Tag Archive for: SaaS
Locus at 25 Years: Innovative Approach and Plans
For the last 25 years, Locus has synthesized knowledge of environmental science with a vision for effectively gathering, aggregating, visualizing, and analyzing emissions of all sorts and environmental data. This work aims to help organizations marshal their environmental data to manage better and, where possible, reduce their environmental footprints.
This approach has differed from many other environmental software startups that have come and gone in the past ten years. Locus’ distinction comes from harnessing the true multitenant Cloud and a unique perspective on how to address the complex issues of environmental information management. Cloud technology offers Locus customers numerous advantages: Improved data collection,
aggregation, visualization, business analytics, and analysis, and the cost reduction inherent in web-based software all translate into a competitive advantage and increased customer profitability.
So, rather than “one software solution per problem,” Locus has built an enterprise-scale software solution tailored to meet all customer’s needs in a single SaaS platform. This approach eliminates redundancy and incompatibility issues with other enterprise-management systems, giving organizations unprecedented control over their data. As the industry evolves and new markets continue to grow, Locus is positioned to grow with them, staying at the forefront of environmental and sustainability information management and promoting a vision of collaborative global stewardship.
And that global stewardship is where Locus would like to see environmental data management have a more significant impact on policy, mitigation efforts, and understanding the complete picture of how human activities affect the planet.
Locus is not just selling software to address an evolving regulatory landscape (which is why most customers are looking for environmental compliance software) but also because there is an underlying urgency to tackle what the Locus team views—along with many other scientists—as a climate and environmental crisis. The 21st century’s environmental challenges include shortages of drinkable water; the impact of various pollutants that enter our atmosphere; the strains of our ever-increasing population on limited resources and threatened ecosystems; and climate change causing extreme weather conditions that push more and more the world’s population into precariousness.
We need a collective and holistic understanding of the problems we face. The only way to understand the whole picture and act meaningfully globally is for all of us to share the data we gather about our activities. It’s impossible to mitigate the risks and effects of our actions on the planet when we don’t have the data to characterize the problem and see a complete picture of what we face.
This complete picture will require us to monitor and collect an unprecedented quantity of data, and it’s with this massive data explosion, Locus’s vision comes into play. To achieve this end, organizations in the private and public sectors will need to track and upload their environmental data; subsequently, these data need to be made available through an interconnected database for environmental data management so that scientists and others can collectively view the results of our activities and act on a grander scale.
Getting to the point of sharing all of these data is an important stretch goal right now, but it’s the direction Locus hopes to see environmental data management move in the future. In the meantime, Locus is working to support organizations of all sizes to gather their data, understand it better, and act on their analyses to improve their environmental footprints.
This is the seventh post highlighting the evolution of Locus Technologies over the past 25 years. The previous post can be found here. This series continues with Locus at 25 Years: Climate Change Software, A Generational Opportunity.
Locus at 25 Years: Locus Platform, Multitenant Architecture, the Secret of our Success
Locus Platform
Locus Platform is the preeminent on-demand application development platform for EHS, ESG, and beyond, supporting many organizations and government institutions. Individual enterprises and governmental organizations trust Locus’s SaaS Platform to deliver robust, reliable, Internet-scale applications. The foundation of Locus Platform (LP) is a metadata-driven software architecture that enables multitenant applications. This unique technology, a significant differentiator between Locus and its competitors, makes the Locus Platform fast, scalable, and secure for any application. What do we mean by metadata-driven? If you look up metadata-driven development on the web, you find the following:
“The metadata-driven model for building applications allows an Enterprise to deploy multiple applications on the same hosting infrastructure easily. Since multiple applications share the same Designer and Rendering Engine, the only difference is the metadata created uniquely for each application.”
The Triumph of the Multitenant SaaS model, which Locus brings to the EHS/ESG industry.
In the case of LP, it is the Designer and Rendering Engine cited in this definition. All LP customers share this engine and use it to create their custom applications. These applications may consist of dashboards, forms to enter data, plots, reports, and so forth, all designed to meet a set of requirements. Instructions (metadata) stored in a database tell the engine how to build these entities, the total of which form a client-designed application.
Locus Platform’s evolution to the leading EHS and ESG Platform.
History has shown that every so often, incremental advances in technology and changes in business models create significant paradigm shifts in the way software applications are designed, built, and delivered to end-users. The invention of personal computers (PCs), computer networking, and graphical user interfaces (UIs) gave rise to the adoption of client/server applications over expensive, inflexible, character-mode mainframe applications. And today, reliable broadband Internet access, service-oriented architectures (SOAs), and the cost inefficiencies of managing dedicated on-premises applications are driving a transition toward the delivery of decomposable, collected, shared, Web-based services called software as a service (SaaS).
With every paradigm shift comes a new set of technical challenges, and SaaS is no different. Existing application frameworks are not designed to address the unique needs of SaaS. This void has given rise to another new paradigm shift, namely platform as a service (PaaS). Hosted application platforms are managed environments specifically designed to meet the unique challenges of building SaaS applications and deliver them more cost-efficiently.
The focus of Locus Platform is multitenancy, a fundamental design approach that dramatically improves the manageability of EHS and ESG SaaS applications. Locus Platform is the world’s first PaaS built from scratch to take advantage of the latest software developments for building EHS, ESG, sustainability, and other applications. Locus Platform delivers turnkey multitenancy for Internet-scale applications.
A single shared software and hardware stack across all customers.
The same applies to many different sets of users; all Locus’ LP applications are multitenant rather than single-tenant. Whereas a traditional single-tenant application requires a dedicated group of resources to fulfill the needs of just one organization, a multitenant application can satisfy the needs of multiple tenants (companies or departments within a company, etc.) using the hardware resources and staff needed to manage just a single software instance. A multitenant application cost-efficiently shares a single stack of resources to satisfy the needs of multiple organizations.
Single-tenant apps are expensive for the vendor and the customer.
Tenants using a multitenant service operate in virtual isolation: Organizations can use and customize an application as though they each have a separate instance. Yet, their data and customizations remain secure and insulated from the activity of all other tenants. The single application instance effectively morphs at runtime for any particular tenant at any given time.
Single-tenant apps create waste
Multitenancy is an architectural approach that pays dividends to application providers (Locus) and users (Locus customers). Operating just one application instance for multiple organizations yields tremendous economy of scale for the provider. Only one set of hardware resources is necessary to meet the needs of all users, a relatively small, experienced administrative staff can efficiently manage only one stack of software and hardware, and developers can build and support a single code base on just one platform (operating system, database, etc.) rather than many. The economics afforded by multitenancy allows the application provider to, in turn, offer the service at a lower cost to customers—everyone involved wins.
Some attractive side benefits of multitenancy are improved quality, user satisfaction, and customer retention. Unlike single-tenant applications, which are isolated silos deployed outside the reach of the application provider, a multitenant application is one large community that the provider itself hosts. This design shift lets the provider gather operational information from the collective user population (which queries respond slowly, what errors happen, etc.) and make frequent, incremental improvements to the service that benefits the entire user community at once.
Two additional benefits of a multitenant platform-based approach are collaboration and integration. Because all users run all applications in one space, it is easy to allow any user of any application varied access to specific data sets. This capability simplifies the effort necessary to integrate related applications and the data they manage.
Gartner recognized the power of the Locus Platform in their early research.
This is the third post highlighting the evolution of Locus Technologies over the past 25 years. The first two can be found here and here. This series continues with Locus at 25 Years: How did we fund Locus?
Locus at 25 Years: Locus EIM and the Triumph of the SaaS Model
Locus EIM
How did Locus succeed in deploying Internet-based products and services in the environmental data sector? After several years of building and testing its first web-based systems (EIM) in the late 1990s, Locus began to market its product to organizations seeking to replace their home-grown and silo systems with a more centralized, user-friendly approach. Such companies were typically looking for strategies that eliminated their need to deploy hated and costly version updates while at the same time improving data access and delivering significant savings.
