that we properly balance our resource usage in the present, so that these resources are not depleted for future generations. Locus built its sustainability software to do just that while also providing another equally important functionality to its customers—to lower their operating costs by optimizing resource consumption.”

ABOUT VERDANTIX

Verdantix is an independent analyst firm. We provide authoritative data, analysis and advice to help our clients resolve their energy, environment and sustainability challenges. Through our global primary research and deep domain expertise we provide our clients with strategic advice, revenue generating services, best practice frameworks, industry connections and competitive advantage.

For further information, please visit www.verdantix.com.

EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop and NEI RETS-REMP Workshop Recap

Combining the NEI RETS-REMP with the EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop solidified a theme to unify efforts as utilities gain experience implementing protection programs.