Top 10 Enhancements to Locus EHS Compliance Software in 2020
Let’s take a look back on the most exciting new features and changes made in Locus Platform during 2020!
Become Water Positive with Locus
Becoming water positive is a more difficult task than becoming carbon positive. Both in practice and in tracking complex water data. Less than a decade ago, experts questioned if it was even feasible to have a net-positive impact when it comes to water. Perhaps the biggest reason for the difficulty with water is a relative volatility when compared with carbon. Seasonal environmental changes in rainfall, as well as droughts and floods, effectively make water consumption a non-zero-sum game. And with water, quality is more important than volume. Today, companies and organizations are believing that goal a more attainable one.
Organizations are now shooting for a goal that will create a net-positive impact on volume and quality. Recently, Microsoft announced their goal of becoming water positive by 2030. Their goal is not only impressive, but it is complex and multi-faceted. They plan to achieve more freshwater collection, lower consumption, working with various agencies and NGOs on regulatory changes, and perhaps most importantly digitizing their water data.
Why is this goal so important? Almost a third of the world’s population, over 2.2 billion individuals, lack access to safe and clean water. With potential chronic shortages becoming more common and increased demand being more likely, the need for fresh water will be more drastic as time goes on. Organizations aiming for water positivity will lessen the momentum of water becoming less available.
Where does Locus come in? We can’t solve a problem that we can’t understand. With Locus software, companies and organizations can accurately track and report complex ground and surface water data. Our calculation engine can deliver real-time estimates of supply and demand and our water quality software can manage sample planning and configure notifications for late or missing samples or exceedances in pre-defined limits. Our water quality solutions, long used by utilities like San Jose Water Company and Santa Clara Valley Water, can also help businesses achieve a greater perspective on their water consumption, providing the tools to allow them to become water positive.
Sustainability is More Important Now Than Ever
The global economy is currently being tested on a magnitude that we have never witnessed before. The effects of COVID-19 have pushed the limits of individuals, and the organizations that they run. As we collectively face short-term problems related to the pandemic, long-term effects of climate change have, in some ways, been magnified. When the dust settles, and we tackle COVID-19, we will still be facing the consequences of climate change. It is now, however, not after COVID-19 is controlled, that organizations must make steps towards tackling environmental issues. On a positive note, there is a return on investment in sustainability, and there are pragmatic ways of achieving sustainable goals.
The connection between saving money and resources and investing in sustainability is well known. Year after year, sustainable projects result in billions of dollars in savings for the companies investing in them. By 2030, return on investment in sustainability will be $26 trillion. And while those companies investing in sustainability have better numbers, they’re continuing to push for higher sustainability goals, as are government agencies. Companies not making these investments are not only missing out financially, but they are falling behind when it comes to long-term preparedness. Without a doubt, the organizations who are acting first have the leg up. When it comes to sustainability, two proverbs attributed to Benjamin Franklin are as true as when he first said them. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, and “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Pair those variables with the ever-growing awareness and importance of sustainability by the green investor and the green consumer and you have a powerful combination.
Nearly 80,000 emission-reducing projects by 190 Fortune 500 companies reporting data showed nearly $3.7 billion in savings in 2016 alone. – WWF | worldwildlife.org
With climate-related issues comprising the top five long-term risks in terms of likelihood, the need for investing in sustainability becomes all the more apparent. This sentiment is mirrored in a recent Bloomberg article, where Bill Gates suggests that the most difficult long-term problem facing the world today is climate change, and the effect it has on the environment. While outlining several difficulties, he points to one shining light in the fight to sustain a healthy climate: the acceleration and innovation of technology over the past two decades created to tackle the problem. Not many understand more than Locus the fight to maintain, and reduce, and use resources wisely. Locus has, for over two decades, provided advanced tools to improve sustainability on a grand scale.
