Enviance Blog

Welcome to the Enviance Blog!

Hello! Thank you for visiting our Blog!   Here you can find information and updates on the latest corporate and legal developments around energy and carbon emissions management, corporate responsibility, water and waste management, cap and trade, carbon taxation and carbon accounting, environmental compliance, EH&S and Environmental ERP best practices.   We encourage you to read throught our posts and leave comments and suggestions with your feedback!   Sincerely,   The Enviance Team

Enviance returns to EUEC with (Kindle) Fire!

It’s that time of the year again! Today, we head back to Phoenix, AZ to kick things off at the Energy, Utility & Environment Conference, January 30 through February 1—and we’ve got a ton of exciting things going on!

Super Bowl XLVI is right around the corner! So stop by our booth #616 at the exhibitor’s hall and tell us who you think will take home the Vince Lombardi trophy this year. If you guess correctly, you’ll be entered to win an Amazon Kindle Fire.

Four different Enviance executives will be featured at the conference discussing a variety of critical environmental and sustainability topics. Make sure you don’t miss their presentations:

• Greg Gasperecz, Enviance VP of EH&S, will present “Enduring the Environmental Legislative Roller Coaster,” in the Climate Policy & Energy Sustainability track on Monday, January 30, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in room #222C.
• Lawrence Goldenhersh, Enviance CEO, will present “The New Era and Impact of Envirofinance,” in the Planning & GHG Reporting track on Monday, January 30, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in room #225A.
• Graeme Dykes, Enviance Sales Manager, will present “The Changing Paradigm of Sustainable Business,” in the Compliance Technologies & Strategies track on Monday, January 30, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in room #229A.
• Graeme Dykes will also present “Cloud Based Compliance: The New Age of Business Performance”, in the EHS & Risk Management track on Tuesday, January 31, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in room #229A.

See you all in Phoenix – and good luck in the contest!

Take a sneak peek at the Enviance 2012 E-Book

Over the last few years, Enviance has helped innovative companies around the world reach their environmental compliance goals while saving them time, money and resources in the process. To capture some of these case studies, and show how these companies were able to achieve success and gain confidence in their compliance reports, we compiled our 2012 E-Book featuring clients such as American Electric Power, Boral, Fujifilm and many more.

Find out how companies like Tucson Electric Power and Valero were able to address their complex environmental regulatory requirements while saving time and money with the Enviance system.

Preview our 2012 E-Book here!

3 Questions with... Jennifer Woofter, Strategic Sustainability Consulting

It’s time for another installation of our 3 Questions series, where we ask industry experts about their organization’s environmental programs, perspectives on environmental policy, and how they reduce their own environmental footprint.

This week we interviewed Jennifer Woofter, founder and president of Strategic Sustainability Consulting (SSC). She’s been doing sustainability strategy consulting for seven years, and before that had a career in socially responsible investing (SRI). Jennifer has a master’s degree in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Q: Are we doing enough to encourage the use of renewable energy through subsidies and incentives?

A: I would like to see a stronger emphasis on feed-in tariffs, and stronger net metering options for small-scale producers. However, I think one of the most powerful things that we could do is to reduce subsidization of fossil fuels. By artificially suppressing the cost of oil and gas (and all the industries that rely on fossil fuels), we are perpetuating the idea that fuel should be cheap.

Q: In your opinion, which industry sector has the greatest opportunity to impact the future of sustainable business?

A: Currently, I think that retail has the biggest role to play—simply because of their huge supply chain impacts. When a large retailer implements vendor sustainability standards, that action ripples out to impact hundreds, thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of other businesses. It’s an awesome sustainability echo chamber.

I’ve also come to realize that business—not government—is the real change-agent for sustainability. My opinion is that protesting in the streets about government policy is a waste of time. I’d rather work from within the system, where I can accomplish something more than holding a sign and chanting.

Q: What do you think the determining factor is in a consumer’s decision to buy green?

A: I think that it is ridiculous to try and categorize consumers into different levels of “green”. People will prioritize environmental aspects depending on the product category (e.g. food vs. automobiles), their current situation (e.g. financial stability, birth of a new baby, etc.), and their receptiveness to advertising.

The real message that I think green marketers need to understand is that “green” has to be icing on the cake. Their products have to meet the quality, price, service, sexiness and durability of a non-green product. Most people are not (and should not be) making a purchasing decision solely on the “green” factor.

Have a question for Jennifer? Feel free to leave one in the comment section below or on Twitter @jenniferwoofter!

 

EPA’s new site identifies biggest GHG emitters

Have you ever wondered what happens to all of the data collected as a result of the EPA’s Green House Gas (GHG) Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR)?

It looks the EPA has put it to good use to help us get a better idea of where emissions are coming from—they’ve launched a new website that allows you to enter a location and see the top GHG emitters in your area. For the first time, the EPA is sharing data on the amount of CO2 and other pollutants emitted from over 6,700 utilities, factories and refineries in the U.S.

To find out what’s going on in your city, and see how it compares to others, visit the EPA site to get started. We were surprised by some of our results, will you be too?

 

Will we be breathing easier in 2012? EPA releases new air pollution regulations

As you may have seen, the U.S. EPA signed a rule on December 16, 2011 to reduce air pollution from power plants. Many are against the new directives, while others are applauding the EPA’s initiative to drastically reduce harmful emissions from industrial emitters. Regardless of your position, it is imperative that we all learn more about the new ruling and its effects on many industries.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the new rule:

The U.S. EPA signed a rule to reduce mercury and air toxics emissions from power plants, and also signed revisions to the new source performance standards (NSPS) for fossil-fuel-fired EGUs. This NSPS revises the standards that new coal- and oil-fired power plants must meet for particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule (MATS) applies to Emission Generating Units (EGUs) larger than 25 megawatts (MW) that burn coal or oil for the purpose of generating electricity for sale and distribution through the national electric grid to the public.  These include investor-owned units, as well as units owned by the Federal government, municipalities and cooperatives that provide electricity for commercial, industrial and residential uses.  The EPA estimates that there are approximately 1,400 units affected by this action – approximately 1,100 existing coal-fired units and 300 oil fired units at about 600 power plants.

The final MATS identifies two subcategories of coal-fired EGUs, four subcategories of oil- fired EGUs, and a subcategory for units that combust gasified coal or solid oil (integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) units) based on the design, utilization and/or location of the various types of boilers at different power plants. The rule includes emission standards and/or other requirements for each subcategory.

For all existing and new coal-fired EGUs, the rule establishes numerical emission limits for mercury, PM (a surrogate for toxic non-mercury metals), and HCl (a surrogate for all toxic acid gases).  For existing and new oil-fired EGUs, the standards establish numerical emission limits for PM (a surrogate for all toxic metals), HCl, and HF.  EGUs may also show compliance with the HCl and HF limits by limiting the moisture content of their oil.

The rule establishes alternative numeric emission standards, including SO2 (as an alternate to HCl), individual non-mercury metal air toxics (as an alternate to PM), and total non-mercury metal air toxics (as an alternate to PM) for certain subcategories of power plants.  The standards set work practices, instead of numerical limits, to limit emissions of organic air toxics, including dioxin/furan, from existing and new coal- and oil-fired power plants. Because dioxins and furans form as a result of inefficient combustion, the work practice standards require an annual performance test program for each unit that includes inspection, adjustment, and/or maintenance and repairs to ensure optimal combustion.  The standards also set work practices for limited-use oil-fired EGUs in the continental U.S.

Hopefully this overview clarifies some of the EPA’s new emissions regulations. Have an opinion on the new rule? Feel free to comment below!

Happy Holidays from Enviance!

Season’s greetings! We want to wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year, and share a few words from our CEO:

“As 2011 approaches an end, I join the Enviance team in reflecting on the past year and the amazing organizations with which we've had the privilege of working. At a time when many companies were forced to cut back, and tough choices had to be made, our customers continued to invest in the ongoing effort to achieve better compliance and enhanced sustainability at ever-lower costs. We salute the effort to preserve environmental programs as a core business strategy, and we are proud to serve the environmental leaders and visionaries that comprise our customer base.

To honor that commitment and thank our customers and partners for their continued confidence in us, Enviance has made a donation to an organization that will have planted 45,000 trees by the end of 2012 in their name.

The Enviance family wishes you Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year.”

- Lawrence Goldenhersh, CEO and founder, Enviance

3 Questions with... Jamie Johnson, Verde Sustainable Solutions

It’s time again for our 3 Questions series, where we ask industry experts about their organization’s environmental programs, opinions on environmental policy, and how they reduce their own environmental footprint.

This week, we spoke with Jamie Johnson, social entrepreneur at Verde Sustainable Solutions, to get his perspective on the environmental industry. Jamie has a background in environmental consulting, developing sustainability software for the iPad, and teaching. He’s run his own environmental technology company for two years, and before that worked in various capacities in the sustainability field. He holds an MS in Environmental Science Policy from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Biology from Bradley University.  

Q: Do you believe policy will help drive the green economy, or do you think the government should leave it up to private businesses and market demand?
A: Both are essential to tackle the large environmental problems that we have before us. Government has a key role for certain policies, such as high-speed rail infrastructure and stability in energy markets. Ignoring the role that government plays in sustainability is not realistic, especially since the military is the largest consumer of renewable power in the world. 

However, private business will also play key roles in the green economy. My company recently released the Verde iPad app, an inexpensive way for consumers to conduct an energy audit on the iPad. We need innovation like this from millions of companies to increase energy efficiency, renewable power options and transportation options.  We cannot rely on government alone to be the source of innovation, but they must set policies to encourage it.     

Q: Are we doing enough to encourage the use of renewable energy through subsidies and incentives? If not, what more can be done?
A: Government has done enough in the form of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy.  What they have yet to do is increase the price on carbon to level the playing field between traditional and renewable energy.  

Historically, the idea of a carbon tax has been unpopular in our country.  However, with our increasing deficit problem, a carbon tax could bring in valuable revenue to our government and make renewable energy more competitive as opposed to the current tax incentives for alternative energy sources.  I think that after the 2013 elections, we may see some resurgence of interest in a carbon tax and the long-term benefits it would provide for both our economy and environment. 

Q: In your opinion, which industry sector has the greatest opportunity to impact the future of sustainable business?
A: While I am not personally involved in this sector, I think battery storage capabilities will have the greatest opportunity to impact sustainability.  I find this exciting space, not only because of the transportation issue, but also for the impact it will have on smart grid independent energy sources.   

Thanks to Jamie for participating in this week’s 3 Questions series. If you have any additional questions for him, feel free to comment below!