Del Monte Foods Selects Locus Software for Energy, Sustainability, and Resource Management

Solution to Drive Food Manufacturer’s Integrated Environmental Management

SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 12, 2011 — One of the nation’s largest food companies has joined with a Silicon Valley innovator to advance its position as a leader in sustainable energy and environmental resource management. Locus Technologies today announced that Del Monte Foods has selected Locus Technologies’ award-winning ePortal™ platform to provide a comprehensive, integrated system for monitoring and managing its energy use, water, and other sustainability efforts throughout the corporation’s facilities.

Together, the two companies are combining the latest in sustainable agricultural, food processing, and product delivery efforts with next-generation online technologies for Environmental Enterprise Resource Planning (EERP). In particular, ePortal will provide Del Monte with enterprise tools to optimize consumption of environmental resources to lower greenhouse gas emissions and encourage more sustainable growth.

For several years, Del Monte has pursued an aggressive agenda for environmental sustainability, including reductions to its waste stream, greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption.

Today’s announcement adds the critical component of energy management to this integrated resource approach by using Locus’ web-based environmental management and analytical tools for a simpler, more effective sustainability campaign. Through a single Cloud-based secure system, the Locus platform will collect, monitor, and analyze multiple streams of energy and environmental data flowing from Del Monte’s operational locations, with consumer production ranging from Kingsburg, California to Mendota, Illinois, as well as a wide array of Pet Food manufactured throughout the United States.

Locus’ ePortal works with Del Monte’s resource planning system to aggregate critical financial and operational data into a single platform for effective environmental resource monitoring and management.

“Companies are looking beyond single solution to address their energy, resource management, water, and compliance needs,” said Neno Duplan, president and CEO of Locus Technologies. “They seek solutions that help to align their energy, environmental emissions, and resource management strategies to become more efficient and to manage their energy and water consumption. ePortal provides that simple, integrated system, similar to ERP, that manages all environmental, energy, water, and other sustainability needs under a single portal infrastructure and Single Sign On (SSO) on the web,” Duplan said.

“By working with Locus, we will improve our ability to analyze and forecast our reliance on critical environmental resources, which will help Del Monte meet its sustainability goals,” said Robin Connell, Sustainability Programs Manager for Del Monte Foods. “Management of our complex set of activities requires robust software architectures that are best delivered via the Cloud. We found all of these in Locus’ platform.”

 

ABOUT DEL MONTE FOODS
Del Monte Foods is one of the country’s largest producers, distributors and marketers of premium quality, branded pet products and food products for the U.S. retail market, generating approximately $3.7 billion in net sales in fiscal 2011. With a powerful portfolio of brands, Del Monte products are found in eight out of ten U.S. households. Pet food and pet snacks brands include Meow Mix®, Kibbles ‘n Bits®, Milk-Bone®, 9Lives®, Pup-Peroni®, Gravy Train®, Nature’s Recipe®, Canine Carry Outs®, Milo’s Kitchen® and other brand names. Food product brands include Del Monte®, Contadina®, S&W®, College Inn® and other brand names. The Company also produces and distributes private label pet products and food products.

For more information on Del Monte Foods, visit the Company’s website at www.delmontefoods.com.

Del Monte. Nourishing Families. Enriching Lives. Every Day®

EPA announces schedule to develop hydrofracking wastewater standards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a schedule to develop standards for wastewater discharges produced by natural gas extraction from underground coalbed and shale formations. No comprehensive set of national standards exists at this time for the disposal of wastewater discharged from natural gas extraction activities, and over the coming months EPA will begin the process of developing a proposed standard with the input of stakeholders – including industry and public health groups. Today’s announcement is in line with the priorities identified in the president’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, and is consistent with the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board recommendations on steps to support the safe development of natural gas resources.

Currently, wastewater associated with shale gas extraction is prohibited from being directly discharged to waterways and other waters of the U.S. While some of the wastewater from shale gas extraction is reused or re-injected, a significant amount still requires disposal. As a result, some shale gas wastewater is transported to treatment plants, many of which are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater. EPA will consider standards based on demonstrated, economically achievable technologies, for shale gas wastewater that must be met before going to a treatment facility.

EBJ Business Achiever of the Week: Locus Technologies

EBJ is the leading source of business intelligence in the environmental industry. EBJ provides a strategic overview and an independent perspective on market trends and business strategy in a monthly publication.

Locus Ranked 3rd Largest Environmental Firm in Silicon Valley

L.A. may have bested the rest of the country when it comes to green job creation, but other regions can still be considered green tech hubs.