Several companies immediately saw the benefit of EIM and became early adopters of Locus’s innovative technology. Most of these companies still use EIM and are close to their 20th anniversary as a Locus client. For many years after these early adoptions, Locus enjoyed steady but not explosive growth in EIM usage.
Triumph of the SaaS Model
E. M. Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory has much to offer in explaining the pattern of growth in EIM’s adoption. In the early years of innovative and disruptive technology, a few companies are what he labels innovators and early adopters. These are ones, small in number, that are willing to take a risk, that is aware of the need to make a change, and that are comfortable in adopting innovative ideas. The vast majority, according to Rogers, do not fall into one of these categories. Instead, they fall into one of the following groups: early majority, late majority, and laggards. As the adoption rate grows, there is a point at which innovation reaches critical mass. In his 1991 book “Crossing the Chasm,” Geoffrey Moore theorizes that this point lies at the boundary between the early adopters and the early majority. This tipping point between niche appeal and mass (self-sustained) adoption is simply known as “the chasm.”
Rogers identifies the following factors that influence the adoption of an innovation:
- Relative Advantage – The degree to which an innovation is seen as better than the idea, program, or product it replaces.
- Compatibility – How consistent the innovation is with the potential adopters’ values, experiences, and needs.
- Complexity – How difficult innovation is to understand and use.
- Trialability – The extent to which the innovation can be tested or experimented with before a commitment to adoption.
- Observability – The extent to which the innovation provides tangible results.
In its early years of marketing EIM, some of these factors probably considered whether EIM was accepted or not by potential clients. Our early adopters were fed up with their data stored in various incompatible silo systems to which only a few had access. They appreciated EIM’s organization, the lack of need to manage updates, and the ability to test the design on the web using a demonstration database that Locus had set up. When no sale could be made, other factors not listed by Rogers or Moore were often involved. In several cases, organizations looking to replace their environmental software had budgets for the initial purchase or licensing of a system but had insufficient monies allocated for recurring costs, as with Locus’s subscription model. One such client was so enamored with EIM that it asked if it could have the system for free after the first year. Another hurdle that Locus came up against was the unwillingness of clients at the user level to adopt an approach that could eliminate their co-workers’ jobs in their IT departments. But the most significant barriers that Locus came up against revolved around organizations’ security concerns regarding the placement of their data in the cloud.
One of the earliest versions of EIM
Oh, how so much has changed in the intervening years! The RFPs that Locus receives these days explicitly call out for a web-based system or, much less often, express no preference for a web-based or client-server system. We believe this change in attitudes toward SaaS applications has many root causes. Individuals now routinely do their banking over the web. They store their files in Dropbox and their photos on sites like Google Photos or Apple and Amazon Clouds. They freely allow vendors to store their credit card information in the cloud to avoid entering this information anew every time they visit a site. No one who keeps track of developments in the IT world can be oblivious to the explosive growth of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, and Microsoft’s Azure. We believe most people now have more faith in the storage and backup of their files on the web than if they were to assume these tasks independently.
An early update to EIM software
Changes have also occurred in the attitudes of IT departments. The adoption of SaaS applications removes the need to perform system updates or the installation of new versions on local computers. Instead, for systems like EIM, updates only need to be completed by the vendor, and these take place at off-hours or at announced times. This saves money and eliminates headaches. A particularly nasty aspect of local, client-server systems is the often experienced nightmare when installing an updated version of one application causes failures in others that are called by this application. None of these problems typically occur with SaaS applications. In the case of EIM, all third-party applications used by it run in the cloud and are well tested by Locus before these updates go live.
Locus EIM continues to become more streamlined and user friendly over the years.
Yet another factor has driven potential clients in the direction of SaaS applications, namely, search. Initially, Locus was primarily focused on developing software tools for environmental cleanups, monitoring, and mitigation efforts. Such efforts typically involved (1) tracking vast amounts of data to demonstrate progress in the cleanup of dangerous substances at a site and (2) the increased automation of data checking and reporting to regulatory agencies.
Locus EIM handles all types of environmental data.
Before systems like EIM were introduced, most data tracking relied on inefficient spreadsheets and other manual processes. Once a mitigation project was completed, the data collected by the investigative and remediation firms remained scattered and stored in their files, spreadsheets, or local databases. In essence, the data was buried away and was not used or available to assess the impacts of future mitigation efforts and activities or to reduce ongoing operational costs. Potential opportunities to avoid additional sampling and collection of similar data were likely hidden amongst these early data “storehouses,” yet few were aware of this. The result was that no data mining was taking place or possible.
Locus EIM in 2022
The early development of EIM took place while searches on Google were relatively infrequent (see years 1999-2003 below). Currently, Google processes 3.5 billion searches a day and 1.2 trillion searches per year. Before web-based searches became possible, companies that hired consulting firms to manage their environmental data had to submit a request such as “Tell me the historical concentrations of Benzene from 1990 to the most recent sampling date in Wells MW-1 through MW-10.” An employee at the firm would then have to locate and review a report or spreadsheet or perform a search for the requested data if the firm had its database. The results would then be transmitted to the company in some manner. Such a request need not necessarily come from the company but perhaps from another consulting firm with unique expertise. These search and retrieval activities translated into prohibitive costs and delays for the company that owned the site.
Google Searches by Year
Over the last few decades, everyone has become dependent on and addicted to web searching. Site managers expect to be able to perform their searches, but honestly, these are less frequent than we would have expected. What has changed are managers’ expectations. They hope to get responses to requests like those we have imagined above in a matter of minutes or hours, not days. They may not even expect a bill for such work. The bottom line is that the power of search on the web predisposes many companies to prefer to store their data in the cloud rather than on a spreadsheet or in their consultant’s local, inaccessible system.
The world has changed since EIM was first deployed, and as such, many more applications are now on the path, that Locus embarked on some 20 years ago. Today, Locus is the world leader in managing on-demand environmental information. Few potential customers question the merits of Locus’s approach and its built systems. In short, the software world has caught up with Locus. EIM and LP have revolutionized how environmental data is stored, accessed, managed, and reported. Locus’ SaaS applications have long been ahead of the curve in helping private, and public organizations manage their environmental data and turn their environmental data management into a competitive advantage in their operating models.
We refer to the competitive advantages of improved data quality and flow and lower operating costs. EIM’s Electronic Data Deliverable (EDD) module allows for the upload of thousands of laboratory results in a few minutes. Over 60 automated checks are performed on each reported result. Comprehensive studies conducted by two of our larger clients show savings in the millions gained from the adoption of EIM’s electronic data verification and validation modules and the ability of labs to load their EDDs directly into a staging area in the system. The use of such tools reduces much of the tedium of manual data checking and, at the same time, results both in the elimination of manually introduced errors and the reduction of throughput times (from sampling to data reporting and analysis). In short, the adoption of our systems has become a win-win for companies and their data managers alike.
This is the second post highlighting the evolution of Locus Technologies over the past 25 years. The first can be found here. This series continues with Locus at 25 Years: Locus Platform, Multitenant Architecture, the Secret of our Success.
Locus at 25 Years: Who is Locus Technologies?
On 11 April 1997, Neno Duplan and a few colleagues gathered in an attorney’s office at One Front Street downtown San Francisco to begin the Locus journey. Over the next 25 years, these founders and many who later joined them would build a company based on three breakthrough goals: in place of client-server and silo systems, offer organizations cloud-based software and applications to manage their environmental compliance; create a subscription business model, and build an integrated model for emissions and environmental information management. Through these ideas, Locus would come to revolutionize the EHS compliance and sustainability industries.
Figure 1: One Front Street, San Francisco Ca where Locus was founded in 1997
After a lunch at the California’s oldest restaurant nearby, Tadich Grill, Locus was off to the great start.
Figure 2: California’s oldest restaurant at California Street
Figure 3: Tadich Grill, California’s oldest restaurant was founded in 1849 by three Croatian immigrants.
