Enviance Blog

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!

 

 

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.

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.