Dow Chemical Wins Top ESS Excellence Award for Campaign that Saves $2 Million

This year’s ESS EXPO was a great event. We had the largest EXPO attendance ever. And our judges had a difficult time choosing among the sustainability initiatives nominated for ESS Excellence Awards.

After a great deal of thought, a panel of judges, including executives from BNP Media’s Pollution Engineering (PE) and Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN) magazines, EXPO’s official media sponsors, named The Dow Chemical Company winner of the “Best of the Best” 2008 ESS Excellence Award for its outstanding achievements in leveraging information management technology to achieve its enterprise sustainability and operational excellence goals. Dow earned the top honor by showing how they saved $2 million following implementation of an integrated EH&S platform covering about 200 production sites across North America. The system generated productivity enhancements, streamlined Dow’s environmental reporting and enabled company officials to replace hundreds of redundant legacy systems.

Dow was one of 31 public and private organizations that received ESS Excellence Awards this year. Honorees represent a wide range of organizations across industry sectors, including global leaders, mid-market companies, public utilities, military agencies, educational institutions and federal, state and local government agencies.

The remaining 2008 ESS Excellence Award winners included Alcoa, Inc.; Andrews Air Force Base; Beale Air Force Base; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Campbell Soup Company, Napoleon, Ohio; Cardinal Glass Industries; City of Columbus, Ga.; Delta Air Lines, Inc.; Duke Energy; Gilbert Fire Department; HD Supply, Inc.; Illinois Auto Electrics Company; JR Simplot; Kocsis Consulting Group, Inc.; Koppers; Kroy Lyondell Chemical; Maryland State Highway Administration; Metro Nashville Government; New Jersey Natural Gas Company; PetroChina Company Limited; Purdue University; Raleigh Parks & Recreation Department; Kentucky Sanitation District No. 1; Seagate Technology; Sea Ray Boats; St. Petersburg Police Department; Sumner County Government; Tempe Fire Department; The Dow Chemical Company; USDA Forest Service; and Vought Aircraft Industries Building Products.

Additionally, nine organizations were recognized as Honorable Mention recipients: Arcelor Mittal Steel; Boeing Commercial Airplane Business Unit; Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD; Colgate-Palmolive; Good Environment Pty. Ltd.; INVISTA; Momentive Performance Materials, Sistersville, W. Va. Plant; New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization; and URS Corporation.

Notice that the award winning organizations, as a group, represent a wide cross-section of industry sectors ranging from consumer goods to aircraft manufacturers, chemical companies to federal, state and local government agencies. This indicates the widespread adoption of and support for sustainability initiatives throughout both the private and the public sectors.

Add comment April 23rd, 2008

Earth Day - Energy usage, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Global Warming

What Can WE Do?

April 22 is known to most people as Earth Day. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, according to Wikipedia. Much has changed since then. The world’s population has risen from under 4 billion in 1970 to over 6.6 billion today (with projections of 9 billion inhabitants by 2050).

The importance of carbon dioxide emissions as an environmental issue of international concern has grown substantially since 1992, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted because of increasing concern over rising atmospheric concentrations of GHGs and their possible adverse effects on the global climate system. The UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol call for an enhancement of energy efficiency and an increase in the production and use of new and renewable energy, as well as measures to limit or reduce GHG emissions.

The production, generation, distribution and use of energy today releases substantial amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutants. As population growth in the developing world continues to materialize, the pressure on local environments to supply the required energy sources will increase considerably, as will the amount of GHGs released. How the international community and governments respond to these issues will be of vital importance if society is to have a sustainable future.

Global climate change mitigation depends greatly on the increased use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in all countries.

The efforts and measures required to successfully address climate change are extremely challenging in a number of ways. However, one specific step we can all take is to focus attention on energy usage.

Where Do I Start? What can we do as individuals?

Here’s one way you can help reduce GHG emissions. EPA has launched a new national campaign to help Americans join in the fight against climate change. The campaign, “Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR” helps people make important energy-efficient changes at home and at work that can add up to significant reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases. The campaign builds on the success of the ENERGY STAR “Change a Light” campaign by providing a set of steps people can take to save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Change the World. Start with ENERGY STAR a national campaign encouraging all Americans to join with millions of others and take small, individual steps that make a big difference in the fight against global warming.

What can corporations do?

The buildings where we work, shop, play and learn spend $200 billion annually on electricity and natural gas and contribute nearly half of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, 50 percent of U.S. electrical generation relies on coal, a fossil fuel; while 85 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions result from energy-consuming activities supported by fossil fuels.

With help from programs like EPA’s ENERGY STAR, you can help reduce energy waste and energy costs where you work as well as where you live!

The most energy-efficient businesses in America use about 30 percent less energy than their competitors. Finding smart ways to manage the energy you need to run your business can improve your profit margins, increase funds available for development of new products and services and enhance overall corporate value.

