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.

Carbon Regulations Under Fire: AB32 Delayed to 2013

At a legislative hearing on the status of California’s cap-and-trade system yesterday, the Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Mary Nichols, indicated they are proposing to start the program in 2012 but delay the first compliance period to 2013.

Cap-and-trade is a cornerstone of California’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. This reduction is preserved in AB32, the state’s climate change legislation. Cap-and-trade is also a key component of the state’s participation in the Western Climate Initiative, which involves a number of US states and Canadian provinces and aims to reduce carbon emissions across the partner jurisdictions.

Nichols said the quarterly auctions of emissions allowances that each large emitter in the state must turn in would begin in the second half of 2012, rather than February 2012 as planned. The first three-year compliance period, which originally covered 2012-14, will be shortened to two years.

CARB indicates that the one-year delay will provide flexibility and allow them to “stress test” the market mechanisms. They intend to release a draft of regulations covering allowance distribution and details on offset protocols within the next two weeks. Nichols indicated the agency is also on track to finish its regulations by the end of October.

Keep checking Locus or CARB’s website for more information.

EPA Delays Rules for Boilers to April 2012

The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying issuing final regulations aimed at cutting pollution from factory boilers until April 2012.

The delay is one in a serious of slowdowns in regulatory agenda to curb carbon dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act and several rules aimed at reducing emissions from coal-burning power plants.

Although the federal court has ordered the EPA to implement the boiler standards, the agency has said it needed more time for public input. This latest delay would push the deadline for compliance to 2015 from 2014.

The EPA’s delay has frustrated environmental and public-health groups, which cite evidence that the rules would save lives and avert thousands of heart and asthma attacks.

Industry, on the other hand, has said that the rules would be extremely costly and difficult to implement.

Boilers are on-site generators that can provide energy for apartment buildings and shopping malls, as well as refineries and factories.

The EPA rules also would affect incinerators at industrial facilities. Small boilers located at universities, hotels, hospitals and other commercial buildings also might have to comply, though the EPA has sought to limit the impact on smaller emitters.

Locus Technologies Cloud Software to Manage Energenic’s Environmental Compliance and Stewardship

Locus SaaS software to manage environmental compliance for sustainable self-contained energy solutions by Energenic

SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 2, 2011  — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental and energy software, announced today that it has been awarded a contract from Energenic, LLC to manage its environmental, compliance, and sustainability information in Locus’ Cloud.

Energenic selected Locus’ SaaS-hosted software to implement a new environmental compliance management system to meet its business and regulatory requirements, specifically for managing and reporting environmental, compliance, and sustainability information.

Energenic specializes in the comprehensive design, development, construction and operation of large-scale energy projects. Whether the project involves electricity generation from cogeneration, solar, landfill gas, or biogas to fuels, environmental compliance and stewardship are imbedded in each Energenic design. Energenic evaluated multiple companies’ software offerings before selecting Locus to meet its business and regulatory reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

“We are very pleased that Energenic selected our Cloud platform. We are very proud that our software will complement Energenic’s disciplined expertise to engineer fiscally, technologically, environmentally, and sustainably responsible power solutions for generations to come. ePortal will allow Energenic to take a better aggregate view of its environmental challenges, take full ownership of its environmental data, and make better planning decisions for environmental stewardship,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“Energenic is committed to the next generation of energy technologies and services. Using Locus’ software will improve our project delivery, our financial well-being and our environmental stewardship. Locus’ ePortal software will help us meet our compliance and legal responsibilities, as well as position us to grow with the evolving regulatory landscape. Managing our data and information in the Cloud, and streamlining our reporting processes, will help us support our mission to provide sustainable energy sources to our clients while becoming better stewards of the environment,” added Frank DiCola, Energenic’s president and CEO.

 

ABOUT ENERGENIC
Energenic is a joint business venture between long-term business partners Marina Energy LLC, a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries (NYSE: SJI), and DCO Energy LLC. Energenic specializes in the comprehensive design, development, construction, and operation of large-scale energy projects and has offices in Nevada and New Jersey.

For more information, visit www.energenic-us.com, www.sjindustries.com, and www.dcoenergy.com.

Locus’ CEO to present at The 10th Wall Street GREEN Summit in New York City, 29-30 March 2011

The 15th Annual Wall Street Green Summit is the longest running and most comprehensive sustainable finance event in the industry.

US EPA extends deadline for greenhouse gas emissions reporting program to Sept 30, 2011

US EPA today announced that they are extending this year’s deadline for their greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting program to September 30, 2011. The program was launched in October 2009, and requires large emission sources and fuel suppliers to report their GHG emissions to EPA on an annual basis.

EPA previously indicated that the original reporting deadline of March 31st would be extended to this summer. Today’s release specifies the new reporting deadline of September 30, 2011. According to EPA, the extension will allow them to further test their electronic reporting platform, and provide industry with the opportunity to provide feedback and become familiar with the tool prior to reporting.

As soon as the new electronic platform is ready and tested by EPA, Locus GHG module of ePortal  will be compatible and able to directly upload data into it.

Entities required to submit data must register with the electronic GHG reporting tool (e-GGRT) no later than August 1, 2011.  Locus can assist with this registration.

EPA will provide more detail on the extension in the coming weeks. For more information, see EPA’s website.

Locus to Present at Cleantech Forum San Francisco, March 15-17, 2011

Organizing Enterprise Sustainability and Water Information in the Cloud

Locus Technologies Expands EIM Software to Manage Hydro Fracturing Data

Water-quality software maker expands its offering to meet natural gas industry demand

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 7 March 2011  — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental software, announced today that it has expanded its flagship product to manage data and information for natural gas exploration and production sites that use hydro fracturing to extract gas from shale.