Locus Technologies Pioneers Water and Energy Software in the Cloud

CEO Neno Duplan’s Entrepreneur Profile

Water Price

There is a saying from the book and movie Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) “Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron. Water can carve its way through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.” There is also a famous Chinese proverb about water: “not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.”

And with global water shortages on the horizon, climate change supporters say an extreme response will be needed from international governments to provide enough drinking water in some parts of the world. The World Bank in a report said that 1.4 million people could be facing water scarcity by 2025. But the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecast is even gloomier. It estimates that 47% of the world’s population could face water stress in the same period–equivalent to more than three billion people.

The issue isn’t restricted to countries that typically see temperatures soar like ones in the Middle East. Northern hemisphere nations like the U.K. are also finding themselves in the midst of a drought in some regions, forcing governments to start to take action. The U.K. government, for instance, plans to issue a Water White Paper this December (2011) that will focus on the future challenges facing the water industry and measures to increase protection of river flows during summer months. No one really knows whether this year’s snows and rains in California are providing only a temporary respite from a long dry spell or signaling a return to normal—or at least what much of the developed world considers normal.

Maybe Israel’s entrepreneurial approach to the issue is the way forward. In the recent book “The Big Thirst” Mr. Charles Fishman, makes an interesting argument for a market-based approach to water’s distribution and usage… But the fact remains that water scarcity is now firmly on the agenda of the world’s governments, and isn’t going to evaporate overnight.
“The Big Thirst” offers a torrent of statistics. It is overflowing with stories large and small about water: The average American flushes the toilet five times a day, the author says, using 18.5 gallons of water. That comes to “5.7 billion gallons of clean drinking water down the toilet.” An Australian rice farmer with 10,450 acres uses six gigaliters of water—that’s six billion liters, or enough to hand almost everyone on the planet a bottle of Evian.

Water is a local problem. The wastefulness (and water conservation) has little or no effect on people in other watersheds because water is so difficult to ship. Shipping consumes energy. Energy production generates GHG. Hence a close relationship between water and climate change. Compared to other big problems facing society today, such as finance, climate change, and energy consumption, they are all interconnected in some way. No way out. And water will move to the top of agenda during this decade.

Mr. Fishman predicts that we will arrive at a water solution by putting a market price on water, because in most places today, neither farms nor industry nor residents pay what it costs to develop, purify and deliver water to their faucets. Rather than pay a market price for their water—which would direct the resource to where it provided the most economic value—most users pay a rate set by the government or their water utility, a rate usually aimed only at recouping the portion of the cost not subsidized by the general taxpayer. This distortion tends to keep the retail price of water lower than it would otherwise be where water is scarce, encouraging consumption rather than conservation.

Mr. Fishman asserts that pricing water beyond a basic ration for all would “help fix everything else,” including scarcity, unequal distribution, misuse and waste. Putting the right price on water would stop us from using purified water to flush our toilets or water our lawns, and it would lead us to more aggressively tap our own wastewater—the water from your shower could be used to wash the car or water the lawn. “The right price changes how we see everything else about water.”

Hydraulic Fracturing Disclosure Becomes the Law in Texas

Texas is now the first state with a law requiring upstream oil companies to publicly disclose the chemicals they use when extracting oil and gas from dense shale formations.
The natural-gas industry, bowing to longtime pressure, will disclose more information about the chemicals it uses for hydraulic fracturing.

Several other state agencies have regulations forcing some disclosure, but none have made it law. Texas’ law will force oil and gas companies to post the chemicals and the amounts used beginning in July 2012.

The relatively new drilling method for natural gas extraction—known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking—carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting large amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressure to break up rock formations and release gas deposits. Anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of the water sent down the well during hydrofracking returns to the surface, carrying drilling chemicals, very high levels of salts and, at times, naturally occurring radioactive material. The issue has taken on national importance as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used in more states to extract once out-of-reach hydrocarbons from impermeable shale formations.

Locus designed its Environmental Information Management (EIM) software specifically to meet the hydro fracturing industry’s needs for managing subsurface and water quality data.
Locus expanded our software offerings to manage and visualize water, waste, wastewater, drilling fluids, radionuclides and air emissions more effectively online. With Texas law in place and other states probably to follow soon, Locus felt that the market needed an off-the-shelf tool to manage hydrofracking data. Locus’s software provides any natural gas production site that has a need for data management and reporting—and almost all have—the necessary functionality to meet these requirements.

Environmental groups worry the chemicals could contaminate aquifers and water supplies while the industry says the process is safe. There is only one way to prove it and that is to disclose data. And that is what Texas law will require. The Texas law will require companies to make public the chemicals they use on every hydraulic fracturing job in the state. Texas law is significant because oil and gas drilling is a key industry in the state and the industry vocally supported the measure.

Earlier this year many big gas producers said they would begin voluntarily publicizing the chemicals online at FracFocus.org. The site states that groundwater protection is the “Priority Number One”. Oil and natural gas producers have stringent requirements for how wells must be completed to protect groundwater. The genesis of these requirements is water safety. Casing is the first line of defense used to protect freshwater aquifers. Locus’ EIM database stores groundwater chemistry information for over 400,000 groundwater monitoring wells that can be easily screened online for contaminants of concern and prove the case that hydrofracking is safe when used properly.

The hydrofracking industry has been in the spotlight in recent months and Locus wanted to provide this sector with a tool to prove its case to the public and regulators that natural gas production using hydrofracking can be done safely and transparently without jeopardizing drinking water supplies.

Roca Honda Resources, LLC Selects Locus’ Cloud Software

Roca Honda Resources to manage environmental data in EIM

SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 6, 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based water, energy, and environmental software, announced today that it has been awarded a contract to manage environmental data for Roca Honda Resources, LLC (“RHR”).

RHR, headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a joint venture between Sumitomo Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation of America and Strathmore Resources, US Ltd. Located in the Grants Mineral District of New Mexico, the Roca Honda uranium development project is one of the largest and highest-grade proposed uranium mines in the United States in more than 30 years.

“Locus’ software is a powerful tool for organizing, evaluating and visualizing large volumes of environmental data,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “We are very pleased that Roca Honda Resources recognizes the value of EIM in managing its environmental data and is incorporating it as an integral part of its operations.”

“Developing our resources prudently and efficiently, while identifying and managing potential environmental impacts related to our operations, are critically important to Roca Honda Resources. Locus’ software will allow us to share information more quickly and efficiently between our field operations and our scientists, and evaluate data faster, ultimately contributing to a more environmentally sound management practice and efficient operation,” said Mr. John DeJoia, Senior Vice President of New Mexico operations and Manager of Roca Honda Resources, LLC.

Initially, Locus will be deployed to manage data for the Roca Honda site. However, Mr. DeJoia also expressed an interest in investigating the potential use of Locus’ software at other sites in the future.

Groundwater Monitoring From Space

New York Times reported that scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources of fresh water.

They found problems in places as disparate as North Africa, northern India, northeastern China and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley in California, heartland of that state’s $30 billion agricultural industry.

Jay S. Famiglietti, director of the University of California’s Center for Hydrologic Modeling, said the center’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, known as Grace, relies on the interplay of two nine-year-old twin satellites that monitor each other while orbiting the Earth, thereby producing some of the most precise data ever on the planet’s gravitational variations. The results are redefining the field of hydrology, which itself has grown more critical as climate change and population growth draw down the world’s fresh water supplies.

According to the findings from October 2003 to March 2010, aquifers under the California’s Central Valley were drawn down by 25 million acre-feet — almost enough to fill Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.

For decades, groundwater measurements in the United States had been made from points on the Earth’s surface — by taking real-time soundings at 1,383 of the United States Geological Survey’s observation wells and daily readings at 5,908 others. Those readings are supplemented by measuring water levels in hundreds of thousands of other wells, trenches and excavations. But now the satellite technology allows the real time monitoring from space. This may be the best data about groundwater that is available. Harvesting and disseminating all of the information about aquifers as they dry up and shortages loom is the best use of space technology.

Separating groundwater from other kinds of moisture affecting gravity requires a little calculation and the inclusion of information on precipitation and surface runoff obtained from surface studies or computer models.

Because the climate change is first going to be felt on water shortages the groundwater needs to be managed carefully. We have population growth, we have widespread groundwater contamination, and we satellites showing us we are depleting most of groundwater.

EPA proposes stricter water quality controls for wetlands, creeks, and other water bodies

EPA will impose stricter pollution controls on wetlands and streams.

The new guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, which will be codified in a federal regulation later this year, could prevent the dumping of mining waste and the discharge of industrial pollutants to waters that feed creeks, lakes, and drinking water supplies. The specific restriction will depend on the waterway.

The question of which isolated streams and wetlands qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act has been in dispute for a decade. The EPA policy change is likely to affect tributaries flowing into water bodies such as the San Francisco Bay. Once finalized, the regulations will apply federal water quality standards to a range of waterways, including the headwaters of lakes and rivers as well as intermittent streams.

The new regulations will require companies to better manage their water quality data to avoid fines and to demonstrate that they are not polluting water bodies. Locus EIM software provides of-the- shelf cloud-based tool to accomplish this.