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ESG Software

ESG Reporting has Become a Business Requirement

In today’s world, organizations must measure and report their environmental performance and adherence to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. Stakeholders, including regulators, investors, customers, rating agencies, research analysts, NGOs, and the public, are all starting to evaluate non-financial criteria in addition to companies’ financial health and performance. Companies also must comply with EHS regulations in the jurisdictions in which they operate. While most environmental regulations have been around for half a century, the gathering and reporting of sustainability, CSR, and ESG data is relatively new and is becoming an essential part of corporate annual reports.

Companies are increasingly discovering that data-driven ESG reporting has gone from a “nice to have” to a business requirement. But it’s challenging to keep up with such reporting when a company’s data is in spreadsheets or numerous unconnected silo applications. Companies suffer when their domain experts and others rely on manual and outdated processes to accomplish ever-increasing reporting requirements.

It appears imminent that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will in near future regulate ESG disclosure as a requirement by using some kind of universal reporting framework.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a single enterprise and cloud-based software system to perform all EHS, ESG, and CSR reporting from a single software platform? That is what this article is about.

Sustainability vs ESG

Until recently, it was common to refer to sustainability and ESG interchangeably. But over time, their meanings have grown apart. Sustainability can mean many different things, depending on the discussion context, whereas ESG has become the preferred term for capital markets and has frequently appeared in the headlines. The transition from sustainability to ESG performance indicates a maturation of business practices leading to more precise measurements of a company’s performance, its impact on the environment, and the risk it carries for investors when there is a low environmental performance or spotty compliance with EHS regulations. As a result, companies need to improve the way they collect and track metrics for ESG reporting.

Holistic Approach

To compare companies relative to their impacts on the planet’s climate or well-being, one must take a holistic approach that includes many factors. Among those to consider when assigning a score to a company are:

The magnitude and quality of its overall and coupled emissions to natural media
The efficiency of its operations in water and energy usage
Carbon footprint
Recycling, waste management, treatment, and disposal operations
The transparency and impacts of its supply chains

This holistic approach requires new, integrated, and interactive software tools. Such software, equivalent to the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software that made its appearance in the early nineties, should provide complex tracking of all kinds of emissions linked to company-owned assets and services in real-time (Scope 1 emissions). It should also include emissions attributable to its supply chain, known as Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. Old ERP software applications integrate the processes needed to run a company in a single system: planning, purchasing inventory, sales, marketing, finance, and human resources. However, they do not typically integrate any technical information or activity related to emissions, waste, climate, environmental compliance, etc. Never mind that much of the ERP software in the market today is obsolete, running on the outdated technology of the seventies and eighties, and hard to integrate with anything.

The traditional approach of bolting-on another application to an existing software infrastructure is not the road to go down concerning ESG data collection and to report. Emissions tracking, sustainability, and other environmentally related verticals are typically “heavier” and more resource-intensive than antiquated ERP systems can handle without significant investment. Many legacy ERP systems, caving in under their weight, are hugely and unnecessarily complicated and are slowly being deprecated. New, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies hold more promise as they allow for the fast deployment and easy integration and sharing with third-party applications, suppliers, consultants, and even regulators. One such example is the Locus Platform or only LP. It is a SaaS that automates data collection, management, and reporting. It is of financial-grade, auditable, available, and actionable 24/7 from anywhere. This platform integrates EHS compliance and ESG reporting applications under a single system of record, giving users all necessary tools to optimize their compliance, sustainability management, and reporting.

All-in-one solution for Sustainability, EHS Compliance, and ESG Reporting

To kill two birds with one stone! Or perhaps a friendlier version for bird-lovers is a German version, “mit einer Klappe zwei Fliegen schlagen” – which means to kill two flies with one swat. Or kill two mosquitoes with one slap! This English language idiom is not to be taken literally but instead refers to a single activity or action that accomplishes two (or more) goals or tasks. And that is precisely what any advanced EHS/ESG software should do.