Twenty-five years later, Locus continues that revolution, offering integrated EHS and ESG software in the cloud, mobile, IoT, and AI technologies for companies of every size and industry. Locus has changed how companies manage their environmental liability and emissions and, at the same time, improved companies’ means to manage their impacts on the climate and environment. On this 25th birthday, we want to thank our employees and customers who entrusted us with their data. We couldn’t have done any of this without you.
Figure 4: Locus’s first office in Newark, CA
Who is Locus?
We founded Locus with the vision to create a robust online environmental data management and compliance software system to handle the volume and the complexities of environmental data. The company founder and key staff came to Locus with dozens of years of consultant-based environmental data management and compliance experience and with first-hand knowledge of the difficulties and frustrations of homegrown solutions involving spreadsheets and siloed custom software.
Locus is a leading provider of EHS compliance and ESG software and technology-enabled solutions that address a broad range of risk categories across diversified end-markets.
Locus is the only provider of scale with an extensive offering unifying EHS, ESG, and Water solutions and is rapidly expanding $7bn+ addressable market opportunity with significant white space and supported by strong industry tailwinds.
Locus sits at the center of a powerful network, connecting EHS and ESG with technology needs to scale sustainable supply chains
Debuting in 1999, Locus Environmental Information Management (EIM) was the first exclusively online Software as a Service (SaaS) environmental data management system. Since then, it has been in continuous operation and has been continuously upgraded, improved, and enhanced based on technology changes and customer requests. Locus EIM was the first time a large enterprise could purchase a commercially supported system to streamline and manage the entire environmental data management process without needing to buy any hardware or install any software on-premises.
Figure 5: Locus Silicon Valley Headquarters, Mountain View, CA
Following the early success of EIM, in 2000, Locus created the first EHS compliance portal, later named Locus Platform (LP), to house different apps and less structured data such as documents, site information, and obligation and compliance information. This platform evolved over the years into a robust full-blown EHS compliance management tool with many applications. Locus completely rebuilt LP in 2013 using the latest web technologies to provide the EHS industry with the first multitenant solution for EHS compliance management. In its current form, LP offers an intuitive interface with the immense flexibility to incorporate features such as drag-and-drop forms creation, visual business-process modeling, Excel import/export integration, and rich and configurable user dashboards and reporting interface. Locus created every feature with the end-user to promote quick and easy data capture and task management.
The central focus of EIM is the environmental sample and what it tells us about environmental conditions at a site. It is a vertical application designed to store location, sampling, and analytical information. We often refer to EIM as an inch wide and a mile deep. Companies use EIM to store, evaluate, and report contaminants found in the groundwater, surface water, soil, sediments, air, and biota at a site or facility. It is typically the tool of choice for an organization monitoring emissions or study of a potentially contaminated area. In recent years, a version of it has been modified to serve the needs of water utilities for water quality management.
Most data in EIM originates from analytical laboratories, field readings, instrument readings, and consumption meters. Many such data points are transmitted to EIM via IoT technologies. EIM users generally understand sampling protocols, analytical chemistry, water quality, air emissions, sample management, geology, and other technical fields.
In contrast, LP is an expert solution that houses many compliance and task management applications. Its users generally are in oversight or supervisory positions responsible for compliance and task management. LP consumes verified data from EIM to build and report compliance apps. Its tools and flexibility support a full-featured and unified set of Environmental Health & Safety, and sustainability solutions in a single platform.
Today, Locus is an environmental software and service company with headquarters located in Silicon Valley. Our vision of a cloud-based system for accessing and managing environmental data and EHS compliance has now been widely adopted by many companies and industrial sectors and is a technology known to all as Software as a Service (SaaS).
Locus is mainly responsible for creating an emerging technology sector in its niche-storing and managing environmental and sustainability industry data using Cloud Computing. Via its SaaS, Locus is now a leading EHS and ESG SaaS provider and outpaces its competitors in environmental data tracking and compliance management applications.
Locus didn’t start in the clouds, but back in 1997, it had a pretty good view of the road it wanted to head down. Locus evolved from Neno Duplan’s work as a research associate at Carnegie Mellon in the 1980s, where he developed the prototype system for environmental information management and display using microcomputers. This early work led to the development of numerous database management systems at some of the nation’s largest environmental sites and ultimately to the formation of Locus Technologies in 1997.
In Locus’ second anniversary letter on 15 April 1999, Neno Duplan wrote:
In the short term, we will drive revenue growth through geographical expansion and by fully supporting the development of our Internet-based products and services. We plan to use our Internet-based and information management technologies to revolutionize the industry. These new products will keep us competitive and open a world of opportunities for Locus and our clients.
Locus’ vision of providing companies with the tools they need for better global environmental stewardship has not changed since its inception. We focus on empowering organizations to manage and mitigate the environmental impact of their activities. That vision has come to fruition as Locus’ software services are now used by some of the world’s largest companies and government organizations.
This series continues with: Locus at 25 Years with: Locus EIM and the Triumph of the SaaS Model.
The Past, Present, and Future of EHS & ESG
To celebrate a milestone 25 years of success in EHS and ESG software development, we sat down with Locus President, Wes Hawthorne for a brief discussion. In this post, we ask him a series of questions highlighting the past, present and future of EHS and ESG.
1. What are the greatest challenges that environmental professionals are facing?
One of the persistent challenges we’ve seen for the past 25 years is that the responsibilities of environmental professionals are continually expanding. Previously, almost all environmental work was localized, with facility-level permits for air, water, waste, etc. That has expanded over the years to include new regulations and reporting requirements for sustainability, social metrics, and other new compliance areas, while the old facility-level programs still continue. This has led to more pressure on environmental managers to keep up with these programs, and increased reliance on tools to manage that information. That’s where Locus has always focused our effort, to make that ever-expanding workload more manageable with modern solutions.
2. What are the most interesting trends in EHS and ESG?
The current flood of interest in ESG is certainly notable as far as bringing corporate attention to the environmental field, as well as having requirements originate from the SEC here in the US. We have become accustomed to managing oversight from multiple regulatory bodies at the local, state, and federal level, but SEC would be a newcomer in our line of work. Their involvement will be accompanied by a range of new requirements that are common for the financial world, but would be unfamiliar to environmental staff.
Across other EHS fields, we are seeing increased demand for transparency in EHS functions. Overall, this is a positive move, as it brings more attention to EHS issues and develops a better EHS culture within organizations. But this also drives the need for better tools to make EHS information readily available across all levels of the organization.
3. What are the most disruptive technologies available today?
As far as technologies, the ones most likely to have significant impact in the environmental field are ones that don’t require a significant capital investment. Although there are definitely some practical advantages to installing smart monitoring devices and other new technologies, procuring the funding for those purchases is often difficult for environmental professionals. Fortunately, there are still many technologies that have already been implemented successfully in other fields, but only need to be adapted for environmental purposes. Even simple changes like using web-based software in place of spreadsheets can have a huge impact on efficiency. And we haven’t yet seen the full impact of the proliferation of mobile devices on EHS functions. We are still working on new ways to take advantage of mobile devices for data collection, analysis, and communication purposes.
4. What do you think are the biggest innovations of the last 25 years in our field?
We’ve seen a number of innovation milestones in the past 25 years, and while we didn’t invent SaaS, we’ve been largely responsible for adapting it and perfecting it for environmental purposes. One of the major innovations we’ve integrated into our products include online GIS tools where users can easily visualize their environmental data on maps without expensive desktop software. Another one was our fully configurable software platform with built-in form, workflow, and report builders tailored for environmental purposes, which allows anyone to build and deploy environmental software applications that exactly match their needs. There have been many other innovations we’ve incorporated into our software, but these two stand out as the most impactful.