Several organizations have taken advantage of the sustainability software solutions Locus provides. One example is Del Monte Foods, one of the largest producers of food in the world. They partnered with Locus for sustainability data management, eliminating errors in old data and better monitoring resource usage and cost. They also use Locus’ sustainability app to visualize and report data on the fly. They are tackling sustainability from a practical standpoint, addressing real data, not a nebulous idea. And they have been better off for acting early instead of waiting.
In the end, we must address the problems that face us. We need to tackle COVID-19 and how it affects our organizations, but be mindful that every quarter and every year that sustainability goals are pushed back, there are dollars being lost seeking out attainable improvements to our environment. Not only that, but every step that isn’t taken towards sustainable goals is a step behind other organizations making practical investments in their future and the wellbeing of everyone.
Then and Now: Locus Platform for EHS&S
Ahead of its time in 2002, Locus Platform (formerly ePortal) has seen a huge change over time from a simple portal at the beginning of the SaaS movement, to a fully configurable multi-tenant platform. Locus Platform (LP) houses any number of off-the-shelf and custom applications to meet EHS customer needs.
Why Companies Replace Their EHS&S Software Systems
A recent NAEM study explored the main reasons EHS&S professionals look to replace their current software configuration. Among the most reported issues were overall performance, customer support, and software customization. The following infographic highlights both why EHS&S professionals are seeking new software, and wheat criteria are most important in shopping for a new software system.
California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program
Last week Locus attended the first training session offered by California Air Resources Board (CARB) for verifiers under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program. The California LCFS program has been ramping up over the past several years, and is now ready to start certifying third-party verifiers to review both applications and routine reporting.
The LCFS program is part of California’s initiative to meet the AB32 requirements of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and 40% lower than that level by 2030. LCFS is specifically intended to address emissions from transportation fuels in California, which are approximately half of the overall emissions statewide. Like the Greenhouse Gas Mandatory Reporting Rule and Cap-and-Trade programs that preceded it, the California LCFS program uses a market-based approach to incentivize innovation and new approaches to reduce emissions.
Seth Lalonde, Locus Environmental Scientist, at the California Air Resources Board Training
The program covers a wide variety of projects, including production of alternative fuels (e.g. renewable diesel and biogenic compressed natural gas), innovative approaches to fossil fuel production and refining, and direct carbon capture and sequestration. Fuels are assigned a carbon intensity based on overall carbon dioxide emissions over the entire life cycle, from production to processing to shipping to consumption. The carbon intensity is essentially a measure of the emissions from the fuel per unit of energy. The lower the carbon intensity value, the less impact the fuel has in terms of carbon emissions. Certain fuels can even have a negative carbon intensity, which essentially means the fuel production process is absorbing more carbon than is eventually emitted to the atmosphere (such is the case for compressed or liquefied natural gas produced using biomethane from manure collection). The program also has impacts well outside the California border. After all, fuel that is eventually used in California can originate anywhere in the world, and the LCFS program allows for these projects to obtain credits regardless of their location.
Unsurprisingly, California was the first state to adopt and implement a LCFS program, and the first to establish a third-party verification program specific for LCFS. Although it was clearly the first presentation of this training material, staff from CARB as well as the Climate Action Reserve and The Climate Registry were on hand to assist in addressing questions and topics that weren’t covered in the prepared materials. And considering the wide variety of LCFS project types and the disparate backgrounds of attendees for the verification training, they did a great job of getting everyone all the information they needed to understand and verify these projects.
For those participating in the LCFS program or considering projects under the program, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
First and foremost, like any market-based emission program that includes a verification or auditing requirement, transparency is critical. The verifiers are trained to dig deep into your data, and not to take ‘no’ for an answer. Be prepared to have your metadata and documentation assembled and easily made available to the verifier. (For more on Transparency in Reporting, view this webinar)
Second, the LCFS program includes requirements for continuous or near-continuous monitoring for many parameters, and instrumentation capable of electronic data archival. Manual data records and transcription are still acceptable under other carbon offset programs, but under LCFS these options are no longer allowed. Be sure that your instrumentation is consistent with the specific LCFS requirements, or you’ll be seeing a non-conformance from your verifier.