Over the last twenty or so years, companies have spent considerable resources (in both time and money) buying and installing such EHS compliance-related verticals as permit management, waste, incident reporting, water quality, air emissions, greenhouse gases (GHG), sustainability, and so on.

More than one acquisition is often needed to cover their reporting needs, resulting in an assortment of tools that may or may not be compatible with one another.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, a new acronym, ESG, has recently shot to prominence. C-level executives are asking their EHS managers a question “Do we need more software to manage our ESG reporting? Smart companies should not rush and start searching Google for “ESG Software.” Instead, they should take a hard look at what they have on EHS compliance and sustainability management and augment it with ESG reporting. After all, everything that needs reporting or is worth reporting under the ESG acronym probably already exists and is hidden in their EHS compliance software, provided they selected the right one. Companies that have implemented integrated EHS compliance and sustainability management systems may already have most of the ESG data they need to report within their existing applications. If they do not, or if they have a “mutual fund” portfolio of EHS software already installed in unconnected silo applications, this is the time to clean house and switch to a unified reporting platform that integrates EHS and ESG into a single system of record and reporting. Companies that head down this path would not just be “killing two birds” but more: they would lower their costs, meet their new reporting needs, gain a better understanding of their environmental impacts, and potentially enhance their ESG reputation.

Locus Platform

Locus specifically built its configurable Locus Platform to unify many current and future applications on a single SaaS platform. The LP offers a wide range of features and functionality to power sustainability measurement, management, and reporting across the entire corporation. But it also provides a launching pad for EHS-related and unrelated apps that are interoperable and share relevant information, thus avoiding any double input. Among its features are the following:

It offers Integrated IoT streaming of data from sensors, smart meters, mobile phones, or any physical device with an IP address.
It is AI-ready and Blockchain-ready to help with data analyses.
It offers built-in workflows and rules.
It has robust business analytics tools and powerful reporting engines.
It has a fully integrated GIS system.
It has a pre-built library of entities and modules that allows users to quickly assemble all new applications without software developers’ help.

While EHS compliance applications are more comprehensive and dive deeper into the root causes of contamination and emissions, ESG reporting is much less complicated and requires fewer data to report and less scrutiny of such data. For example, federal and state standards such as Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) require detailed water quality reporting, requiring companies to prove that their releases fall within allowable quantities (flow volume) and that chemicals in discharge samples do not exceed regulatory limits for the chemicals of concern. Consequently, the software to manage water quality for EHS reporting needs to provide automated tools to prove that: samples were collected correctly, sample holding time was not exceeded, the receiving laboratory tested samples using proper protocols, lab equipment, etc. Labs also must maintain calibration logs for equipment used in testing, testing details, and so forth.

None of these QC results and associated metadata are necessary for ESG reporting under voluntary reporting protocols such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), The Climate Registry (TCR), or GRESB, the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments. Those protocols mainly require information to be assembled on volumes (quantities) of clean water used, water sources, and contaminated water discharge volumes. They may also include some identification of chemicals in releases but with no details and no testing protocols required. The GRI 303 standard on water and effluents, for example, requires companies to collect information on water use from withdrawal to consumption and discharge and to report on associated impacts on people and ecosystems, including at a local level. This standard enables investors to assess a company’s overall exposure to water risk, as it addresses the whole supply chain.

There are plenty of overlaps in this undertaking. Smart software like the Locus Platform can help avoid any double input between EHS compliance data and ESG reporting. For example, once inputted, facility information is instantly available to all apps, whether the final output of the app is for EHS or ESG reporting. If a spill incident is created and recorded in the EHS Incident App, another app for waste or groundwater contamination can track and manage that spill’s consequential emissions. Even a small spill could become costly if the spill creates long-lasting contamination of soil and groundwater below it. Reporting for spill under EHS compliance regulations is very different from reporting for ESG, yet the two can use the same database. Examples like this are numerous.

Locus continuously adds new features to its Locus Platform to expand EHS, Sustainability, and ESG interoperability and avoid and minimize data’s double input. Companies need a single system of record to house their sustainability data, EHS Compliance, and ultimately report ESG information across multiple reporting standards. Locus’ ESG SaaS delivers in this regard. Moreover, it can grow with customers’ needs thanks to its off-the-shelf configurability.