5. Where do you see Environmental and ESG reporting in the future?
More and more, we are seeing all types of reporting being converted into pure data exchanges. Reports that used to include regulatory forms and text interpretations are being replaced with text or XML file submittals. This transition is being driven largely by availability of technology for EHS professionals to generate and read these files, but it is also promoted by regulatory agencies and other stakeholders receiving these reports. Stakeholders have less time to read volumes of interpretive text, and are becoming more skeptical of potential bias in how facts are presented in text. These are driving the need for more pure data exchanges, with increasing emphasis on quantifiable metrics. These types of reports are also more readily compared against regulatory or industry standards. For reporters, lengthy corporate reports with volumes of text and graphics are becoming less common, and the success of an organization’s programs will be increasingly reliant on robust data sets, since ultimately only the data will be reported.
6. What has been the key reason for Locus’ success for the past 25 years?
There are actually a few that immediately come to mind. One reason is the nature of our continually evolving products. By providing our solutions as SaaS, our software adapts with new environmental requirements, and with new technologies. If our software was still the same as it was 25 years ago, it simply wouldn’t be sufficient for today’s requirements. Since our software is updated multiple times each year, it is difficult to notice the incremental changes, but they can be readily seen if you compare today’s software with the original in 1997. And we’re committed to continuing the development of our products as environmental needs change.
The other primary reason for our success is our excellent staff and the environmental expertise we bring to our customers. We simply could not provide the same level of support without our team of environmental engineers, scientists, geologists, chemists, and an array of others. Having that real-world understanding of environmental topics is how we’ve maintained customer relationships for multiple decades. And our software only has value because it is maintained and operated by staff who appreciate the complexity and importance of environmental work.
Mr. Hawthorne has been with Locus since 1999, working on development and implementation of services and solutions in the areas of environmental compliance, remediation, and sustainability. As President, he currently leads the overall product development and operations of the company. As a seasoned environmental and engineering executive, Hawthorne incorporates innovative analytical tools and methods to develop strategies for customers for portfolio analysis, project implementation, and management. His comprehensive knowledge of technical and environmental compliance best practices and laws enable him to create customized, cost-effective and customer-focused solutions for the specialized needs of each customer.
Mr. Hawthorne holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and B.S. degrees in Geology and Geological Engineering from Purdue University. He is registered both as a Professional Engineer and Professional Geologist, and is also accredited as Lead Verifier for the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Low Carbon Fuel Standard programs by the California Air Resources Board.
Want to discuss EHS and ESG solutions with our product specialists? Contact us today!
ESG: Why Uptime of SaaS Vendors Matters
In a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model, service uptime is vital for several reasons. Besides the obvious of having access to the service over the internet at any given time and staying connected to it 24/7/365, there are additional reasons why service uptime is essential. One of them is quickly verifying the vendor’s software architecture and how it fits the web.
Locus is committed to achieving and maintaining the trust of our customers. Integral to this mission is providing a robust compliance program that carefully considers data protection matters across our cloud services and service uptime. After security, service uptime and multitenancy at Locus come as a standard and, for the last 25 years, have been the three most essential pillars for delivering our cloud software. Our real-time status monitoring (ran by an independent provider of web monitoring services) provides transparency around service availability and performance for Locus’ ESG and EHS compliance SaaS products. Earlier I discussed the importance of multitenancy in detail. In this article, I will cover the importance of service uptime as one measure to determine if the software vendor is running genuine multitenant software or not.
Service Uptime
If your software vendor cannot share uptime statistics across all customers in real-time, they most likely do not run on a multitenant SaaS platform. One of the benefits of SaaS multitenancy (that is frequently overlooked during the customer software selection process) is that all customers are on the same instance and version of the software at all times. For that reason, there is no versioning of software applications. Did you ever see a version number for Google’s or Amazon’s software? Yet they serve millions of users simultaneously and constantly get upgraded. This is because multitenant software typically provides a rolling upgrade program: incremental and continuous improvements. It is an entirely new architectural approach to software delivery and maintenance model that frees customers from the tyranny of frequent and costly upgrades and upsell from greedy vendors. Companies have to develop applications from the ground up for multitenancy, and the good thing is that they cannot fake it. Let’s take a deeper dive into multitenancy.
An actual multitenant software provider can publish its software uptime across all customers in real-time. Locus, for example, has been publishing its service uptime in real-time across all customers since 2009. Locus’s track record speaks for itself: Locus Platform and EIM have a proven 99.9+ percent uptime record for years. To ensure maximum uptime and continuous availability, Locus provides redundant data protection and the most advanced facilities protection available, along with a complete data recovery plan. This is not possible with single-tenant applications as each customer has its software instance and probably a different version. One or a few customers may be down, others up, but one cannot generally aggregate software uptime in any meaningful way. The fastest way to find if the software vendor offers multitenant SaaS or is faking it is to check if they publish online, in real-time, their applications uptime, usually delivered via an independent third party.
Legacy client-server or single-tenant software cannot qualify for multitenancy, nor can it publish vendor’s uptime across all customers. Let’s take a look at definitions:
Single-Tenant – A single instance of the software and supporting infrastructure serves a single customer. With single-tenancy, each customer has their independent database and instance of the software. Essentially, there is no sharing happening with this option.
Multitenant – Multitenancy means that a single instance of the software and its supporting infrastructure serves multiple customers. Each customer shares the software application and also shares a single database. Each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants.
A multitenant SaaS provider’s resources are focused on maintaining a single, current (and only) version of the software platform rather than being spread out in an attempt to support multiple software versions for customers. If a provider isn’t using multitenancy, it may be hosting thousands of single-tenant customer implementations. Trying to maintain that is too costly for the vendor, and sooner or later, those costs become the customers’ costs.
A vendor invested in on-premise, hosted, and hybrid models cannot commit to providing all the benefits of an actual SaaS model due to conflicting revenue models. Their resources will be spread thin, supporting multiple software versions rather than driving SaaS innovation. Additionally, suppose the vendor makes most of their revenue selling on-premise software. In that case, it is difficult for them to fully commit to a proper SaaS solution since most of their resources support the on-premise software. In summary, a vendor is either multitenant or not – there is nothing in between. If they have a single application installed on-premise of customer or single-tenant cloud, they do not qualify to be called multitenant SaaS.
Before you engage future vendors for your enterprise ESG reporting or EHS compliance software, assuming you already decided to go with a SaaS solution, ask this simple question:
Can you share your software uptime across ALL your customers in real-time? If the answer is no, pass.
Multitenancy Explained
And if the vendor suddenly introduces a “multitenant” model (after selling an on-premises or single-tenant software version for 10+ years), who in the world would want to migrate to that experimental cloud without putting the contract out to bid to explore a switch to well established and market-tested actual multitenant providers? The first-mover advantage of multitenancy is a considerable advantage for any vendor. Still not convinced? Let me offer a simple analogy to drive home the point as to why service uptime and multitenancy matter: Tesla vs. Edison–War of Currents.
The War of Currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s that pitted companies against one another and involved a debate over the cost and convenience of electricity generation and distribution systems, electrical safety, and a media/propaganda campaign, with the leading players being the direct current (DC) based on the Thomas Edison Electric Light Company and the supporters of alternating current (AC) based on Nikola Tesla’s inventions backed by Westinghouse.
With electricity supplies in their infancy, much depended on choosing the right technology to power homes and businesses across the country. The Edison-led group argued for DC current that required a power generating station every few city blocks (single-tenant model). In contrast, the AC group advocated for a centralized generation with transmission lines that could move electricity great distances with minimal loss (multitenant model).
The lower cost of AC power distribution and fewer generating stations eventually prevailed. Multitenancy is equivalent to AC regarding cost, convenience, and network effect. You can read more about how this analogy relates to SaaS in the book by Nicholas Carr, “Big Switch.” It’s the best read so far about the significance of the shift to multitenant cloud computing. Unfortunately, the ESG/EHS software industry has lagged in adopting multitenancy.
Given these fundamental differences between different modes of delivering software as a service, it is clear that the future lies with the multitenant model.