Locus designed this expanded module in its Environmental Information Management (EIM) software specifically to meet the hydro fracturing industry’s needs for managing subsurface and water quality data. Since EIM has been used for more than 10 years at many oil and gas exploration sites and nuclear facilities nationwide, the system upgrade provides for rapid deployment, an unmatched level of functionality and data security, data validation, and scalability.

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. There were more than 493,000 active natural-gas wells in the United States in 2009, almost double the number in 1990, according to the New York Times. Around 90 percent have used hydrofracking to get more gas flowing, according to the drilling industry.

“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,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“We expanded our software offerings to manage and visualize water, waste, wastewater, drilling fluids, radionuclides and air emissions more effectively online. Since this industry is subject to a different set of state and federal regulatory guidance, we felt that the market needed an off-the-shelf tool to manage hydrofracking data. Locus’ 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,” he continued.

For the natural gas industry to stay in compliance with ever-stricter laws to protect drinking water supplies and air emissions, drilling companies need better ways to organize hydrofracking waste data in order to demonstrate to the public and regulators that hydrofracking activities are not endangering natural resources. They also need to prove that any dangerous waste from the wells is handled in compliance with state and federal laws. The EIM software upgrade helps address these needs for natural gas companies.

Environmental Business Journal Recognizes Locus Technologies for Achievements in Growth and Sustainability Offerings

Locus Technologies will be honored at the Environmental Industry Summit IX Hotel Del Coronado, Calif., March 9, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 22 February 2011  — Environmental Business Journal (EBJ), a business research publication that provides strategic business intelligence for the environmental industry, announced the winners of its 2010 Business Achievement awards.

Locus Technologies is pleased to announce that it was chosen to receive the EBJ award for business achievement among IT companies.

“Although 2010 was a difficult year, there was some noteworthy business activity in the environmental industry in 2010,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI), who singled out renewable energy development, environmental information technology, remediation, and mergers and acquisitions as growth areas.

The journal announced the winners in a recent issue, and representatives of the winning companies will be recognized during a special ceremony at EBI’s upcoming Environmental Industry Summit IX in Coronado, Calif., on March 9, 2011.

Locus Technologies was recognized for introducing several product enhancements and adding new clients in 2010. Over the past year, many of the firm’s Environmental Information Management (EIM) customers expanded their deployments of Locus into operations data management, using strategic business intelligence tools to maintain environmental compliance, manage organizational change, track sustainability, and respond to upcoming environmental requirements, including GHG reporting and resource management. To meet this demand, last year Locus rolled out an upgraded ePortal computing platform and added enhanced compliance, resource management, and air modules.

The firm signed multiple new customers in the nuclear (Exelon and Southern California Edison) and fossil-fuel power generation sectors, and increased its ePortal compliance platform use by 400 percent. Locus also added over 30 new customers for GHG services, including companies such as Ameresco, Stanford University, General Chemical, Lehigh Cement, United Airlines, and U.S. Pipe & Foundry.

In November, Locus’ water footprint and spatial analysis capability was recognized by software industry research analyst Gartner, and in December Locus obtained a second layer of SAS70 certification for its cloud computing operations.

To read about the EBJ awards.

 

ABOUT EBI
Founded in 1988, Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI, San Diego, Calif.) is a research, publishing and consulting company that specializes in defining emerging markets and generating strategic market intelligence for companies, investors and policymakers. EBI publishes Environmental Business Journal®, the leading provider of strategic information for the environmental industry, and Climate Change Business Journal®, which covers nine segments of the Climate Change Industry. EBI also performs contract research for the government and private sector and owns the Environmental Industry Summit, an annual three-day event for executives in the environmental industry.

Locus Receives SAS 70 Certification

Locus Cloud Computing Environmental Software Platform SAS 70 Certified

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 18 January 2011 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, announced that it has been certified as compliant with the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70: Service Organizations (SAS 70).

Locus passed an in-depth audit of its control objectives activities pertaining to database management and information technology. The certification places Locus in a rare category among environmental data management providers to have attained the rigorous classification. In today’s risk-management environment, it is essential that service providers like Locus demonstrate that they have adequate controls and safeguards in place so customers can be confident that their data are safe.

“By becoming SAS 70 certified, Locus shows that we are not only in compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but that we hold the security of our customers’ data paramount,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

“Whether your environmental data are currently hosted by another provider, or you’re searching for a company to manage your data, your company should demand evidence that your data are safe and protected by a highly controlled process. We are pleased to know that our customers’ environmental data for water, sustainability, emissions, and greenhouse gas data have been deemed to be in full compliance with SAS 70,” continued Duplan.

In addition to being SAS 70 certified, Locus requires that its key suppliers also comply with SAS 70 standards. For example, Locus’ data center and cloud hosting provider have been certified recently to have processes and safeguards in place. These safeguards are designed to protect Locus’ assets and data that reside in the company’s managed hosting services data center. A service auditor’s examination—performed in accordance with SAS No. 70 Type II—is widely recognized because it confirms that a service organization has been through an in-depth audit of its control objectives and activities, which includes controls over information technology services and related processes.

Completion of the SAS 70 Type II examination of Locus’ managed hosting data center proves that an independent accounting and auditing firm has formally evaluated the company’s processes, procedures, and controls. The examination included controls related to service delivery, support services, security, monitoring, change management, data backup, environmental controls, and logical and physical access.

SAS 70 is designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an acceptable method for an organization’s management to obtain assurance about a third-party service organization’s internal controls without conducting a separate assessment.

As the world’s most comprehensive on-demand software for organizing environmental data and information, Locus is the partner of choice for all organizations that seek a credible and cost-effective solution to their energy and environmental management and reporting needs.