In short, the Locus Platform is an all-in-one sustainability management software tool that helps companies streamline data collection, improve data quality, benchmark performance, and communicate more effectively with internal and external stakeholders. Locus’s software automates collecting, reducing, and managing data to monitor and track critical metrics around EHS, CSR, and ESG performance. Once the data is in the Locus Platform, the software creates ESG, sustainability, and other reports adhering to multiple reporting standards to improve communications with stakeholders and show greater transparency.

Software Tools for Reporting to Multiple Regulatory or Voluntary Bodies

Many large companies must report to various regulatory or voluntary bodies. A company’s software of choice should support all the major reporting requirements to avoid double input or separate calculations for some jurisdictions. This is particularly true for GHG reporting.

When selecting its software system of record for EHS and ESG reporting, a company should strive to “enter once, report many times.” The gold standard is to have a system configured to report to multiple agencies from a single dataset. Before selecting software, companies should review their reporting requirements to see if their software handles them. Essential reporting requirements include state or federal regulations, internal CSR, and ESG based on whatever standard their organization adheres to, such as CDP, GRI, or more recent World Economic Forum (WEF) attempt to standardize many voluntary standards.

Companies also must consider export formats. For example, when selecting a GHG management software, the company must ensure their software of choice includes exports to XML, a standard format for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) 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. The XML report generation capability allows facilities to directly upload their GHG data instead of completing the complex web forms found in the EPA Electronic Greenhouse Gas Reporting Tool (e-GGRT) and CARB reporting worksheets (Cal e-GGRT).

Locus provides direct XML exports to the GHG application in its Locus Platform software. Locus is the only software vendor that is an approved GHG verifier by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Since the program’s inception, Locus has performed more GHG verifications than any other company and learned much by observing GHG reporting practices at many companies. As a result, Locus has prioritized enhancing its GHG software to make it easier for customers to manage GHG emission inventory tracking and reporting requirements. Locus’ GHG application is fully integrated with compliance tracking, asset management, and IoT automation (including remote sensing). This ability to generate XML reports further streamlines customers’ report submission process to the EPA and CARB.

For example, data entry for EPA and CARB is consolidated in the GHG application, eliminating the need to maintain separate agency spreadsheets and software. This supports robust trend tracking and reporting, reducing data entry, reporting time, and error opportunities. For many greenhouse gas subparts, including Subparts C, D, W, and NN, the software automatically generates XML reports. These can be easily configured for any greenhouse gas industry segment.

From our experience, many of our customers have experienced frustration with the speed and difficulty of entering their data into the state and federal GHG reporting tools. The Locus Platform XML reporting tool lets customers bypass those clumsy interfaces completely. This saves time, helps companies avoid transcription errors, and ensures consistency with GHG data submitted to multiple reporting programs. As more and more regulatory and voluntary programs embrace automated report submittal through the XML format, Locus continues to expand this functionality to simplify reporting for our customers.

Conclusions

ESG reporting and EHS compliance are inherently cross-functional and coupled activities. Managing them together rather than separately is better. Locus built its platform on a highly secure, scalable, configurable, and efficient multi-tenant software platform. The traditional approaches to using a separate app or a spreadsheet for EHS compliance, sustainability management, or ESG reporting were ripe for digital transformation to a single platform of record. This is the main reason that we built the Locus Platform from scratch to take advantage of the latest cloud technologies and flexible and domain-driven reporting requirements.

Quality of data and standard protocols remain one of the biggest challenges to evaluating companies’ ESG performance. Such data are only credible if they come from the existing sources of EHS compliance data that are much more scrutinized and verified by regulators. Any potential conflict between two sets of the same data can spell disaster for the reporting entity. The perceived value of sustainable investments and practices is inevitably linked to data accuracy, consistency, and reproducibility.

The Locus Platform empowers companies to gain a holistic view of their sustainability performance by providing the means for them to assemble and report their EHS and ESG data from within a single system. Sustainability managers need comprehensive digital tools and real-time, AI-driven insights to keep up with the latest ESG disclosure requirements, trends, and stakeholder requests for information. Whether an organization is just getting started with sustainability initiatives or doing it for a while, Locus Technologies combined EHS and ESG software, explicitly tailored for multi-jurisdictional and multi-media reporting, can help companies make better and faster decisions and reduce the reporting cycle time. By quickly transforming corporate EHS compliance to ESG reporting, companies can improve their ESG score while lowering operational risks and costs. Locus software breaks down silos and provides a stable platform to work collaboratively with diverse teams of experts across the customer organization, its consultants, and its suppliers.

Contact us to learn more and get a quote on Locus ESG solutions

Q&A with the Locus Support Team

The biggest differentiator between Locus and other EHS software providers is our support team. Not only do we pride ourselves on the quickest and most efficient resolutions in the industry, but on our human approach to support. Get to know our support team as we recently sat down (virtually) with them to talk about the ins and outs of their field, how it is working for Locus, and more.

What is your most common support case?

Our most common support case is user management related. Many times, our customers need assistance adding new users or updating their user lists. We receive a lot of requests for resetting passwords.

What is the most unique case you’ve seen?

Almost ten years ago, there was a bug within SQL itself! It was quite a mystery. We would venture to say that we have at least one unique case every week. No single case is the same! It certainly keeps us on our toes. We also had a case once where an organization was acquired by another organization. Due to this, we had to rename the users and organizations which ended up resulting in over 300 user changes which impacted historic records.

What is your average response time?

It is our policy to respond to all cases within two hours of receiving them (given that they come in between the hours of 5am and 3pm Pacific Time). If they come in outside of those hours, we respond within 2 hours of beginning our normal hours. We get many compliments on how speedy our response times are! It is the policy of the team for Tier 1 staff members to check new cases every thirty minutes or so. Critical issues typically receive almost immediate responses! Quick response times are one of our proudest achievements.

Can you name a case that made a great impact on the user?

We have had many cases where we have received numerous thank yous from the customer. There has been a time or two when a customer did a widespread data update without meaning to. Our quick response and ability to revert their changes was much appreciated. We have also been known to help our customers with some very interesting issues that require quite a bit of troubleshooting on our end. The Support Team is incredibly patient and willing to dive deep into questions that customer’s come to us with.

What is something people may not know about the support team?

The Locus Support Team consists of many individuals from a variety of backgrounds ranging from Environmental Engineering, Biology, Environmental Science, Environmental Health and Safety, Mathematics, Data Management, GIS, and much more! The Tier 1 team consists of three outstanding individuals who work across the Support Team, Engineering Team, and Configuration team. The Tier 2 team consists of a wide variety of developers, configurators, and specialists in the field. Together, the Locus Support team has over 75 years of combined experience in the Environmental field. We have a few folks on the team that have outward appearances outside of the norm ranging from long hair, piercings, tattoos, and even purple hair.

How has working more hours remotely affected your team?

Because our team is spread across the United States, with team members working out of the Asheville and Mountain View offices, as well as remote employees, we haven’t been impacted as much by the stay at home COVID-19 orders. Our team has always excelled at communication through email and other online chat services. The ability to talk through tools such as Teams and Skype, has given us the advantage edge during this pandemic. In addition, a large number of our Support Team are remote employees ranging across California, Tennessee, Indiana, Utah, and many other states.

What is your favorite part about working on the Locus support team?

The first answer that came to the team was that we are all a family! We are incredibly supportive and encouraging of one another and we have FUN while working! One of the fun things that we all have in common is our deep–rooted love for animals. One of our favorite pastimes is sharing pictures of our animals, as well as their silly antics! We also like to share about our parenting concerns, particularly during COVID-19 times! Locus is an amazing place to work, in part because of the educated, experienced and awesome personalities we have working as a WHOLE team, rather than just a support team. When asked, the number one response was the friendly and family-like atmosphere.

What certificates/degrees does the support team hold?