Whether all customer data is in one or multiple databases is of no consequence to the customer. For those arguing against it, it is like an assertion that companies “do not want to put all their money into the same bank account as their competitors,” when what those companies are doing is putting their money into different accounts at the same bank.
When customers of a financial institution share what does not need to be partitioned—for example, the transactional logic and the database maintenance tools, security, and physical infrastructure and insurance offered by a major financial institution—then they enjoy advantages of security, capacity, consistency, and reliability that would not be affordably deliverable in isolated parallel systems.
Locus has implemented procedures designed to ensure that customer data is processed only as instructed by the customer throughout the entire chain of processing activities by Locus and its subprocessors. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (“AWS”) provides the infrastructure used by Locus to host or process customer data. Locus hosts its SaaS on AWS using a multitenant architecture designed to segregate and restrict customer data access based on business needs. The architecture provides an effective logical data separation for different customers via customer-specific “Organization IDs” and allows customer and user role-based access privileges. The customer interaction with Locus services is operated in an architecture providing logical data separation for different customers via customer-specific accounts. Additional data segregation ensures separate environments for various functions, especially testing and production.
Multitenancy yields a compelling combination of efficiency and capability in enterprise cloud applications and cloud application platforms without sacrificing flexibility or governance.
Want to learn more? Reach out to our product specialists today.
The Horrors of Excel for Data Management
Locus has been preaching on the pitfalls of Excel for a long time. It’s no surprise that one of the worst imaginable errors in Excel that could’ve happened, did. Almost 16,000 COVID-19 cases in England went unreported because Public Health England hit the maximum row count in their version of Excel.
This is not the only example of Excel being misused or being the wrong tool entirely for the job. Excel is not in any way a data management system for complex or vital data. When it comes to sustainability reporting and environmental data management, the evils of the grid are a force to be reckoned with. We have highlighted a few examples that will have you shivering.
Case 1: The Evils of Autofill
Take a look at this harmless-looking chart. It shows monthly electricity consumption for a facility set to report:
| Month | Monthly Electricity Consumption (MWh) |
| January 2019 | 133,500 |
| February 2019 | 122,400 |
| March 2019 | 138,900 |
| April 2019 | 141,600 |
| May 2019 | 141,601 |
| June 2019 | 141,602 |
| July 2019 | 141,603 |
| August 2019 | 141,604 |
| September 2019 | 141,605 |
| October 2019 | 141,606 |
| November 2019 | 141,607 |
| December 2019 | 141,608 |
During review, the auditor notices a distinct trend from April to December, indicating false data overwritten by a stray double-click. Eventually, the auditor required re-entering all invoice data for dozens of facilities to correct the issue. Where the original data went and how autofill went astray remains a mystery.
Case 2: The Phantom File Editor
Imagine using a massive spreadsheet with lots of linked calculations for your annual sustainability report. One of the team engineers works on the file to input more data and get it ready for presentation. But in the final steps, they accidentally delete one of the formulas that sum up the indicators. The annual total looks great for the presentation since you’ve effectively removed a portion of your resource consumption, but afterwards you discover the conclusions were incorrectly calculated. How did that error get introduced? The spreadsheet has no auditing capabilities on the individual values, so you may never know.
Excel supports multiple users editing one document simultaneously, but not well. Multiple records are saved, edits are lost, and vital data vanishes, or at best is very hard to recover. The Track Changes feature is not infallible, and over reliance on it will cause hardship.
Case 3: Date of the Dead
Excel has a frustrating insistence of changing CAS numbers into dates, even if they are something like “7440-09-7″ turning into September 7, 7400. If you’re not explicit in your cell formatting, Excel isn’t happy leaving values as they are.
Case 4: Imposter Numerical Values
You meant to type 1.5, but you typed “1..5” or “.1.5”. Does Excel reject these imposter numbers or let you know of a potential error? No, it’s stored in Text format. This can throw off any averages or sums you may be tracking. This minor identity theft can cause a real headache.
Other Significant Cases:
Other data quality issues with using Excel include, but are not limited to:
- Locations with multiple variations of the same ID/name (e.g., MW-1, MW-01, MW 1, MW1, etc.)
- Use of multiple codes for the same entity (e.g., SW and SURFW for surface water samples)
- Loss of significant figures for numeric data
- Special characters (such as commas) that may cause cells to break unintentionally over rows when moving data into another application
- Bogus dates like “November 31” in columns that do not have date formats applied to them
- Loss of leading zeros associated with cost codes and projects numbers (e.g., “005241”) that have only numbers in them but must be stored as text fields
- The inability to enforce uniqueness, leading to duplicate entries
- Null values in key fields (because entries cannot be marked as required)
- Hidden rows and/or columns that can cause data to be shifted unintentionally or modified erroneously
- Inconsistent use of lab qualifiers— in some cases, these appear concatenated in the same Excel column (e.g., “10U, <5”) while in other cases they appear in separate columns
As you can see, the horrors of Excel are common, and terrifying. Without a proper system of record, auditing features, and the ability for data to vanish into the ephemera, Excel offers little in the way of data security and quality for organizations managing vital environmental and compliance data. Many are learning firsthand the superiority of database management systems over spreadsheets when it comes to managing data. Now is the time to examine the specific shortcomings of your current system and consider your options.
Contact us today to learn how Locus makes complex data management a little less spooky!
Tag Archive for: SaaS
Locus Unveils Refrigerant Management Software Aligned with the EPA’s Final Rule on Hydrofluorocarbon Phasedown
Locus’s cloud-based software helps organizations comply with stricter requirements
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 29, 2024 —Locus Technologies, the sustainability and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) compliance software leader, today announced the release of Locus Refrigerant Management software, the cloud-based, mobile-friendly product that generates exceedance alerts, facilitates leak detection, and automates response protocols in addition to providing comprehensive tracking of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and substitutes like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The software empowers companies to manage complex refrigerant phasedowns with accuracy and confidence, ultimately avoiding excessive emissions. The software also positions Locus clients to comply with tougher US federal regulations taking effect 14 months from now and to easily adapt as US and EU rules evolve in the future.
On September 20, 2024, EPA Administrator, Michael S. Regan, signed the final rule Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Management of Certain Hydrofluorocarbons and Substitutes under of the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act which indicates tougher requirements will be phased in starting January 1, 2026. Refrigerants are the most potent of greenhouse gases, with some varieties having a global warming potential hundreds and even thousands of times greater than CO2. Even small leaks pack a big punch on the environment, which is why stricter regulations are emerging.
“These next 12 months will be critical for companies to articulate their refrigerant management plans, train their technicians, and adopt technology that will help them avoid costly errors and get this right,” said Mark Harbin, veteran refrigerant compliance expert and Locus product designer. “Locus is pleased to bring to market refrigerant management software as well as refrigerant management training and certification to help each client manage the phase down and transition successfully.”
Immediate regulatory priorities include detecting leaks and resolving them within mandated timeframes; comprehensive record keeping of equipment, inspections, refrigerant inventories, and rates of use; and meticulously disposing and reclaiming used refrigerants. Locus Refrigerant Management software simplifies these challenges. Locus manages everything from service records to cylinder barcodes and automatically alerts users when any dates or datapoints are out of compliance. Immediate notifications and dynamic dashboards deliver real-time insights, and the software’s fully configurable components flex to future demands.
“Refrigeration and air conditioning cause up to 10 percent of global carbon emissions, and the leaks alone produce more carbon than all the air travel worldwide, which is why waiting on periodic reports pulled from static refrigerant databases just won’t cut it,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies. “Locus software enables clients to act quickly; the software immediately alerts users of potential problems with their equipment so that issues can be resolved before becoming disastrous.”
Locus Refrigerant Management is one of several integrated applications available in Locus software. Other Locus offerings include EHS risk and compliance, sustainable construction, waste management, water quality, incident management, ESG reporting, and robust environmental data management software. This collection of specialized and unified SaaS applications enables clients to manage every facet of refrigerant management and environmental data in one place. To learn more about Locus Refrigerant Management or the full suite of applications, please visit www.locustec.com.