There were many other tips and common pitfalls highlighted during the training for specific LCFS project types. Overall, I’m very excited to see how the LCFS program evolves in California, and how the energy industry takes advantage of these incentives to provide new options for transportation fuels that will reduce carbon emissions.
Update: Locus is now an approved verification body for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Learn more here.
Top 8 Things to Look For in Sustainability Software
Sustainability is a corporate necessity, and finding the right software to support company-wide sustainability goals and initiatives is imperative to streamlining this time-consuming activity. This is especially true if you are managing inputs from many facilities/locations or have required or optional reporting requirements. Not to mention, most corporate annual reports demand a summary of key sustainability initiatives as part of the corporate annual reporting process.
Here are some features to look for when selecting a sustainability software—to make sure your new software will actually help your company track and report its sustainability initiatives more accurately and efficiently.
1. Make sure software is accessible to everyone who needs to input data
It is very important that data owners/data collectors throughout your facilities can directly enter their own relevant Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and greenhouse gas data—no more searching for data from disparate company groups, or searching through email for spreadsheets or invoices, and no more tracking down the field technician for the field log, or hunting for other assorted documentation.
This is especially important when dealing with company locations in various geographic regions. A well-designed software system can solve this most vexing problem: finding the relevant data.
Check for the following features in any sustainability software you’re considering:
- Data stored in one managed location
All sustainability data should be stored in one place—whether text or numeric, and whether from an automatic data acquisition system, external database, hand-written field logs, or third-party documentation (e.g., air permits). - Streamlined reporting from centralized data
Reporting is streamlined because all input is consolidated in one managed location. - Standardized terminology and units
A centralized system enforces common terminology, units, and values (numbers vs. text) that are so important for final reporting. No one wants to get energy data from 10 different sources, all in different units, formats, and terminologies. - Built-in notifications and workflows
Also, look for built-in reminders, notifications, and escalations to ensure the inputs are completed in a timely manner, and if deadlines are missed, you know exactly what is missing and who to contact.
Data can come from multiple sources, and your sustainability software should be able to handle them all—then consolidate this data into a single source of truth.
2. Make sure the software application includes quality assurance and third-party review tools
Any decent software can make data collection easy, but to truly improve your company’s sustainability initiatives, it must also have tools for quality assurance reviewers and third-party verifiers to easily review the information, track the reported values to source data, and understand how the data were processed. Ultimately, the software also needs to allow the reporter to easily make updates or corrections as needed. Because these data are reported to regulators or shareholders, accuracy is paramount.
Look for the following features to support transparency and auditing:
- Visible and accessible calculations
All embedded rules, queries, and calculations should be visible and traceable to anyone reviewing so they can check the calculations and raise a flag if issues are found.
Your sustainability software should make it easy to see and understand the formulas that produced any calculated data values.
- Accessible and auditable source data and final values
All source data and final reported values should be visible, traceable, and tracked. Watch out for “black box” calculations that will confound auditors and cost you in labor hours while you are determining how the reported value was obtained, what the data inputs were, and where the source data originated. - Complete audit trails
Ensure audit trails are present for any changes in key data. You should be able to find out exactly who entered a value or who changed it. Be sure the software is keeping track and that everything is recorded and traceable to ensure the integrity of the process and reports. Good software will have an audit tool that tracks who did what, who is responsible for which datasets, and who changed which values and how.
3. Make sure the software includes tools for reporting to multiple regulatory or voluntary bodies
Many companies report to various regulatory or voluntary bodies, and the software you select should support all the major reporting requirements to avoid the need for separate calculations for some jurisdictions.
- Enter once, report 10x
Look for the concept of “enter once, report many times” when reviewing software applications. The gold standard is the capability for reporting methodologies and calculations configured for reporting to multiple agencies from a single dataset, all in a single tool. - Check support for your actual, specific needs
Review your reporting requirements to see if the software handles them. Key reporting requirements include state or federal regulations, internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) and other sustainability reporting, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and The Climate Registry (TCR). - Consider export formats
Ensure the software includes exports to XML, which is a common format for EPA and ARB reporting, and an option for reporting to other agencies. Having such outputs easily generated from the software will save time and money during the reporting season.