Master of Applied Science

Environmental Policy and Management
Environmental Engineering
Biology

Associate’s

Crisis, Emergency and Disaster Management
Emergency Management

Bachelor of Science

Environmental Science
Environmental Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Physical Geography
Mathematics
Integrated Science and Technology

Certifications

FEMA Certifications
ISO 9001, 9000 and 14000 Internal and Lead Auditor Certification
Accredited GHG Verififier
40-hr HazWoper
Graduate certificate in GIS

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5 Ways To Save With Locus

For over 20 years, Locus environmental software customers have saved enormously on their setup and and data entry costs. This infographic highlights the aggregate savings of all users based on conservative estimates of time and cost for different aspects related to our software.

Contact us today to discuss how you can save with Locus

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.

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Then and Now: Locus Environmental Information Management

Locus Environmental Information Management

Locus was founded on the vision of online environmental data management for large volumes of complex data collected as part of environmental site investigations. Locus’ Environmental Information Management (EIM) has remained the market leader in cloud environmental data management systems for over 20 years. EIM continues to evolve to meet an ever-wider customer base from international chemical companies to local water districts. Locus has approached EIM’s evolution with the same focus since day 1, handle any type of environmental data with ease and sophistication, enabling our customers to spend less time handling data and more time assessing information.

Locus EIM Then:

Locus EIM Now:

GIS Mapping

Since Google Maps was first announced, Locus worked to add GIS elements to our software as soon as it was technically feasible. Our easy-to-use visualization tools have evolved over the years from Scalable Vector Graphics, to Google, to Esri ArcGIS Online. Born with our EIM software, GIS visualization of information was something our customers wanted and loved. Always included in our pricing, having the ability to easily make maps from complex data was always a key feature of EIM. With technical advances, our maps are even more robust and integral to our vision of environmental information management.

Locus eGIS Then:

Locus GIS+ Now:

Locus Mobile

In 2000, Locus launched the first environmental data management mobile solution connected to SaaS. 20 years later, Locus Mobile is your single solution for collecting field data, completing EHS audits, tracking waste containers, and much more. Easily configure business-specific data collection needs, enter data offline and synchronize data back to the cloud for final review.

Locus Mobile (eWell) Then and Now:

Locus has evolved and innovated SaaS solutions to meet the needs of our EHS and Water Quality customers for over 20 years. As technology and regulatory requirements change, rest assured Locus is working hard so that your organization can be ahead of the curve.

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Then and Now: Locus Platform for EHS&S

Locus Platform (ePortal)

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. LP is designed handle the ever-changing complexities of EHS information management and to adapt seamlessly to the integration and interoperability demands of today’s modern users.

Whether you are designing your own app, linking with your corporate SAP system, or reporting data to EPA, Locus Platform’s modern architecture represents state-of-the-art in EHS platforms.

Locus Platform (ePortal) Then:

Locus Platform Now:

Locus Waste Management

Locus’ Waste App started in the mid-1990s as a robust desktop software. Over 20 years later the basic functions remain the same, but the usability, integration, and features evolved with the industry. The software moved to the cloud, taking advantage of integration with EPA and vendor cloud systems. The Waste App is now part of Locus Platform’s basic offerings, integrated with Tasks and Compliance and Sustainability and any customer designed apps.

So whether you want to submit an eManifest to EPA, or prepare your biennial report online, Locus’ Waste App will make this necessary process more streamlined and accessible to users.

eWaste App Then:

Waste App Now:

Locus Sustainability

Locus has provided Sustainability tracking software since the emergence of mass global sustainability awareness in the early 2000s. Our earliest customers were early adopters of sustainable indicators disclosure and Locus has kept up with the demand for indicator tracking regardless of complexity. Locus’ staff of environmental scientists and engineers “walked the walk” in our personal and professional lives, making developing Sustainability tracking software a passion and a business. Locus’ Sustainability software brings the modern tools to enable a streamlined process, integrated with a wide range of data providers.