About Locus Technologies
Locus Technologies, the global environmental, social, governance (ESG), sustainability, and EHS compliance software leader, empowers companies of every size and industry to be credible with ESG reporting. From 1997, Locus pioneered enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) for EHS compliance, water management, and ESG credible reporting. Locus apps and software solutions improve business performance by strengthening risk management and EHS for organizations across industries and government agencies. Organizations ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, such as Sempra, Corteva, Chevron, DuPont, Chemours, San Jose Water Company, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port of Seattle, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, have selected Locus. Locus is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For further information regarding Locus and its commitment to excellence in SaaS solutions, please visit www.locustec.com or email info@locustec.com.
Locus’ Sustainable Construction Software Aligns with New US EPA Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials
Locus Simplifies Reporting for Buy Clean Programs and Embodied Carbon Emissions
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 27, 2024 —Locus Technologies, the sustainability and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) compliance software leader, today announced that its Sustainable Construction application is compatible with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), including those that will be produced and enriched during Phase 1 of the US EPA labeling program that was announced earlier this month. The EPA program will enable purchasers to easily identify and procure verified low embodied carbon construction materials and cite the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of a single unit of the material, as recorded in the EPD. Construction contractors connect the EPDs for their selected materials, spanning multiple product categories such as steel, glass, concrete, asphalt, and discrete mixes, into Locus software, along with data pertaining to the quantity of each material that enters the construction site. Locus calculates the emissions across infinite EPDs and quantity-records to effectively track the environmental impact of building and transportation projects, and to easily demonstrate compliance with low carbon targets.
“Our clients are accurate and credible in every environmental, health, safety, and sustainability pursuit, including clean construction,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus. “Considering the magnitude of construction projects, especially those for government infrastructure, there may be big differences between the predicted emissions in the design phase, and the actual reporting that comes directly from tracking EPDs and verified material quantities.”
The significance, volume, and quality of EPDs is expected to grow subsequent to the EPA labeling program. Locus Sustainable Construction software supports several API integrations, empowering contractors to source EPDs directly from the EC3 database or the EPA’s future EPD and labeling registry. The software also helps to “simplify the process for specifiers and contractors to track compliance with directives to procure and use these materials and products,” as outlined in the EPA announcement, and to demonstrate the cumulative impacts. Locus manages this data across individual infrastructure projects or a portfolio of development sites.
“While the rollouts of the EPA label program will focus on A1 to A3 stages of a Life Cycle Assessment, Locus software is designed with flexibility to manage GHG and other EPD data from your choice of endpoints: Cradle to Gate, Cradle to Laid, and Cradle to Grave,” said Dorian Bailey, former Chief of Clean Construction for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the current Customer Success Director at Locus Technologies. “Net zero ambitions are generally limited to operational carbon, like a building’s energy use, so we are pleased to help A/E and Construction Contractors simplify the work of reducing embodied carbon as well.”
Locus Sustainable Construction is one of several integrated applications available in Locus software. Other Locus offerings include EHS risk and compliance, waste management, water quality, incident management, ESG reporting, and robust environmental data management software. This collection of specialized tools enables clients to manage every facet of sustainable construction and environmental data in one place. To learn more about Locus Sustainable Construction or the full suite of applications, please visit www.locustec.com.
About Locus Technologies
Locus Technologies, the global environmental, social, governance (ESG), sustainability, and EHS compliance software leader, empowers companies of every size and industry to be credible with ESG reporting. From 1997, Locus pioneered enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) for EHS compliance, water management, and ESG credible reporting. Locus apps and software solutions improve business performance by strengthening risk management and EHS for organizations across industries and government agencies. Organizations ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, such as Sempra, Corteva, Chevron, DuPont, Chemours, San Jose Water Company, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port of Seattle, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, have selected Locus. Locus is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For further information regarding Locus and its commitment to excellence in SaaS solutions, please visit www.locustec.com or email info@locustec.com.
Locus Announces Its Environmental SaaS Will Support Broader EHS Compliance Initiatives at a Top Oil & Gas Corporation
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 7, 2024 —Locus Technologies, the sustainability and Environmental Health Safety (EHS) compliance software leader, today announced that one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies elected to expand its worldwide Locus software license to include additional functionality, regions, and sites. This expansion includes Locus EIM for additional regions, Locus’ EHS compliance platform, and Locus’ purpose-built Waste Management application to provide a scalable, single system of record for enterprise-wide waste management. The implementation will span the company’s worldwide business units, commencing immediately in the US, followed by Africa in 2025, and the remainder of the company’s regions in 2026. This agreement follows a rigorous, six-month pilot deployment at a large refinery site, including thorough proof of concept testing, vendor capability analysis, and scalability and usability testing.
Under the new Master Service Agreement, the oil and gas company expanded its existing use of Locus EIM to also become the system of record for its environmental-based analytical laboratory and field data in Australia.
“Locus has supported this prestigious company with our flagship EIM software since 2003,” said Neno Duplan, Founder and CEO of Locus Technologies. “As they continue to prioritize environmental risk management and expand their EHS compliance and ESG initiatives, Locus is pleased to respond with enhanced technologies to drive data integrity, accessibility, and reporting across the enterprise with Locus Platform. We are pleased that one of our longest customers continues to recognize the power and scalability of the Locus SaaS solution and selected Locus as their system of record for waste management and compliance.”
About Locus Technologies
Locus Technologies, the global environmental, social, governance (ESG), sustainability, and EHS compliance software leader, empowers companies of every size and industry to be credible with ESG reporting. From 1997, Locus pioneered enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) for EHS compliance, water management, and ESG credible reporting. Locus apps and software solutions improve business performance by strengthening risk management and EHS for organizations across industries and government agencies. Organizations ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, such as Sempra, Corteva, DuPont, Chemours, San Jose Water Company, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port of Seattle, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, have selected Locus. Locus Technologies is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For further information regarding Locus Technologies and its commitment to excellence in SaaS solutions, please visit www.locustec.com or email info@locustec.com.
Locus Technologies Successfully Completes SOC 1 and SOC 2 Audits
Locus becomes the only EHS Software provider with both valid verifications of its financials, operations, and security
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 30, 2024 —Locus Technologies, the only science-driven software company at the nexus of sustainability and Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) compliance, today announced the successful completion of its Type 2 SOC 1® and Type 2 SOC 2® audits as of July 5, 2024, for the period of July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. The company considers these more rigorous “type 2” audits and the subsequent third-party attestation reports to be further evidence of its leadership, integrity, and security in the EHS software and ESG reporting markets.
The SOC 1 and SOC 2 audits were conducted by leading compliance assessor A-LIGN, a technology-enabled security and compliance partner trusted by more than 2,500 global organizations to help mitigate cybersecurity risks.
“Organizations are drowning in ‘Big-environmental-Data’ and inadequate spreadsheets and home-built databases, so they are eager to move to an EHS Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) they can trust,” said Neno Duplan, Founder and CEO of Locus. “Our Type 2 SOC 1 and Type 2 SOC 2 verifications give companies the confidence they need to make the move to Locus, especially amid cybersecurity threats and an unstable climate of corporate consolidation in the EHS and ESG software markets. Locus remains independent—and independently verified.”
By adhering to the stringent requirements of System and Organization Controls (SOC) audits, Locus demonstrates its commitment to protecting sensitive customer data against cyber threats and operational failures. This builds trust with customers, assuring them that their data is secure and managed according to the highest industry standards and helps Locus comply with various regulatory requirements.
“Locus prides itself on helping customers be accurate and credible in their environmental, health, and safety monitoring and reporting. This is particularly true for ESG reporting where greenwashing is clouding the credibility of reporting. Earning current third-party validation of our own processes is an important way to demonstrate our credibility in the market,” continued Duplan.
