Locus Achieves a Microsoft Gold Application Development Competency

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

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

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

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

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

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

Locus Ranked Second Largest Environmental Firm in Silicon Valley

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

Obama Speaks on the Fight Against Climate Change

Yesterday, 25 June 2013, President Obama braved the heat and took to the stage at Georgetown University to give a speech on his climate change plan. Addressing his audience, Obama began with a bold statement that brought the real impacts of the subject at hand immediately to the surface. “It was important for me to speak directly to your generation, because the decisions that we make now and in the years ahead will have a profound impact on the world that all of you inherit,” he stated.

The president proceeded by defining the reasons for why this speech was necessary, and why climate change is such an important topic in the United States today. He stated the scientific facts: that the measurement of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has dramatically increased since the 1950’s, and that 12 of the warmest years in recorded history have occurred in the past 15.

Obama further emphasized the evidence by referencing the droughts, floods, storms, and heat waves that the U.S. has recently experienced- all weather events that may not have been caused by global warming, but were directly affected by it. The progress made in recent years, such as the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase in both sun and wind generated electricity was addressed, but ultimately referred to as a ‘good start’.

President Obama stated that he would direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to put an end to the excessive carbon pollution from power plants, and create standards for new and existing power plants. Other highlights included Obama’s call to develop a better plan to help us prepare for climate change impacts, and his pledge to seek greater international engagement in regards to climate change.

On par with every other hot political topic, the president’s speech did not come without controversy, and certain parts were hailed by some and criticized by others. However, a few key takeaways are as follows: the severity of the United States climate change situation and the urgency to make this a top priority have been made clear.

This means it is more important than ever for organizations to take full responsibility for their GHG and carbon emissions, and energy consumption. The need to properly track and manage all their operational environmental and compliance information is apparent, and will play a crucial role in the fight to subdue climate change. Locus will continue to work it’s hardest to develop the most comprehensive software available to assist companies with the management of their critical, big data, and provide them with the necessary tools to not only comply with new and anticipated regulations, but also to harvest their data for actionable information to lower operating costs.

Locus Software Automates Discharge Monitoring Reporting

Locus Technologies has expanded its Environmental Information Management (EIM) software to automate the generation of discharge monitoring reports (DMR), which can help companies realize immediate cost and time savings, Locus says.

Locus to Attend and Co-present with Del Monte Foods at the 2013 Food and Beverage Environmental Conference

The annual Food & Beverage Environmental Conference (FBEC) continues to be the premier environmental event for the food industry, bringing together senior environmental managers from food and beverage companies to share their experiences with sustainable practices, environmental compliance and new technologies and approaches.

Locus Adds New Functionality to Generate AREOR Data Summary Tables in its EIM Software

Locus’ Nuclear Customers can Easily Meet Regulatory Compliance with EIM

SAN FRANCISCO, 25 February 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Cloud-computing enterprise software for environmental, energy, air, water, and compliance management, has added brand new functionality to its flagship EIM product that gives customers the ability to easily generate the Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Report (AREOR) Data Summary Tables.

Any organization that has a Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program (REMP) must submit this report on an annual basis. The AREOR is highly analytical and requires specific groupings and summary statistics in order for an organization to meet regulatory compliance. Typically, generating these AREOR annual data summary tables are a tedious and time-intensive process.

Locus recognized this reporting difficulty after speaking with one of its customers, PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. After listening to the current challenge and PG&E’s suggestions, the importance of building the AREOR data summary tables as a formatted report and making it available to all of EIM’s nuclear customer databases was apparent. Now, what used to take multiple weeks to complete is condensed down to a few hours.

“REMP professionals who create their site’s AREOR know how long it takes to generate data summary tables. Every year I spent around one to two weeks manipulating data in Excel spreadsheets creating these sampling matrix data tables for my AREOR,” said Martin Wright, Senior RP Engineer at Diablo Canyon. “With Locus EIM formatted reports, each sampling matrix data summary table is now generated in one to two seconds, with just a few clicks. The initial one time setup of the formatted templates took me about two hours to understand and actually setup in EIM. Once the templates are in place in EIM, I simply change the date ranges when generating the annual summary tables for my report. This feature will save 40 to 80 hours of workload for me each year.”

“Locus has a strong presence in the nuclear industry, and after hearing about the difficulties that our customers were experiencing when completing AREOR data summary tables, we knew it was necessary to make the AREOR tables an off-the-shelf formatted report within EIM,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “This is a good example of when ‘wisdom of the crowd’ helps to advance knowledge and streamline otherwise tedious, but necessary processes. With a great idea from one customer—all EIM customers will benefit almost instantly and reduce their operating cost in years to come. That is the real power of a web-based system with a rolling upgrade model. We are grateful to PG&E for working with us and sharing their knowledge and experience in promoting the industry’s state-of-the-art technology.”

 

President Obama Addresses Climate Change

In President Obama’s recent State of the Union, he chose to address the issue of climate change more than has ever been done before in presidential history. He spoke about how floods, droughts, storms, and wildfires have all been more frequent and extreme than ever, and stated that the 12 hottest years on record have all been within the past 15.

In addition to the dangers that the effects of climate change pose, there is also the threat of a financial problem, with the cost of rebuilding New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy being approximately $60 billion.

Obama certainly met the expectation of environmentalists during his speech by acknowledging these threats, and stated he would take action to control carbon dioxide pollution. He even stated that if Congress would not act soon, he would direct his Cabinet to form actions that can be taken to reduce pollution, transition to sustainable forms of energy, and be better prepared for the results of climate change.

A variety of options can be pursued to accomplish these goals, one of which being the EPA cracking down on carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, and regulating this as a pollutant. But, one thing is for certain: the recognition of climate change and the need for protection is currently in the public eye more than it has ever been before. It is becoming even more crucial for organizations to properly manage and keep track of their environmental, emissions, and compliance data. This is why Locus will continue to work hard to offer companies the most comprehensive SaaS platforms available today to manage and organize their critical environmental information.

Locus Technologies Wins Environmental Business Journal’s 2012 Business Achievement: Information Technology Award

Environmental Business Journal is proud to announce its 15th annual business achievement awards. Our 2012 winners succeeded in a relatively difficult business climate, so we salute the dedication and commitment of the companies awarded.

EPA Updates Rules to Reduce Air Pollution from Stationary Engines

Starting off the year of air with a bang, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized revisions to standards to reduce air pollution. Specifically, pollution from stationary engines that generate electricity, and power equipment at industrial, agricultural, oil and gas production, power generation and other facilities.

These revisions were made to the 2010 “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines (RICE)” rules. The updated rule will reduce the capital and annual costs of the original rules by hundreds of millions of dollars, and also reduce air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds by thousands of tons.

This is extremely important because the pollution emitted from these engines can cause serious health defects. The updates were meant to make the standards both reachable and cost-effective while reducing emissions, and the EPA estimates the updated standards will be worth $830 million to $2.1 billion in annual health benefits.