Add comment April 22nd, 2008

Leveraging Software for Sustainability is EXPO.08 Keynote Theme

Management in this century requires global orchestration–managing from the outside in. Enterprises are starting to use Web 2.0 to do this — putting application data in a very common user interface, like a browser.

That was the message from Simon Jacobson from AMR, the keynote speaker at ESS EXPO.08. Jacobson was one of several speakers that provided insightful perspectives on key business and IT challenges to a record-setting audience of corporate and government executives and thought leaders who joined us this week in Phoenix for our annual business conference.

This was one of several thought-provoking sessions where industry leaders and thought leaders came together to discuss issues that will have a huge impact on the enterprise in the near future. I’m pleased that this and many other presentations have firmly established ESS EXPO as a forum where industry leaders can meet some of the people who are providing solutions for tomorrow’s issues today.

Emerging issues such as managing greenhouse gases through the supply chain, caps on carbon production and energy consumption are emerging on the list of corporate priorities, Jacobson said.

He talked about how Web 2.0 is being used in the enterprise and architected in a framework called Manufacturing 2.0 that pulls data out of legacy applications into a more modern framework. In the configuration, organizations can maintain legacy data storage, and still have applications talk to one another.

What is the visibility of environmental performance across extended supply networks? How do organizations get a consistent view of performance across the enterprise? Fragmented and manual systems make it difficult for corporate managers to get answers. These systems have to be consolidated into a single instance that will give you a way to automate work flow and build assumptions.

Environmental software, Jacobson said, should be web-based, and all EHS data should be consolidated in a common database that takes collective intelligence, ties it together, and shows it back to the user. Adoption of Web services is on the rise in the enterprise. Applications such as wikis, blogs and podcasts are also on the rise to help companies get around the latency of data in a crisis situation.

How do companies integrate EHS with typical GRC systems? They must be integrated with the rest of the business applications, such as he ERP, the supply chain and product focused applications into a controls management system that enables development of processes and procedures for risk remediation — and all of those show as intelligence on a management dashboard.

Jacobson predicts that REACH will impact all manufacturing processes, and thus financial compliance, IT compliance, and environmental compliance will have to be integrated.

Of course, the technology that Jacobson described is available today. ESS is deploying integrated EHS platforms for major organizations around the world including global leaders like PetroChina.

Add comment April 17th, 2008

CFATS Exercise Demostrates Technologies Role in Fighting Terrorism

The CDC thinks the threat of a human influenza pandemic has greatly increased over the past several years, because of the emergence of H5N1 avian flu strains. They just don’t know when. This morning at ESS EXPO.08, we held a session on “Planning for a Pandemic.” No one likes to think or plan for these kinds of emergencies, but the federal government has required that industry must use the information on both the CDC site and the Homeland Security site on how to go about this. We are trying to help our clients prepare for this. John Gargett, our product manager, led this session.

You would be surprised at how much preparation is involved. Food and agriculture, emergency services, national monuments and icons, chemical and hazardous materials, energy, emergency services, and transportation are only some the industries that could be involved.

The World Health Organization has a schedule of Alert States that goes in six stages, from no incidence, to many sick people. And our government has one, too — and they don’t coincide! There are response phases, however, during which you can respond and prepare. Gargett advises that you set a Google Alert for a pandemic alert period, and if you receive an alert for a pandemic in Thailand, you still want to start preparing. (There was a SARS alert in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, and people started leaving, which just causes more potential for transmission.)

Add comment April 14th, 2008

CFOs Affirm Impact of Governance on Corporate Bottom Line

When chief financial officers (CFO) declare that environmentally sound business practices are a priority, it’s apparently that a major change has been taken place at the corporate suite. Finance people aren’t “green-washers.” They’re now part of the growing chorus of corporate leaders who recognize that responsible green-friendly policies aren’t a drag on business. They represent a potential business advantage that reaches all the way to the bottom line.

Last month, CFO Magazine held a conference on green business practices for financial executives where leading executives told the audience that sustainability initiatives have become a source of operational improvement, business innovation and new revenue streams.

“Sustainability has moved from risk mitigation to a business and revenue opportunity,” said Mark Newton of Dell Computer.

Executives from companies like Dell Computer, Caterpillar and Pitney Bowes reinforced what those of us in the EHS space have said for a while: Companies that embrace green business practices realize business benefits quickly when the corporate finance function contributes both to decision making and integration of the information flowing from sustainability initiatives into broader reporting and regulatory compliance initiatives.

That makes green business an integral part of broader corporate Governance, Risk and Compliance.
David Burritt, CFO of Caterpillar, said his company’s focus on sustainability efforts, which include redesigning product lines to become more energy efficient; expansion of its remanufacturing business; and broad adoption of new technology in both its internal processes and in its products, have delivered measurable improvements in business operations for the company and its customers. He called on his peers in the finance function to understand sustainability as a business opportunity, not as an inconvenience or a drag on the bottom line. But doing so requires the finance function to develop consistent measurements for sustainability across its operations and to “find the value in sustainable business and then drive action across the business.”

Pitney Bowes’ sustainability efforts have improved its product and service offerings to customers, the profitability of core business operations and its leadership position in its industry, according to CFO Monahan.

Sustainability must be part of a company’s overall GRC initiatives to reduce operational risk. Finance executives and investors have signaled that they understand the value implications of rigorous environmental performance management to that equation.

Add comment April 12th, 2008

Respected EHS Analyst Predicts GRC Solutions Market to Reach $52 Billion

If you’re still deciding whether to attend EXPO.08, let me refer you to Michael Rasmussen’s new research, in which he says GRC is gathering momentum among organizations as a philosophy of business. In fact, he predicts a $52 billion market for GRC solutions in 2008.

As a business philosophy, GRC is collaborative, requiring contributions from throughout the enterprise. The philosophy is composed of sustainability, consistency, transparency, and especially efficiency — which happen when organizations leverage information and processes across the enterprise.

ESS EXPO.08, which starts Sunday, will feature several industry experts who will share perspectives on their corporate governance issues or initiatives, and how their organizations are using information technology to address those concerns.

Rasmussen points out, “good governance is built upon diligent risk and compliance management processes. In today’s business environment, ignoring a federated view of GRC results in business processes, partners, employees and systems that behave like leaves blowing in the wind.”
In the past few years, ESS, like Rasmussen, has found that there are several common drivers of GRC in the enterprise:

• Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility.
• Increasing governance demands.
• Rating agencies focused on enterprise risk management.
• Increasing risk profile in a distributed world.
• Connecting performance management to risk management.
• Increasing regulatory compliance profile.
• Impact of the extended enterprise.
• Inefficient, manual and siloed risk and compliance initiatives are ineffective.

Quite a while ago, we realized that silos of information increase, rather than mitigate risk, and we moved to architect our solution as an integrated platform. For that, I have to thank our product development teams and their depth of industry experience. You can almost say they “felt” the wave coming, and like good surfers, they were in position to ride it properly.

Other analysts are noticing how ESS has positioned itself to address market trends. At the recent Gartner GRC conference in Chicago, lead analyst Dan Miklovic provided an EHS industry overview, where he reported, “ESS is one of the few providers to offer a suite of EH&S solutions that closely align with Gartner’s market definition and to offer both hosted and licensed delivery models.” I highly recommend it if you are a Gartner subscriber.

With their leadership, our development teams have brought to market a solution that allows managers to see the big picture, use their resources effectively, reduce unnecessary complexity, and stay nimble and flexible. We operate in such a dynamic business environment (witness how quickly Bear Stearns ceased to exist – in just one weekend!) that simplicity and transparency of information are needed to ensure that businesses meet their corporate governance objectives.

Add comment April 10th, 2008

Organizations Becoming Wary of EHS Data Security and Legal Exposure from Multi Tenant Shared Environments

Data security has always been a major concern for organizations. Companies spend large sums to make sure that their data cannot be accessed by outside parties. However some organizations are expressing concern that their data may be subject to an unwanted third-party review during legal proceedings – even if that organization is not a target of the lawsuit.

We recently encountered a situation where this came up as a major concern from one of our new clients, a major western electric utility company. During their due diligence evaluation of software systems including ESS, their internal legal counsel was concerned about their data being mixed with other clients in a multi tenant environment and potential risks of exposure. Here’s why:

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a delivery method that is popular among companies that want to purchase an EHS software platform, but prefer to avoid the challenges that come with installation and maintenance. However, some organizations are taking a second look at SaaS environments where data are housed in multi-tenant applications. These are arrangements where customers’ data are stored in a common environment: in other words a SaaS provider stores data in an environment where all client information is located in a single database.

Multi tenant applications are efficient and offer sufficient safeguards against accidental and malicious access, however some organizations have recently been evaluating if multi tenant data storage does expose clients to risks of having their data accessed if another customer that has data in that same environment is targeted in a lawsuit and its data are subpoenaed. In other words if one client’s data goes to court, could all clients’ data goes to court?

While ESS does not make legal interpretations of these kind of questions, we do architect our software to provide maximum data protection and in this particular area, our “zero” security risk influenced their decision to choose an ESS “SaaS” solution over a competitor’s offering.

ESS offers a superior SaaS data storage arrangement that is architected and designed to be more secure than other systems. Our SaaS client data is stored by using “virtual” technologies for one thing, where each customer’s information is stored in a separate and distinct database that is isolated from information that belongs to all other clients. More importantly, in our environment, customers’ data would be completely safe from a subpoena targeting another organization in the situation described by our new utility client in the case above.

Our 820 years of experience developing software allows us to carefully think about customers’ real world concerns when designing our software. This is an example of applying that experience to address clients’ security concerns.

We are not sure what outcome this will ultimately result in as this predicament becomes more widely discussed, I’m sure that we’ll see some quick market adjustments as organizations react to the need to secure their data from this form of risk exposure. Regardless, clients can rest assured that with ESS solutions their data is secure in the safest, surest environment choice.

Add comment April 4th, 2008