Established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), SOC 1 is an examination of controls at a service organization that are likely to be relevant to user entities’ internal control over financial reporting; the SOC 2 examination is designed for organizations of any size, regardless of industry and scope, to ensure the personal assets of their potential and existing customers are protected. SOC reports are recognized globally and affirm that a company’s infrastructure, software, people, data, policies, financials, procedures, and operations have been formally reviewed.
“Congratulations to Locus Technologies for completing their SOC 1 and SOC 2 audits, a widely recognized signal of trust and security,” said Steve Simmons, COO of A-LIGN. “It’s great to work with organizations like Locus who understand the value of expertise in driving an efficient audit and the importance of a high-quality final report.”
If you are interested in viewing Locus Technologies’ SOC 1 or SOC 2 reports, please contact info@locustec.com. For more information about Locus EHS software, please visit us at www.locustec.com.
ABOUT LOCUS TECHNOLOGIES
Locus Technologies is the only scientist-driven software company at the nexus of analytical and field data management, Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) compliance, and sustainability. Locus software manages air, water, waste, energy, emissions, site, and incident data within a configurable platform for risk mitigation and regulatory reporting. The company’s work in embodied carbon, CO2 emissions, refrigerants, and PFAS raises the bar in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures. And with industry-leading methods for data intake, queries, validation, tracking, visualization, and tasking, Locus is uniquely suited for the most complex or consequential operations — where accuracy and credibility cannot be compromised. Founded in 1997, Locus software now supports 1.3 million sites and 500 million real-time records for nuclear, chemical, petroleum, manufacturing, water utilities, environmental consulting firms, and U.S. Department of Energy facilities such as Los Alamos National Laboratory. Locus Technologies is headquartered in Silicon Valley in California. To learn more, visit www.locustec.com.
Foster Farms Selects Locus Technologies EHS/ESG Enterprise SaaS
Locus EHS/ESG Cloud will streamline Foster Farms EHS Compliance, ESG Reporting, and Water Quality Management.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 2, 2023 — Locus Technologies, the leading EHS Compliance and ESG software provider, today announced that Foster Farms, a top US provider of fresh, frozen, and prepared poultry products and the leading brand of fresh chicken in the Western U.S., selected Locus’s award-winning enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) to organize and manage their EHS compliance and ESG reporting.
Foster Farm subscribed to an integrated set of apps offered in the Locus Cloud Platform. Some apps include EHS Compliance Management, ESG and Sustainability, GHG Emission Factor and Calculation Management, Inspections, Configuration Workbench, Air Emissions Management, Storm Water, Wastewater, and well data management and reporting.
Locus Cloud is the first fully integrated multitenant platform created from the ground up to allow organizations to manage their environmental, energy, water, waste, carbon, air, health and safety, remediation, water quality, and compliance information in one place. The Locus Platform allows companies to configure their own management, tracking, visualization, and reporting through a graphically driven user interface. This feature enables organizations to configure the software to their needs without worrying about the expensive programming outlays usually associated with customization and single-tenant deployments.
When designing integrated EHS/ESG SaaS, Locus sought to make the complicated workflow and management of environmental data as simple as possible and to make it manageable from a single platform with shared components. The resulting platform offers immense flexibility and endless capabilities with minimal training thanks to the new, intuitive, user-friendly interface design.
“The accurate tracking and reporting of critical environmental resource usage is a necessary part of our compliance responsibilities, and a major component of our efforts to ensure that we are a sustainable producer. The Locus application software will make a significant contribution to our resource management capabilities,” said Don Hill, Foster Farms Director of Environmental Affairs.
“We are delighted that Foster Farms recognized the power of the Locus Cloud platform. Businesses do not want to shop for point solutions from different vendors only to be left with the nightmare of integration, security, synchronization, and vendor management. They want one-stop shops and to avoid having to deal with vendors that don’t integrate well with one another or have spotty service and limited support. Locus will provide Foster Farms single platform through which they can accomplish all their environmental and compliance management needs on a single, fully customer-configurable platform,” said Neno Duplan, President, and CEO of Locus. “Keeping the end user’s perspective in mind, we’ve packed the same 26-plus years of domain expertise that Locus has been offering all along into a highly configurable and scalable software platform built from the ground up on the latest web technologies,” remarked Duplan.
ABOUT FOSTER FARMS
Foster Farms is dedicated to providing families across America with great food. From ready to cook chicken and turkey, to chicken nuggets and corndogs, Foster Farms portfolio of fresh, frozen, and prepared foods, are always welcome whether it’s dinner time or snack time. Since its founding in 1939 Foster Farms has gone on to become one of the largest quality poultry producers in the United States. Headquartered in Livingston, Ca with facilities in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana, the company has nearly 12,000 Team Members, and is committed to building a “culture that nobody wants to walk aways from.”
Locus Technologies Receives 17th Consecutive EBJ Award for Information Technology in ESG
Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognized Locus for ESG software growth and innovation.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 2 March 2023 — Locus Technologies, the leading EHS Compliance and ESG software provider, received their 17th consecutive award from Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) for growth and innovation in the field of Information Technology in the environmental software with particular focus on EHS, compliance, sustainability, and ESG.
Locus continues to expand its ESG SaaS solution, including built-in business intelligence tools for interactive, actionable insights into unified EHS compliance and ESG data, forecasting tools predicting future ESG reporting, APIs for utility data sources, and interfaces with third-party systems that house ESG data. Locus’s ESG solutions focus on “enter once, report to many.” enabling companies the efficiency of reporting to multiple organizations and numerous standards from a single dataset. Essential built-in reporting includes state or federal regulations and ESG based on standards, including CDP, GRI, SASB, TCFD, and many others.
“Locus’s pioneering work in integrated ESG reporting and EHS compliance software is paying off. As one of the early SaaS leaders in net-zero digital solutions for ESG reporting, Locus continues to provide value to companies that want to be credible with their carbon reporting and sustainability software.” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI), publisher of Environmental Business Journal.
“With energy transition, climate resilience, and new federal programs driving business, as well as traditional environmental market drivers in infrastructure, air quality, remediation, water and wastewater it is understandable that companies that offer integrates SaaS platform like Locus has advantage.” added Ferrier.
“As Locus continues to expand our EHS and ESG software we would like to thank EBJ for recognizing Locus again for a 17th consecutive year and for noting the new functionality and growing customer base we achieved in 2022. Locus will continue this trajectory into 2023 with new tools designed to simplify EHS and ESG management in our award-winning Locus software, which offers a single system of record and truth for our customers. Locus SaaS platform enables our customers to manage their carbon transactions and inventory with the same rigor, confidence, and transparency as their financial ones.” said Neno Duplan, the Founder and CEO of Locus Technologies.
San Jose Water Expands Locus Technologies SaaS to include GIS+
Locus GIS+ will streamline SJW’s water quality and environmental management from watershed to consumer taps.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 14 February 2023 — Locus Technologies, the leading EHS Compliance, and ESG software provider, today announced that San Jose Water (SJW), an investor-owned public utility providing water service to a population of approximately one million people in the Santa Clara Valley, has expanded Locus’ environmental information management software to use Locus GIS+ for advanced GIS analysis.
SJW has been using Locus SaaS and mobile app since 2014 to manage its field data collection, water quality compliance, and regulatory reporting. SJW also uses Locus to track sewer discharges and well blow-offs.
“Our responsibility is to ensure our customers receive the highest quality drinking water from their taps. We monitor the quality and cleanliness of our water in terms of state and federal regulatory requirements. In 2021, our highly experienced staff collected more than 1,000 regulatory and non-regulatory samples from our distribution system and treatment plant, generating over 23,000 data points. To manage this data effectively, we used Locus’ cloud-based software. GIS mapping capabilities are essential for our environmental data analysis. Locus GIS+ will allow quick data visualization and is a quantum leap forward with advanced analysis tools that use Esri’s Smart Mapping technology,” said Suzanne DeLorenzo, the Director of Water Quality at San Jose Water.
