CFATS Terrorist Exercise at ESS EXPO Shows Why Responders Need Crisis Technology

At ESS EXPO.08, we are doing something truly unique this year to point out the need for responders to be ready for terrorist attacks against chemical facilities. We are sponsoring a demonstration, focused on the Homeland Security’s (DHA) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) that shows why responder organizations need a crisis management system to manage any crisis.

During this exercise, named “Green Scorpion,” responders will handle a simulated terrorist attack on a chemical processing facility, which is taking place in the midst of a major pandemic. A second exercise called “Sand Dollar,” will feature responders mitigating damage at a scene where an Amtrak train has been blown up. Responders will run all three exercises with Essential Emergency™.

While the action takes place on the front lines, the exercise will be managed from a makeshift emergency operations center, which will really be an EXPO conference room, where a command team will manage real-time information to and from the site. Data will be imported into the system from an unmanned aerial vehicle, video, and injects from a simulation system, provided by our partner, SAIC, which will feed data from multiple sources to Essential Emergency in real time.

CFATS Director Brian Harrell will speak about the DHS standard and the role for a public/private partnership in its implementation. Our exercise has captured significant attention at DHS because it is perhaps the first public/private conference to address the topic and conduct a field demonstration. DHS is apparently thrilled with what we are doing, and we may very well be setting the national standard here for exercises.

An effective crisis management system is made up of three components – Teams, Techniques and Technology. Teams are the people in an organization, techniques are the processes they use to respond, and, of course, the technology is a Crisis Management solution like Essential Emergency.

Let’s say an organization has a crisis management system in place. In order to be effective during a crisis, after the three T’s are in place, responders need to practice response techniques under real-time conditions to ensure they will be ready if — or, as experts believe, when — an actual emergency incident occurs.

1 comment March 31st, 2008

ESS China Expands EHS Software Market

I am in Asia, because this week we are opening ESS China, our Beijing-based office that will offer the industry-leading software platform to organizations in Greater China and throughout the Asia Pacific region. To celebrate our new office, we will host a grand opening event, featuring local executives and civic leaders, Wednesday, March 26 at the Beijing American Club.

ESS has established its first office in Asia in order to grow its marketing and support operations in a region where it already has a strong client base, including global energy giants PetroChina and China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).

Businesses throughout Asia and, in particular, Greater China, are positioning themselves to increase their market share through expanded global presence. Those decision makers understand that their organizations must implement standards that are aligned with international protocols such as ISO 14000, Global Reporting Initiative, OHSAS 18000, REACH and others in order to compete in markets where EHS is recognized as an important benchmark for enterprise sustainability.

ESS China will continue our nearly two-decade long tradition of helping organizations reach their sustainability and operational excellence goals by offering the company’s integrated software platform–enabling organizations to efficiently address urgent business concerns such as greenhouse gas management, Corporate Social Responsibility reporting, worker health and safety, compliance reporting and emergency response.

Organizations throughout China have experienced tremendous growth over the past 10 years, and now they are facing daunting environmental, health, safety and crisis management challenges. ESS is uniquely positioned to help those organizations manage their EHS issues more effectively. ESS’ integrated software platform enables users to efficiently collect and communicate critical EHS and Crisis data at all levels of an organization and across the enterprise.

Our collaboration with PetroChina and its EHS software platform implementation represented a major landmark as the first enterprise-wide compliance and risk management software deployment of its kind in China. Our software platform enabled PetroChina, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, to increase productivity by driving process improvements that generated time and cost savings while also improving management decision making.

CNPC then selected ESS, based on the success of the PetroChina implementation. We’re honored to be involved in such an important initiative in Asia, and that’s why I’ve spent so much time there in the past few years.

1 comment March 24th, 2008

Prominent CEOs Discuss Corporate Green Programs at
WSJ ECO:nomics Event

Last week I had the pleasure to attend the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics Conference on Creating Environmental Capital. It was a sellout and featured prominent CEOs such as Lee Scott of Wal-Mart, Jeff Immelt of GE and Patricia Woertz of ADM, who addressed important issues like how does a multinational giant hedge its bets on the green business frontier; how are they adapting to soaring energy prices while simultaneously implementing environmental mandates; and who they believe will win or lose in the global trade of greenhouse gas emission credits.

The biggest question, of course, is how much shareholders are going to allow companies to sacrifice profits to undertake environmental initiatives?

I had an opportunity to meet with another conference speaker, James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, and commend him on his leadership in driving sustainability in the utility sector. They are implementing our software across the entire enterprise as the backbone for its environmental, health and safety information management system.

I also attended a round table lunch led by Shai Agassi, who has just raised $200 million to start a new company. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Project Better Place, which he formed to install, scale and operate regional and global infrastructures that are necessary for electric vehicles. With a personal passion for solving large-scale social and environmental issues, Agassi will manage the operation of international electric vehicle fleets and partners with electric car manufacturers.

Agassi, creator of SAP’s NetWeaver platform, previously served as president of SAP’s products and technology group, and was a member of the company’s executive board.

Other opinions heard at the conference:

• Immelt says he smells the chance to make a lot of money, and that GE’s green business will grow overseas, and also perhaps in the U.S.;
• Scott has committed Wal-Mart to a zero waste and 100% renewable energy strategy. He said he has no idea when the company will meet that objective;
• Several speakers said shareholders and social activists are clearly at the corporate gates, driving much of the “greening.” But, they contended, corporate boards do have a fiduciary duty to analyze risks that can come from climate change, and many boards are doing just that.

Add comment March 17th, 2008

Leading Analysts Advise Organizations to Implement Integrated Solutions

I’ve been beating the drum for integrated sustainability solutions since 2000. Since then we have been building out our solution to encompass all critical environmental health and safety matters, which enables organizations to take a holistic and strategic approach to sustainability. The integrated design reduces complexity, risks and costs by leveraging critical data, information and best practices from a common database for a facility, business unit or across the enterprise.
In the past two weeks, two different industry analysts have been discussing sustainability platforms in the same terms, which tells me that the direction we are taking is the right one.

Michael Rasmussen, a well-respected industry expert and the principal of a consulting service called Corporate Integrity, has long been a proponent of platforms rather than silos. In his most recent blog post, he says that information technology risk management isn’t the be-all and end-all of risk management; it’s only one aspect. He warns that vendors who say they are in the GRC space without an integrated platform may be thrown out of meetings. There can’t be a much stronger warning than that against point solutions rather than integrated solutions.

In addition, at its GRC summit this week, the lead Gartner GRC analyst, Dan Miklovic, presented an overview of the EHS space called “Environmental, Health and Safety: “Your Applications Must be Part of an Overall GRC Process.” Gartner says that EHS information systems must become fully integrated and, when they do, they help organizations by reducing:

• number of applications
• interfaces
• support staff
• IT hardware and
• number of vendors to be managed

That advice aligns with ESS’ approach of reducing complexity to reduce risks and costs.

We are always working with our customers to make sure they get the innovative solutions they need to reach their sustainability, performance and compliance goals. One of the ways we do that is by inviting IT experts and users from some of the world’s leading companies to our user conference, ESS EXPO.08, which is a highly successful event for sharing best practices among our partners and customers. EXPO.08 is coming up April 13-17, and I hope to see you there. This year’s keynote will be AMR analyst Simon Jacobson, who will talk about laying the foundation for sustainability through environmental compliance.

1 comment March 13th, 2008