Find out what formats you need for regulatory reporting, and make sure your software supports exporting in these formats.
4. Look for data verification flags so you don’t spend time fixing obviously bad data
If you normally report 500 metric tons of GHG per year and you are finding entries of 500,000 metric tons per year in your data, chances are, it’s just simple data entry errors. However, no one wants to track these down months after the data entry event. Look for software that will flag these anomalies on entry and force the user to fix them before you ever get to the data review step.
- Ability to set validation rules
Look for software that allows you to set rules to flag data entries that fall outside of expected thresholds, catching errors before they make it to QA personnel or auditors. - Options to specify acceptable ranges and add comments for unusual values
Look for features that will help you avoid last-minute questions about the validity of your data. Look for the ability to specify an outlier range to flag values so that you can address them immediately before the report is due. Allow for the opportunity to enter a comment right alongside the flagged value, providing a record that the value was double-checked and is correct for a specified reason.
Immediate, inline alerts about outlier data values help prevent last-minute surprises.
5. Look for user-defined workflows to help you and your users step through sustainability reporting and tracking process
The sustainability software you select should help simplify data entry and reporting by supporting your preferred workflows. Software with configurable workflows can be a huge help for both data entry personnel and managers reviewing data, by making the status of all data entry and reporting business processes abundantly clear.
- Options for lockdown after manager review
Look for the ability to include manager overrides to data entry and workflows that will lock the data entries to editing once reviewed. This will help ensure others are not modifying data while you are in the report preparation process.
Options for managers to lock down data are important for preventing edits to data that is being prepared for reporting.
- Quickly identify current workflow status
Check for easy visual indicators of workflow status to ensure the process is on track to be completed by the reporting deadline.
There should be an easy way to see the current workflow status of any data in your system.
- Easily modify workflow along the way
Also look for the ability to easily modify the workflow if your original configuration was not optimal. Not everyone knows the best workflow for new software when they initially start using it. The ability to modify the workflows—without needing a software developer—is an important feature to consider when choosing a sustainability software solution.
6. Look for robust audit trails to help solve “whodunit” issues
All software that handles critical or regulatory data should provide auditing on key data fields. Find out the details of what is audited and how you will be able to access the audit information.
- Full history of all changes
Software should retain a history of values with every report change. - Who, when, what
Look for a complete audit trail of who did what, and what was changed, and when. Tracking any modifications to values supports a rigorous audit and is sure to make your QC staff really happy.
Your software should be automatically recording a history of all changes at each step of your workflow.
7. Look at out-of-the-box data outputs—but also consider how easy (or hard) it will be to create specific reports for your corporate needs
Every software has built-in report and dashboards, but they may not meet all your needs out-of-the-box. Assume some reports will need to be configured, and review the software accordingly.
- Tracking specific KPIs
Does the software provide an easy way to track year-to-year KPIs for internal evaluation or for preparation of public-facing sustainability reports? - Consider future reporting and visualization needs
If you need a new report, chart, or other visualization of your data, will this request incur a custom software development charge, or is it an easy configuration? - Adapt dashboards to your needs
Can you easily customize the software’s default dashboards?
Look for options to easily configure reports, charts, and other visualizations that help you easily review summaries of your data.
8. Make sure the software has a robust notification engine
Software can shoulder the burden of getting people to do what they are supposed to do (reminders), alerting people to when an action is needed (notifications), sharing information (messaging) and sending them information (report notifications). Be sure to review the strength of all notification features of the software, as this can be a huge help during reporting season—and it can lighten the burden on your inbox as well.
- Multi-purpose notifications
Look for routine workflow notifications to ensure you are notified when a workflow step is completed AND if a workflow step is ignored beyond the due date. - Actionable notifications
Look for reporting notifications that will send the link (URL) to applicable users so they can quickly jump to the information in the software. No one likes knowing a report is ready, but then having to log in and search for it. - Group and individual notifications
Ensure you can send notifications by individual user OR to user groups. It can be very tedious to select large numbers of individuals for routine notifications—it is much easier to select “all Facility XYZ EHS staff”. - Decide where to receive notifications
Consider in-app messaging to keep important information in front of the users and spare their inbox.
Final thoughts: Imagine what implementation success looks like
While you are evaluating software options, use these points as a guide to make sure you choose a solution that will truly make a difference for your organization’s sustainability initiatives and reporting goals.
As more sustainability software solutions appear in the marketplace, it can be difficult for a company to discern which features really matter for its workflow. Try a simple exercise—imagine what a perfect sustainability management business process would look like if you found the perfect software solution. Consider the challenges you face now, and what it would look like if those problems were handled by your software.
Then, ask how well the sustainability software you’re considering will make this dream a reality. The right software selection can help reduce operational risk, fulfill regulatory reporting requirements in less time and with less effort, and provide safeguards against bad data and missed deadlines. All you have to do is ask the right questions.
Get more tips for what to look for when evaluating EHS&S software!
When it comes to EHS&S, the “&S” shouldn’t be an afterthought
Locus Technologies is proud to have attended this year’s NAEM EHS&S Forum in Toronto. We were represented by Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus, and forum first-timer, Aaron Edwards, Marketing Associate at Locus.
The forum gave us the opportunity to learn, both from our peers in discussions about EHS&S goals, and from the diverse lineup of respected speakers and presenters. You spoke and we listened. This year, the prevailing topic of discussion was the growth of expectation surrounding sustainability in organizations.
Sustainability initiatives are rapidly moving to the forefront of institutional policy at leading organizations. As consumers, investors, and shareholders are increasingly supporting more sustainable organizations, executives are expecting more impactful sustainability initiatives from their EHS&S departments. Not only that, but executives inherently expect sustainability initiatives to positively affect the bottom line. This means that today’s EHS&S professionals have to manage sustainability initiatives that are vital to company success as well as regulatory management and reporting, often with limited resources.
Our conversations at the NAEM Forum often revolved around the time-consuming nature of regulatory compliance interfering with the escalated focus on sustainability. Many of the professionals we spoke with are dealing with multiple EHS&S platforms, each used for a specific function. Time management is increasingly more essential to EHS&S managers, and juggling between uni-tasked platforms is detrimental to effective sustainability efforts.
Locus developers have designed our software to reduce the labor-intensiveness of regulatory compliance. We offer a configurable single-platform solution for decreasing the amount of time you spend managing KPIs. From available modules in waste management, audit tracking, GHG reporting, and more—our configurable software allows more time to improve your company’s sustainability initiatives.
Sustainability is no longer an afterthought in the eyes of executives, consumers, investors, or shareholders. Having one robust software platform can greatly help EHS professionals integrate that “&S” seamlessly with their other responsibilities.
5 time-saving tools for EHS compliance
We all know the struggle of getting things done with shortened staff without compromising the quality of our work, especially in EHS. Locus Technologies’ Locus Platform (LP) offers multiple options to ease your complexity by providing a truly SaaS platform packed with some nifty apps. Here are some tools in LP that can help you utilize your workforce much more efficiently:
1) Dashboards tailored to your needs
Every software has built-in report and dashboards, but they may not meet all your needs when purchased off the shelf. If you need a new report, chart, or other visualization of your data, it usually incurs a custom software development charge, but not with Locus Platform (LP). LP allows you to assemble the information you want in your chosen format (bar or line charts, maps, tables, treemaps, diagrams, etc.) and share your custom dashboards and real-time information/data with your team. In addition, the views and dashboards export to Excel, so you can easily integrate with commonly used tools and further mine the data. At the enterprise level, powerful dashboards will help you understand the status of each facility based on a matrix you design. With the LPs flexibility, facility information can be automatically populated based on the user credentials, saving your team time and frustration.
2) Simplified Sustainability Reporting
Locus Platform’s Sustainability application and calculation engine support simultaneous calculations using multiple methods for various reporting programs including EPA, California ARB, CDP, TCR, DJSI, and others. This allows users to input data only once and utilize it to report to multiple federal, state, and voluntary reporting programs, according to their required format. The application will also support direct electronic reporting formats for many reporting programs, so that additional manual transcription and submittal of data are no longer necessary. This is a very powerful tool and a huge advantage to customers in terms of improving efficiency, while reducing costs.
3) Integration
Integration, if done correctly, can save you a great deal of time and headache during some of the most tedious and cumbersome tasks in EHS data management. Locus Platform (LP) has built in a unique point and click integration application to enable connection with major databases or third-party systems that have open API (Access privileges). Some integration, database, and communication standards and methods that are supported include OLE compliance, SOAP, COM, Java, XML, web services, ODBC/ODMA/SQL/Oracle, VIM, and MAPI. LP also works well with MS Excel and provides a powerful two-way synchronization allowing users to download parts of the database to Excel, then work, edit, and verify or append data on their local copy of Excel where they have no internet connection. Any revisions they perform to the downloaded data in Excel can be automatically synchronized back to the Locus Platform application. During the process, a complete audit trail will be preserved. This can be a great time saver especially when you are sending large volumes of valid values in a database or if you are migrating any historical data.
4) Mobile
Locus’ Mobile application allows you to sync with your server to create data collection profiles on a mobile device, whether it’s your phone or a tablet. It will allow you to click through and enter data on the device even when you are offline. Data validation is performed in real time and is stored locally on the device, once the phone reaches an internet signal, it will sync with your server, and the data will automatically be updated in Locus’ cloud-hosted solution. What’s more, Locus Mobile works seamlessly with both EIM and Locus Platform.
Using Mobile you receive the benefits of data entry directly on the mobile device, with immediate data availability on the cloud when you reach an internet signal. Other advantages of using Mobile include location metadata and mapping integration, bar-code/OR code scanning, voice recognition, and form customization. If you’d like to know more about the Locus Mobile application, check out the Top 10 cool features in Locus Mobile.
5) XML Exports
Locus has prioritized enhancing its GHG application in Locus Platform to make it easy to manage GHG emission inventory tracking and reporting requirements. Locus Technologies is the only software vendor that is a certified GHG verifier under the State of California’s AB32, and has performed the most GHG verifications in California since 2015. The State and Federal eGGRT web portals are notoriously cumbersome and require a significant amount of your time to input all the required data and generate your report. But with XML support, you can bypass almost the entire data entry process, and complete your submittal within a few minutes. XML reports support many greenhouse gas subparts, including EPA GHG Subparts C, D, W, and NN. And because data entry for EPA and CARB is consolidated in the XML GHG application, it eliminates the need to maintain separate agency spreadsheets and software. Additional reporting programs are also adding support for XML submittals, such as EPA’s eManifest. This functionality can be a huge time saver for anyone working with these online regulatory reporting tools.
Oil companies agree to reduce methane emissions
A coalition of the world’s oil companies agreed to reduce methane emissions from natural gas extraction—part of an effort to shore up the climate credentials of the hydrocarbon.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative said it would target reducing methane emissions to less than 0.25% of the total natural gas the group of 13 member companies produces by 2025.
Methane is the main component of natural gas. During extraction, transport, and processing, it often leaks into the environment. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. In the short term, it traps more heat although it stays shorter in the atmosphere. According to the International Energy Agency, one ton of methane is equivalent to as much as 87 tons of carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame.
Natural gas production is growing. Many big oil companies are increasing production of natural gas to offset higher emissions from other hydrocarbon and coal sources. The switch makes the oil-and-gas industry look better when demonstrating emission reduction to limit climate change.
For that reason, some oil companies, Shell, in particular, has tilted its production mix toward more gas output.
According to 2018 report by the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, as much as $34 billion of global gas supply is lost each year through leaks and venting. That is another valid reason to limit those methane escapes and park the proceeds to the bottom line. That in itself could fund part of the effort to stop or reduce the leaks.