“Locus’s mission is to help organizations, such as San Jose Water, to achieve their business goals by providing them the software tools to manage key data associated with water quality and compliance reporting,” said Neno Duplan, CEO of Locus. “With GIS+, SJW will have all the tools they need to perform a wide range of geospatial data analysis across their distribution system. Our water quality management cloud-based software, coupled with GIS+ and Locus Mobile for field data collection, provides our customers with a highly scalable and feature-rich application that gives water utilities strong analytical power and advanced GIS capabilities.”
Locus GIS+ is powered by Esri’s ArcGIS platform and offers various advanced features— including enhanced cartography, comprehensive spatial data analysis, and the ability to use the customer’s map data through integration with ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS.
ABOUT SAN JOSE WATER
Founded in 1866, San Jose Water is an investor-owned public utility and is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water systems in the United States. Serving over one million people in the greater San Jose metropolitan area, San Jose Water also provides services to other utilities, including operations and maintenance, billing, and backflow testing. San Jose Water is owned by SJW Group, a publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SJW. SJW Group also owns Connecticut Water Company in Connecticut; Maine Water Company in Maine; and SJWTX, Inc. (dba Canyon Lake Water Service Company) in Texas. To learn more about San Jose Water, visit www.sjwater.com.
Locus Technologies Celebrates 25 Years of Innovative EHS & ESG Software
Locus looks back on the last 25 years of pioneering EHS, ESG, and water quality software.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 11 April 2022 — Locus Technologies, the leading EHS Compliance and ESG software provider, today celebrates the 25th anniversary of its founding, and with it, a quarter-century of customer success. Locus looks back on its founding as a Silicon Valley leader in EHS & ESG software with pride in its leadership through expertise, stability, and innovation.
Locus was founded in 1997 with a revolutionary vision that set the framework for what is now widely known as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and environmental, health, and safety (EHS). Locus envisioned a simplified and data-driven approach, offering software in the cloud, on mobile devices, and as a service. The company pioneered SaaS (Software as a Service) model in EHS, ESG, and water quality management spaces in 1999 and never installed its software on customers’ premises.
Over 25 years, Locus has pioneered cloud environmental solutions, online and mobile GIS (Geographic Information System) services, has revolutionized environmental information management, and AI and IoT technologies for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to forward-facing municipalities and the US Government.
Locus recently broke new ground by releasing the first Visual Calculation Engine for ESG Reporting. Locus’s visual calculation engine helps companies quickly set up and view their entire ESG data collection and reporting program, enabling full transparency and financial-grade auditability throughout the entire process.
As the industry continues to evolve, competitors merge and disappear. New markets emerge and grow. Locus remains a constant in the environmental space, an innovative and independent pioneer.
“For 25 years now, Locus has brought together industry-leading experts in EHS, sustainability, and technology. Although regulations and requirements have changed over the years, that combination remains at the core of what Locus does, as demonstrated by our stability and long-term customer partners. We look forward to continuing our path of growth using those same values for the next 25 years.” said Wes Hawthorne, Locus President.
Locus Founder and CEO, Neno Duplan is proud to look back on the growth of Locus over the last 25 years. He said, “Locus did not start in the clouds, but back in 1997, we had a rather good view. Locus’s vision for better global environmental stewardship has not changed since its inception. We focus on empowering organizations to track better and mitigate the environmental impact of their activities. That vision has come to fruition through the Locus software services used by some of the world’s largest companies and government organizations. Locus’ SaaS has been ahead of the curve in helping private and public organizations in not only managing their water quality, EHS compliance or ESG reporting but also turning their environmental information into a competitive advantage in their operating models.”
Locus Technologies Receives 16th Consecutive EBJ Award for Information Technology in ESG
Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognized Locus for ESG software growth and innovation.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 24 February 2022 — Locus Technologies, the leading EHS Compliance and ESG software provider, was awarded a 16th consecutive award from Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) for growth and innovation in the field of Information Technology in the environmental software with particular focus on ESG.
EBJ is a business research publication providing strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry. Locus received the 2021 EBJ Award for Information Technology by growing and innovating its unified EHS compliance and ESG software platform.
In 2021 Locus took a leading market position in the fast-growing space of ESG software. Locus’s ESG SaaS covers carbon data aggregation via a powerful visual calculation engine, investor-grade emissions calculations audit capabilities, reporting to multiple standards from a single data set, integration APIs, dashboards, and carbon reduction goal setting and tracking. This separates Locus from competitors as customers demand integrated net-zero ESG software that supports investor-grade data in disclosure rules such as the EU’s corporate sustainability reporting directive, mandatory TCFD reporting, and anticipated SEC action on climate disclosures.
In 2021 Locus continued to expand its ESG SaaS to include built-in business intelligence tools allowing for interactive, actionable insights into EHS and ESG data, forecasting tools to predict future ESG reporting, APIs linking to utility meters, and interfaces with other Locus and third-party systems that house ESG data. Locus’s ESG application is focused on “enter once, report many times.” The gold standard for multinational enterprises with many locations worldwide is to have a system configured to report to multiple organizations and many standards from a single dataset. Essential built-in reporting in the Locus ESG app includes state or federal regulations, internal CSR, and ESG based on whatever standard their organization adheres to, such as CDP, GRI, SASB, TCDF, or more recent World Economic Forum (WEF) attempt to standardize many voluntary standards.
Locus also expanded its ESG consulting expertise by becoming the first and only software provider to offer accreditation services under new Oregon DEQ guidelines requiring third-party verification for GHG and CFP programs.
Besides strong growth in ESG space, Locus also continues to lead the software for water quality management market with the addition of new SaaS customers in 2021, such as the City of Hillsboro, Oregon for water quality management and Westinghouse Electric Company for control of environmental and radionuclides data, cementing Locus’s market leader position in the space of nuclear facilities.
“Locus’s investment in integrated carbon management software and EHS compliance is paying off. As one of the early SaaS leaders in net-zero digital solutions for ESG reporting, Locus continues to provide value to companies that want to be credible with their carbon reporting and sustainability software.,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI), publisher of Environmental Business Journal.
“We would like to thank EBJ for recognizing Locus for a 16th consecutive year and for taking note of our industry-leading ESG software. We aim to continue expanding our software offerings to customers in 2022,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies.
Locus Technologies Receives the Prestigious EBJ Award for 15 Consecutive Years
Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognized Locus for growth and innovation in the field of Information Technology.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 9 February 2021 — Locus Technologies, the leading provider of EHS Compliance and ESG software, was awarded a 15th consecutive award from Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) for growth and innovation in the field of Information Technology in the environmental industry.
EBJ is a business research publication providing strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry. Locus received the 2020 EBJ Award for Information Technology by growing and innovating their Software as a Service (SaaS) and related services.
Among the key drivers for Locus in 2020 was providing vital solutions to essential organizations during the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Locus provided fully digital waste tracking and the tools needed for groundbreaking work in embodied carbon relating to construction projects for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a potentially industry-transforming innovation.
Water utilities used Locus software to deliver over 150 billion gallons of clean water to tap, the equivalent of 235,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, for over five million consumers. Utilities also benefited from newly released Locus tools such as the direct XML export to the EPA, eliminating the need for custom reporting. Locus continued its work as a third-party verifier in Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Greenhouse Gas verifications, providing verification services for over 60 facilities totaling no less than 3.2 million barrels of crude oil, 2.6 million barrels of natural gas liquids, and 88 million bottles of wine.
“Locus continues to lead the environmental industry digital transformation with its forward-thinking product set, pure SaaS architecture and unified set of EHS Applications,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI), publisher of Environmental Business Journal.
“We would like to express our joy and gratitude for receiving the EBJ Information Technology award for the 15th year. We look forward to continue providing our customers with pioneering unified EHS and ESG software and services in 2021,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies.