Organizations around the world face increasing regulations focusing on environment, health and safety (EHS) issues. Managing these rules and regulations are a very resource-intensive activity with greater risk of brand damage, penalties, and fines for non-compliance.
Organizations have to spend significant resources in tracking these regulations carefully, and organizations have to be even more vigilant with changing international regulations, which can affect business agility and continuity.
This month Environmental Protection Agency announced new air quality standards intended to reduce the amount of soot that can be released into the air.
Environmental groups and public health advocates welcomed the move by the EPA, saying it would protect millions of Americans at risk for soot-related asthma attacks, lung cancer, heart disease and premature death.
EPA said that the new rule is based on a rigorous scientific review. All but six counties in the United States would meet the proposed standard by 2020 with no additional actions needed beyond compliance with existing and pending rules set by the EPA.
The rules include controversial regulations governing mercury emissions and cross-state air pollution emitted by power plants. The new rule would set the maximum allowable standard for soot in a range of 12 to 13 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The current annual standard is 15 micrograms per cubic meter. The EPA said it would start designating counties that fail to meet the new soot standards as soon as 2014.
Soot, made up of microscopic particles released from smokestacks, diesel trucks and buses, wood-burning stoves and other sources, contributes to haze and can burrow into lungs. Breathing in soot can cause lung and heart problems.
SAN FRANCISCO, 4 June 2012 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Cloud-computing enterprise software for environmental, energy, air, water, and compliance management, has been selected to manage the compliance and environmental activities of Jack Engle & Co., with its award-winning Environmental Information Management (EIM) and ePortal software.
Jack Engle & Co., one of the largest scrap metal recycling companies on the West Coast, brokers and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals, stainless steel, and high-temperature alloys. Jack Engle & Co. will implement EIM and ePortal to help manage its environmental data, compliance activities, and calendars in one centralized repository online. The data will aggregate from multiple Jack Engle sites and locations in the Western U.S.; the company plans to use ePortal to lower costs associated with its environment, health, and safety functions; manage permits and assets; and track regulatory data related to its sites and assets.
“We are really excited to streamline our compliance activities across the organization with Locus’ ePortal,” said Al Gaspar, Human Resources Manager of Jack Engle & Co. “Being able to access all of our data anytime, online, will help with our broader strategy to automate more of our operations.”
“Locus ePortal and EIM is a great tool for organizations of all sizes, and we believe that Jack Engle & Co. will reap the benefits of significant cost savings and increased efficiency in its environmental tracking, reporting, and monitoring.” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
ABOUT JACK ENGLE & CO.
JACK ENGLE & Co., a family-owned and -operated in Los Angeles since 1965, brokers and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals, stainless steel, and high-temperature alloys. The company has facilities in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Mexico. For more information, visit www.jackengleco.com.
SAN FRANCISCO and El Paso, Texas, 21 May 2012 — The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Department has selected Locus Technologies’ (Locus’) award-winning ePortal™ platform to provide a comprehensive, integrated system for monitoring and managing its compliance needs at its main campus in El Paso.
The UTEP EH&S department is responsible for a variety of regulatory compliance issues at the main campus, which is undergoing a major expansion. More than $290 million in new construction and renovation projects have been under way on the UTEP campus. University facilities services are working systematically to design new buildings to meet LEED specifications, re-design landscaping to conserve water, and retrofit existing facilities to reduce energy and water consumption. EH&S compliance activities are an integral part of all of these undertakings.
Prior to selecting ePortal, each person responsible for individual compliance activities was required to log tasks in Outlook calendars. Now, they will be able to centralize all activities into one, web-based Locus database. ePortal will provide the UTEP EH&S team with visibility and transparency from a full campus perspective of all activities, asset management, and campus construction to help ensure that the university is complying with all regulations. The university’s EH&S management will be able to take a more holistic view of its operations, enabling it to reduce departmental expenditures.
“Organizations of all types are looking beyond Outlook and spreadsheets to address their environmental and other compliance issues,” said Neno Duplan, president and CEO of Locus Technologies. “We are very pleased to become a partner of choice to the UTEP growth strategy by providing comprehensive software platform to better manage their compliance needs.”
“Management of our complex set of activities requires robust software architectures via the Cloud. We found in Locus’ platform a solution to meet our growth to Tier One head-on,” said Robert Moss, Assistant Vice President for Environmental Health and Safety. “By working with Locus, we will improve our ability to manage EH&S activities, which will in turn, improve our effectiveness. Locus’ ePortal helps us fulfill our commitment to sustainable growth as we prepare the campus for the evolving educational needs of our 21st century students.”
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 7 May 2012 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Cloud-computing enterprise software for environmental, energy, air, water, and compliance management, has been awarded the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services Schedule 70 Contract Number GS-35F-0370Y. Locus acquired the GSA contract to offer its award-winning EIM and ePortal software through a simplified acquisition channel to federal, state, and local government agencies across the country.
The GSA is responsible for improving the government’s workplace by managing assets, delivering maximum value in acquisitions, preserving historic property, and implementing technology solutions. The U.S. government has an urgent need for a centralized system to manage environmental data at its own sites (at agencies like the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, OSHA, or NRC), or to manage large environmental, sustainability, and compliance data streams submitted by private industry to regulating agencies such as the EPA, NRC, or DOT. Most environmental data are not submitted electronically under the legacy system, mostly due to technical limitations of the current platforms. Locus’ Environmental Information Management (EIM) will serve to help disparate government agencies to receive more data electronically and to manage and organize those huge environmental datasets that are currently scattered among many different systems.
Legacy systems have prevented government agencies from realizing cost savings through more efficient technologies; however, many governmental agencies, such as the EPA, DOE, and DOD, should see immediate benefits from implementing the Cloud-based software.
Locus environmental information management platforms have been deployed for more than 15 years by some of the world’s largest companies. Several DOE sites already use Locus software to manage their environmental data and have tested the scalability of the software within agency systems. Governmental agencies now can use the same system that has offered significant cost savings to organizations in the private sector by automating processes of data acquisition, management, and reporting. With the Locus system, governmental agencies will be able to focus time on actually reviewing incoming information for exceedances rather than on the laborious process of data input and analysis of spreadsheets and custom-built applications.
“Locus has been providing high-quality software solutions to the private sector for more than a decade, and has a demonstrated history of efficient and accurate software, excellent customer service, and a fair and transparent pricing structure. The time has come for governmental agencies to embrace Cloud computing and benefit from a centralized enterprise system,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “Locus ePortal and EIM, offered in a multi-tenant government instance, will allow U.S. federal, state, and local agencies to rapidly deploy the latest environmental and energy management software.”
EPRI is happy to announce the third annual coordination of the EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop with the NEI Radioactive Effluent Technical Specifications/Radiological Environmental Monitoring Programs(RETS/REMP) Workshop.
SAN FRANCISCO 19 April 2012 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, has been accredited by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to provide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions verification services. Locus is one of a select few companies to obtain this accreditation.
Locus has provided verification services since 2010 for dozens of reporting entities. Recent amendments to the CARB regulation have prompted the regulators to retest and recertify all verifiers to ensure thorough understanding of the new regulations. Locus verifiers passed the first round of re-certification, in which less than half of previously certified verifiers were re-certified. Locus verifiers were also re-approved to complete verifications under all three specialty sectors, including transactions, oil and gas, and process emissions. Locus is approved to begin the verification process immediately for the 2011 reporting year. Verification of that data is due 1 September 2012.
The GHG verification services cover facilities in California that are regulated by the California Air Resources Board. Locus is accredited as a verification body through CARB and has lead verifiers certified in all reporting sectors. While verification is a requirement this year through AB 32, companies are also using third-party verification to promote their brands and the accuracy of their emissions information.
“We are very pleased to receive this confirmation that our verification staff are among the top experts in the field of greenhouse gases. Locus continues to expand its carbon practice at a rapid pace. Coupled with our carbon software services and domain expertise in all three key AB 32 reporting sectors in California, Locus is becoming a partner of choice for all companies wishing to be credible in their carbon reporting practices,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
The DoD Environmental Data Quality Workgroup is pleased to announce the 9th annual DoD Environmental Monitoring & Data Quality (EMDQ) Workshop.
Locus Technologies, in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory, developed Intellus New Mexico— a new, web-based environmental data application that will display the same internal data that Laboratory scientists and regulatory agencies see and use for environmental analysis and monitoring of the LANL site. The new system contains more than 9 million records, including historical data as well as a near-real-time view of ongoing data collection activities.
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Locus Technologies provides cloud-based environmental software and mobile solutions for EHS, sustainability management, GHG reporting, water quality management, risk management, and analytical, geologic, and ecologic environmental data management.