Sustainability App Then:

Sustainability App Now:

Locus Compliance and Task Management

Compliance Management has been a cornerstone of our EHS software since day 1. The fundamental workflow and functionality of Locus’ Compliance Management has been the focus from the beginning; managing a huge amount of prescribed obligations and requirements. The user interface and experience has grown with the times, as we have improved over two decades.

With today’s modern requirements, task outcomes can be anything from a simple completion form to a complex inspection checklist. With Locus Compliance and Task Management, outcomes can be recorded simply on mobile devices in the field. With configurable workflows and notifications, custom escalation notifications and approvals can be defined to ensure key compliance obligations are never missed.

Compliance and Task Management Then:

Compliance and Task Management Now:

Locus has evolved and innovated SaaS solutions to meet the needs of our EHS and Water Quality customers for over 20 years. As technology and regulatory requirements change, rest assured Locus is working hard so that your organization can be ahead of the curve.

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Unified EHS Platform: Enter Once, Report to Many

Is your organization still using multiple software systems for EHS&S when you can (and should) be using one robust and unified platform? Unify your compliance, sustainability, water, air, and environmental data with Locus’ cloud platform for EHS&S. It’s easier, cheaper, and more efficient.

With Locus Platform, you can easily and securely feed all of your different EHS data sources to the cloud via a wide array of import options. You will then be able to analyze and report to virtually any regulatory agency, meeting any specific requirements they may have. We believe in making EHS compliance simpler.

Contact us to see Locus’ Unified EHS Platform in action

Technology Outlook for the Environmental Industry

Neno Duplan is founder and CEO of Locus Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based environmental software company founded in 1997. Locus evolved from his work as a research associate at Carnegie Mellon in the 1980s, where he developed the first prototype system for environmental information management. This early work led to the development of numerous databases at some of the nation’s largest environmental sites, and ultimately, to the formation of Locus in 1997.

Mr. Duplan recently sat down with Environmental Business Journal to discuss a myriad of topics relating to technology in the environmental industry such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Multi-tenancy, IoT, and much more.

Download a preview

Click here to learn more and purchase the full EBJ Vol XXXIII No 5&6: Environmental Industry Outlook 2020-2021

5 Common Compliance Issues for EHS Managers

At Locus, we understand the unique requirements of EHS managers. More than many, EHS managers are dealing with a wide range of duties instead of a few pointed ones. With so many responsibilities, it can be hard at times to stay on top of your organization’s EHS needs. In this blog we highlight a few common compliance-related issues that should resonate with most EHS managers and the steps we’ve taken to help you with them.

The worry of missing a regulatory change

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to keep up with your organization’s regulations. If you are dealing with compliance, then chances are you’ve not been the first to know about a regulatory change, or you’ve found out about one later than you would have liked.

When you’re getting notifications from OSHA and the DOT and you’re checking specific permits and getting letters and emails about changes, sometimes it can all be too much. With Locus, you have the added benefit of an extra set of eyes, well… multiple sets of eyes. Our team keeps up with every rule and regulation used in our applications to further assist you with the breadth of information you have to manage. Locus EHS software is also integrated with RegScan, giving users seamless real-time access to current EHS regulations. This will allow Locus users to customize a watchlist in RegScan to quickly and readily view EHS regulations relevant to them.

Managing maintenance costs

When you have to worry about ever-changing costs that touch several parts of your business, the last thing you need is a gated product update from your EHS software vendor. With Locus’ SaaS model, you see reduced implementation costs and no costly upgrades – everyone is on the same version. And since everything is in one place, you have a reduced amount of wasted time finding information and making it actionable.

Being cognizant of your data security

EHS managers deal with sensitive data, ranging from social security numbers to workman’s comp issues. Not taking proper care of this information can be anything from a PR debacle to a legal battle. With Locus, you have the peace of mind in knowing that your data is stored in entirety on the most secure cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Not only that, but you have extensive security and admin access options, so you can have the relief in knowing only those with privileges can see certain information.

Quick access to stored information

Whether you’re looking for purchase documentation of PPEs or you need to reference yesterday’s GHG numbers, you need access to that data without having to wade through multiple applications. And with all of your data stored in one secure repository, not only can it be accessed quickly, but it can be incorporated with other tools like automated reporting.

