Enviance Blog

Environmental March Madness Tournament: Does Your School’s Program Have What It Takes?

If you think your alma mater has a great environmental studies program, we want to hear from you!

Enviance has teamed with Environmental Leader to host a March Madness tournament to identify the best undergraduate program for environmental studies and sustainability across the country.

In order to participate, department heads must share their program’s marketing materials and fill out a submission form for background/information on their school’s environmental programs by February 20, 2012. If selected by our panel of industry experts, your university could make our “Sustainable 16” list.

After being selected for the “Sustainable 16”, students and faculty will have until March 9, 2012 to submit short video testimonials, and/or a short 300-word essay, explaining why their school’s program deserves to be crowned the top in the nation.

The 2012 National Champion, announced April 2, 2012 will be awarded:

• A $5,000 cash donation to the university’s environmental & sustainability department.
• An all-expense paid trip to San Diego, CA for the department chair, where he or she will attend the Enviance User Conference April 16-18, 2012 and participate in a panel titled, “What Tomorrow’s Environmental Leaders Need to Know.”

In addition, the top two students who submitted the most compelling video or essay during the competition will win netbooks. There are also multiple opportunities for schools to be featured in publications throughout the tournament.

Judges for this year’s tournament include Velislava Ivanova , global sustainability director at CH2M HILL, Nick Johnson, managing consultant at Trinity Consultants, Don Cuffel, manager of environmental engineering at Valero/California, and our very own CEO, Larry Goldenhersh.

For more information on the tournament and how to get involved please visit our website.

The 5th Annual State of Green Business Live Webcast

Enviance is proud to sponsor GreenBiz’s State of Green Business live webcast. This year’s webcast takes a closer look at the findings from the fifth annual edition of GreenBiz’s State of Green Business report which measures the environmental impacts of the emerging green economy.

Join GreenBiz’s Executive Editor, Joel Makower, and VP and Senior Analyst, Joe Davies, as they discuss how companies are improving their environmental performance in spite of the many challenges that have come as a result of the recession. Together Joel and Joe will assess the economy from an environmental perspective, and highlight key trends in corporate culture in regard to the environment.

Register today and watch the webinar!

 

The results are in! Find out what Enviance’s third annual EUEC survey revealed

It was great to see those of you who were able to make it out to the EUEC conference in Phoenix this week. As you may have noticed, we conducted an environmental survey addressing controversial topics ranging from readiness to report carbon emissions to reactions about cap and trade regulation.

This year, 237 attendees participated in our third annual EUEC survey. This morning, we released the results – here are just a couple highlights:

• This year’s survey showed that more than three-fifths of respondents now believe the imposition of a carbon tax will affect their business.
• Surprisingly, there was a substantial 17 percent increase from last year in the number of companies that have no system in place for tracking and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
• While water management was an issue that 48 percent of respondents said was a concern for their organization (similar to carbon emissions), approximately 40 percent responded that they don’t measure or report on water at all.

Check out all of the results from the 2012 EUEC survey here!

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!

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!

GHG and the Crystal Ball: The EPA’s (not so clear) Path Forward for Regulating GHG Emissions

It’s hard to believe that the EPA first proposed its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR) over two and a half years ago with the hope that it would gather enough information to better understand the breadth and scope of GHG emissions.

Within just a few months of the initial proposal, so many things changed that the agency finalized its Endangerment Finding in December of 2009 and began creating new regulations—including vehicle standards to address GHG emissions from transportation sources. In addition, the EPA created guidelines around Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and the Title V Gas Tailoring Rule for new major sources, and new source performance standards.

With all the new GHG regulations, many organizations are trying to understand how these laws will affect their business costs as well as their day-to-day operations, and are increasingly finding themselves trying to anticipate what sort of guidelines may be forthcoming.

To dive deeper into this topic, we are hosting a live webinar next week entitled “GHG and the Crystal Ball: The EPA’s (not so clear) Path Forward for Regulating GHG Emissions”.  John McManus, vice president of Environmental Services at American Electric Power (AEP), and Greg Gasperecz, vice president of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) at Enviance, will take a closer look at the impacts of GHG regulations on U.S. companies, and discuss:

• Background of the EPA’s GHG regulations
• Key takeaways from the last two years under the current Federal Administration
• Considerations on the path the EPA might take in regulating GHG emissions in the future

Join us!

Time: 11:00am PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET
Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Twitter Rashtag: #EPApredicts

Register Here!

Mandatory & Voluntary: Why can’t we be friends?

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting a Webinar in conjunction with CH2M HILL and the GreenBiz Group. The webinar “Mandatory vs. Voluntary: Creating an Environmental Compliance Culture of Value,” featured Nigel Nugent, vice president of worldwide sales at Enviance, and Andrea Gardner, senior technologist of sustainability at CH2M Hill. Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz Group, moderated the discussion.

The webinar brought these experts together to discuss how companies can develop blended environmental compliance strategies that integrate both mandatory and voluntary activities. This approach to mandatory environmental compliance and voluntary sustainability reports may seem contrary to many companies, who tend to separate the two efforts among different departments, but there are many benefits that result from combining these activities.

First, let’s clarify the differences between mandatory and voluntary compliance. CH2M Hill’s Gardner emphasized that the biggest difference between these is that one that is reactive in nature while the other is proactive. For example, voluntary results are analyzed, and regulatory results are reported. Companies that are going above and beyond regulatory compliance requirements, and have implemented some form of voluntary compliance, are considered to be aspirational—they’re looking toward the future and proactively asking themselves, “What kind of company do we want to become? How can we minimize our environmental impact?” Conversely, regulatory compliance is focused on the here and now. They think in terms of “Where does my company stand from a compliance standpoint, at this very moment?” This line of thinking is much more risk-averse and reactive.

There are many advantages to a blended voluntary and mandatory compliance department, but only if it is implemented appropriately. Many companies set up separate departments for voluntary and mandatory–and prefer the separation. However, there are negative consequences if the disparate groups are not managed and monitored properly. For example, they may pursue projects that require the same company resources and conduct duplicate data collection—wasting both time and money. Isolated data sets collected and stored in each respective department’s database, can reduce effectiveness of planning and decision-making and cause internal confusion as companies struggle to determine which data set is the true accurate representation.

Watch the Webinar Now

These issues illustrate why many companies choose to house these extremely unique approaches to sustainability within the same department. According to Nugent, mandatory compliance teams are strengthened by the inclusion of voluntary sustainability. The likenesses between voluntary sustainability and regulatory compliance offer access to a host of benefits that can help decrease a company’s bottom line. The sharing of critical data, saved resources (by staffing only one team), a single repository for data management (allowing for more efficient data use), and streamlined operational processes all create tremendous value for the organization. Also, it provides a competitive advantage; since voluntary standards can eventually become mandatory, monitoring these early on helps organizations better prepare themselves.

It’s clear that there are many benefits to combining voluntary and mandatory compliance efforts if it’s done in a monitored and controlled fashion. However, it’s up to each individual organization to decide if this kind of strategy is what best suits their goals and needs.

Stay tuned for more webinars with Enviance customers and partners as we move into the waning months of 2011. We have much more in store for you!

Watch the Webinar here.

PG&E reduces reporting efforts by 80% with Enviance

If you live on the West Coast, chances are you’re one of 15 million people that rely on PG&E for their gas and electric needs. You have gas in your home thanks to a portion of the 6,214 miles of steel pipelines PG&E maintains, and electricity is delivered from one of their three power plants which churn out 6,800 megawatts (MW) of power.

What you probably don’t realize, from an outsider’s perspective, is the massive amount of stress a company experiences when managing all of that energy, gas, data and infrastructure, to get you the energy resources you need.

Linus Farias, senior environmental engineer at PG&E, recently illustrated some of the key environmental compliance issues his company faces during a webinar with Enviance.

Farias and his team, like many other utilities in the United States, are mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to report once a year on their GHG emissions. Additionally, under Assembly Bill 32 they must report, on an ongoing basis, their emissions associated with electricity generation, retail electricity generation, and other areas. PG&E goes a step further, by also voluntarily reporting their emissions to The Climate Registry, Carbon Disclosure Project and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

When PG&E began searching for a solution to handle their Green House Gas (GHG) compliance needs, they realized they would need a single repository of data, a solution that could be implemented quickly and had the ability to track changes, identify reductions and forecast their GHG emissions.

The solution that met all PG&E’s criteria was deployed within a few months, and the use of cloud-based features helped decrease their initial reporting level of effort by 80% during their first AB32 mandatory report after implementation.

PG&E’s high ease-of-use solution, and ability to provide access to emissions information in the system across the entire organization in real time, placed PG&E in the best possible situation to better serve their customers while mitigating their effect on the environment.

Watch the Webinar here.

 

Sincerely,

The Enviance team

It's Back to School Week at Enviance! Our 5 hottest Educational Resources!

 

With the start of a new school year upon us, what better time to talk about Education? Throughout the years, we have maintained an ongoing effort to produce educational resources in topics relevant to the Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) community to help disseminate best practices and contribute to Industry growth. We have received a tremendous response from clients, partners and friends that have been relying on our resources to keep up to date with the latest Industry trends.

If you haven’t been an avid reader of our selection of White Papers and don’t know where to start, worry not! We put together a list of our Top 5 White Papers to share with you this week!

Ever wanted to know what your peers and even competitors are reading to keep informed? Follow our links below and learn more about what is helping them effectively and efficiently manage EH&S requirements.

TOP 1 RESOURCE: THE EMISSIONS TRIFECTA: Combining Title V, Air Emissions Inventory and GHG Reporting

The Emissions Trifecta White Paper is our most popular white paper of all time. It discusses how streamlining emissions data (Title V, Air Emissions Inventory and GHG) into one comprehensive, centralized system that has been designed to capture and report the data required for a variety of different regulatory environmental programs saves companies time, money and personnel.

TOP 2 RESOURCE: SUPPLY CHAIN ENVIRONMENTALISM: Using Environmental ERP to Manage Environmental Impact for Competitive Advantage and Profit

This white paper introduces a new approach to managing the supply chain which defines Supply Chain Environmentalism as the enhancement of competitiveness through either cost reduction or product differentiation, or both, achieved by reduction of environmental impacts (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, etc.) in the supply chain.

TOP 3 RESOURCE: THE BIG PICTURE: A Method to Compare Facilities' Environmental Performance

The Method to Compare Facilities Environmental Performance white paper explains how you can compare facilities' environmental performance by using environmental compliance and sustainability data, such as emissions and water in a summary mode to produce "smart scores". 

TOP 4 RESOURCE: The Value of Public Perception: Transforming Environmental Efforts From Compliance-Driven to Risk Management

Many companies fail to understand that their environmental footprint creates risk to their business that's on par with losing their largest customer. The need for the role of environmental management to transform from simply meeting compliance requirements to pervasive risk management has become more evident in recent years.

TOP 5 RESOURCE: CASE STUDY WEBINAR: Streamlining Compliance by Automating Data Collection and Inspections with System Integration and Mobile Technology

Find out how a real company facing real environmental compliance challenges was able to efficiently overcome them by designing and implementing new processes and systems.

In this webinar, you 'll learn how one company went from needing 8 Environmental Managers about 6 days a month to input data to requiring only 4 to 6 hours of review time a month instead of data entry work. See how this company captured environmental field data faster, responded quickly to environmental incidents with workflow processes and saved time and money in personnel and violation fines.