Air Quality | Page 2 of 8 | Locus Technologies

Automate Your Vapor Intrusion Management

The Vapor Intrusion tools in Locus’ Environmental Information Management (EIM) software solve the problem of time-consuming monitoring, reporting, and mitigation by automating data assembly, calculations, and reporting.

Quickly and easily generate validated reports in approved formats, with all of the calculations completed according to your specific regulatory requirements. Companies can set up EIM for its investigation sites and realize immediate cost and time savings during each reporting period.

Contact us to see the Vapor Intrusion tool in action

Send us your contact information and a Locus representative will be in touch to discuss your organization’s environmental data management needs and provide an estimate, or set up a free demo of our enterprise environmental software solutions.

Streamline and Save on Your Title V Reporting

Simplify your air quality data management and reporting with Locus’ unified software solution. Our Air Quality application resolves most common issues with managing and submitting your site emissions data. Locus handles all required regulatory data from your facilities in one centralized platform and makes it possible to streamline your tracking and reporting requirements for programs such as Title V, GHG, Fenceline, and LCFS.

Contact us to see a demo of the Air Quality app

5 Keys to Simpler Air Quality Monitoring

Time management is an ever-present struggle. With expanding air quality monitoring and regulatory programs, more is expected from air quality professionals without compromising work quality. Locus Technologies offers the tools to ease your workload. Here’s how Locus transforms your air quality data and reporting management:

Integration

Integration can save you a great deal of time and stress with the most cumbersome air quality data management duties. Our air quality software has a unique point and click integration application enabling connection with major databases and 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, DBC/ODMA/SQL/Oracle, AWS, VIM, and MAPI.

Locus also provides a powerful two-way synchronization with MS Excel, allowing users to download to Excel, then work, edit, verify, or append data on their local copy of Excel. Any revisions they perform to the downloaded data can be automatically synchronized back to the Locus Platform application. During the process, a complete audit trail will be preserved. This is a great time saver, especially if you are sending large volumes of valid values in a database or if you are migrating any historical data.

Dashboards Tailored to Your Needs

Your air quality data management software should have built-in dashboards to meet your needs. With other software providers, when you need a new report, chart, or other visualization of your air quality data, it usually incurs a custom software development charge. Locus 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 or regulators without the fees. In addition, the views and dashboards export to Excel, so you can easily integrate with commonly used tools and further mine the data.

With Locus, powerful dashboards will help you understand the status of single of multiple facilities in an air quality program based on a matrix you design. With the the flexibility of Locus, facility information can be automatically populated based on the user credentials, saving you and your team time and frustration.

Simplified Reporting

Locus Platform’s air quality application and calculation engine supports simultaneous calculations using multiple methods for various reporting programs including EPA, State, or Local, CDP, TCR, DJSI, Title V, e, and others. Our software also assists in streamlining your emissions tracking and reporting requirements for programs such as GHG, Fenceline, Title V, and LCFS. Locus air quality software is fully integrated with our compliance/asset management and remote sensing systems, making digital transformation more efficient. In addition, Locus’ vapor intrusion and indoor air management application will easily organize, manage, and report indoor air and vapor intrusion data.

This allows users to input data only once and utilize it to report to multiple federal, state, and voluntary reporting programs, according to your 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.

Mobile

Locus’ Mobile application allows you to sync with your server to create in-field data collection profiles on a mobile device, whether it’s your phone or a tablet. It will allow you to click through and enter field inspection data on the device even when you are offline. Air quality field operations data validation is performed in real-time and is stored locally on the device when you are out of service range, with data will automatically being updated in Locus’ cloud when you have connection.

Locus gives 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 Locus Mobile includes location metadata and mapping integration, bar-code/OR code scanning, voice recognition, and form customization.

Easy to Use Calculation Library

To alleviate the effort in researching complex air emissions calculations ranging from GHG to Tank emissions, Locus has designed a Java Library, Curta, for complicated scientific computing on our software. Curta contains a collection of built-in functionality, unit conversions, periodic and hierarchical calculations that can be used to solve mathematical models of problems in Science and Engineering.

Curta can be used directly as API (Application Program Interface) in the UI (User Interface) design, or implicitly combined with the Locus Platform Sustainability application with clear break down into calculation indicators and sources. It offers an integrated solution to work with different data types, continuously changing inputs and large set of unknown variables.

Curta features include:

Calculation engine suite Independent code base for Curta only, safe and stable for any applications and platform.
Sequential calculation steps Curta can construct multi-step calculation structure where formulas can build on each other without knowing the exact values at the initiation of the calculation.
Conditional calculation logics Calculation steps can be set with conditions and logic for example effective date, input units, tank type etc.
Hierarchical calculation results Calculations can be designated to sources with hierarchy with Curta able to acknowledge the parent-child relations of the sources and present it as a calculation tree.
Execute parallel calculations for periodic data Curta can repeatedly conduct complicated calculation structure on a periodic base.
Execute parallel calculations for multiple sources Curta can repeatedly conduct complicated calculation structure for multiple linked sources for example facilities, tanks etc.

Contact us to see Locus’ Air Quality App in action

Locus Technologies obtains accreditation as verification body for Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)

Locus staff continue to prove expertise in this emerging compliance area with accredited staff throughout California and the Midwest.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 27 January 2020
Locus Technologies, (Locus), industry leader in water quality, EHS, sustainability, and compliance management software, is pleased to announce they are among the first accredited verification bodies for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program administered by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Locus verifiers were accredited for fuel pathway applications, alternative fuel transactions, and petroleum-based fuel reports.

Originally adopted in 2009, the goal of the LCFS program is to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of the transportation fuel pool. The LCFS is one of the key AB 32 measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California, while reducing petroleum dependency and achieving improved air quality. The program has grown in scope, and certified third-party verifiers can now review both applications and routine reporting.

Locus Technologies has been a certified third-party reviewer of GHG verifications for CARB since 2010 under the Mandatory Reporting Rule and maintains an unmatched track record. Not one of over 500 GHG verifications by Locus has been overturned, a standard the company intends to match with LCFS reporting.

Locus has staff and expertise to review Tier 1 fuel pathway applications and annual reports under LCFS as well as other LCFS projects, with verifiers located in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and in the Midwest. Locus also offers software products designed to assist reporters in complying with the LCFS program.

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.

LCFS Expert Seth Lalonde at the California Air Resources Board Training

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.

[sc_button link=”/services/lcfs-verification/” text=”See our LCFS verification services” link_target=”_self” centered=”1″]

Simplify your EPA fenceline regulatory reporting

Locus Platform provides the solution for managing and submitting fenceline monitoring data.

Locus handles all the EPA required environmental data collected at your refinery giving you a simple solution for all your data management and reporting needs. Our enhanced GIS+ mapping, data reports, formatted outputs, and charts help you streamline, consolidate, and take control of all your crucial environmental information.

Contact us to learn more about Locus’ Fenceline app

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.

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.

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.

From the foundations of Rome to global carbon emissions reduction

Does the solution for over 5% of world CO2 emissions lie in the 2000-year-old concrete-making technology from ancient Rome?

Concrete is the second most consumed substance on Earth after water. Overall, humanity produces more than 10 billion tons (about 4 billion cubic meters) of concrete and cement per year. That’s about 1.3 tons for every person on the planet— more than any other material, including oil and coal. The consumption of concrete exceeds that of all other construction materials combined. The process of making modern cement and concrete has a heavy environmental penalty, being responsible for roughly 5% of global emissions of CO2.

Scientists explain ancient Rome’s long-lasting concrete

So could the greater understanding of the ancient Roman concrete mixture lead to greener building materials? That is what scientists may have discovered and published in a 2017 study, led by Marie Jackson of the University of Utah. Their study uncovered the Roman secrets for formulating some of the most long-lasting concrete yet discovered. Our ability to unlock the secrets of ancient concrete formulas is dependent upon interdisciplinary analytical approaches utilized by the Jackson heat group and could lead to further discoveries that would reduce cement-based carbon emissions.

Unlike the modern concrete mixture which erodes over time, the Roman concrete-like substance seemed to gain strength, particularly from exposure to sea water. And most importantly, the process generates fewer CO2 emissions and uses less energy and water than “modern”, Portland cement-based concrete.