Consolidation of compliance data

Are you still dealing with a different filing cabinet or file folder for each type of compliance? Not having your compliance data consolidated into one application means wasted time and time spent re-entering information (possibly incorrectly). Locus combines water, air, hazardous waste, DOT, PPE, workman’s comp, incidents, and more into one streamlined application to help with your organization and efficiency.

We are determined to support the needs of the user, you, first. By focusing on product development and customer service first, we feel that we have created a software as a service model that is both flexible and time-saving. If you are experiencing any of these issues with your current provider, we ask that you speak with a Locus representative today for a consultation or in-depth demo of what we can offer.

Contact us to see our Compliance app in action

AI for EHS&S: Three Essential Steps to Get Started

Regardless of the size of your organization or the industry you’re in, chances are that right now artificial intelligence can benefit your EHS&S initiatives in one way or another. And whether you are ready for it or not, the age of artificial intelligence is coming. Forward-thinking and adaptive businesses are already using artificial intelligence in EHS&S as a competitive advantage in the marketplace to great success.

With modern EHS&S software, immense amounts of computing power, and seemingly endless cloud storage, you now have the tools to achieve fully-realized AI for your EHS&S program. And while you may not be ready to take the plunge into AI just yet, there are some steps you can take to implement artificial intelligence into your EHS&S program in the future.

Perhaps the best aspect of preparing for AI implementation is that all of the steps you take to properly bring about an AI system will benefit your program even before the deployment phase. Accurate sources, validated data, and one system of record are all important factors for any EHS&S team.

Accurate Sources

Used alongside big data, AI can quickly draw inferences and conclusions about many aspects of life more efficiently than with human analysis, but only if your sources pull accurate data. Accurate sources data will help your organization regardless of your current AI usage level. That’s why the first step to implementing artificial intelligence is auditing your data sources.

Sources pulling accurate data can be achieved with some common best practices. First, separate your data repository from the process that analyzes the data. This allows you to repeat the same analysis on different sets of data without the fear of not being able to replicate the process of analysis. AI requires taking a step away from an Excel-based or in-house software, and moving to a modern EHS&S software, like Locus Platform that will audit your data as it is entered. This means that anything from SCADA to historical outputs, samples, and calculations can be entered and vetted. Further, consider checking your data against other sources and doing exploratory analysis to greater legitimize your data.

Validated Data

AI requires data, and a lot of it—aggregated from multiple sources. But no amount of predictive analysis or machine learning is going to be worth anything without proper data validation processes.

Collected data must be relevant to the problem you are trying to solve. Therefore, you need validated data, which is a truly difficult ask with Excel, in-house platforms, and other EHS&S software. Appropriate inputs, appropriate ranges, data consistency, range checks (to name a few)—are all aspects of data that is validated in a modern EHS&S software like Locus Platform. Without these checks inherent to a platform, you cannot be sure that your data, or your analyses are producing useful or accurate results.

Possibly the best reason to get started with AI is the waterfall effect. As your data uncovers hidden insights and starts to learn on its own, the more accurate your new data will be and the better your predictions will become.

One System of Record

A unified system of record and a central repository for all data means that you see an immediate increase in data quality. Starting with AI means the end of disconnected EHS&S systems. No more transferring data from one platform to another or from pen and paper, just fully-digitized and mobile-enabled data in one platform backed up in the cloud. You also gain the added benefit of being able to access your data in real-time, incorporate compliance/reporting on the fly, and save time and resources using a scalable solution instead of a web of spreadsheets and ad-hoc databases.

Whether you are ready for AI or not, investing in these otherwise useful steps are necessary for any program looking to harness the power of artificial intelligence. When you are ready to take that next step, you will be well on the path to AI implementation, with a solid data infrastructure in place for your efforts.

Contact us to get prepared for AI

To learn more about artificial intelligence, view this NAEM-hosted webinar led by Locus experts, or read our study on predicting water quality using machine learning.