ESS Launches Interoperability Solution that Improves Sustainability Reporting Efficiency

I’m taking a brief departure from sharing perspectives on environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability trends in order to share good news about the launch of ESS Gateway™, a new solution set that efficiently connects our EHS platform with industry-leading enterprise systems.

The first of these interoperability solutions is being implemented in limited availability by several ESS clients, and the general release is just around the corner.

ESS Gateway, in combination with our integrated EHS platform, enables organizations to leverage existing IT investments to improve compliance assurance and enterprise reporting for carbon/greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and corporate responsibility.

Public concerns regarding sustainability, including global climate change, are compelling organizations to align emission management and corporate responsibility initiatives with core business operations. Because executives are closely monitoring their IT costs, streamlining reporting processes becomes a priority that is in keeping with the ‘do more with less’ mantra.

Meeting those demands requires robust information management that collects and processes data from a variety of systems, including Enterprise Asset Management (EAP), Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution (MES), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems and Data Historians. Interoperable systems ensure efficient compliance with today’s complex regulatory mandates and sustainability protocols.

Many organizations use time consuming, inefficient manual processes or costly homegrown systems to capture enterprise system data and move it into EHS applications. Manual data entry also increases data accuracy risks. Our team seized on the opportunity to deliver powerful interoperability solutions for streamlined interoperability across a global enterprise.

ESS Gateway provides several advantages over existing IT interoperability processes, by:

• providing EHS executives with direct access to master data from enterprise systems for more efficient and accurate information as it happens;
• reducing implementation costs with an off-the-shelf integration solution;
• minimizing total cost of ownership by eliminating need for custom integration;
• improving resource efficiency by eliminating manual processes
• enabling ESS software to perform calculations on both direct and indirect GHG emissions
• supporting more effective decision making; and
• leveraging existing IT investments.

For readers who are not familiar with ESS, we have been a longtime provider of systems that facilitate seamless data transfer. In fact, system integration is a key ESS market differentiator. We were the first company in our space to develop a platform for EHS and Crisis Management data. ESS Gateway extends the company’s long-term commitment to interoperable systems.

I’m really excited about this new innovative platform. As we get closer to the product release date, I’ll be sharing more details about ESS Gateway.

Add comment February 24th, 2009

U.S. Economic Stimulus Package: How Much Money Will Go to Energy Related Technologies?

Now that President Obama has signed into law the bill authorizing the administration’s plan for economic stimulus, it’s a good time to look at the provisions that are expected to generate investments in energy-related technology. Subsidies contained in the economic stimulus package are expected to quickly and dramatically accelerate intelligent grid technology investment during the next four years, with the possibility of spending levels reaching $70 billion by 2013.

The bill would support a wide range of technologies including smart meters and other intelligent devices, along with applications software to operate the grid and enable active energy management by consumers; and software to manage large volumes of meter and grid data.

There will also be support for advanced energy storage systems and grid-connected distributed generation resources. The legislation funds variety of services required to plan, integrate, deploy and maintain these technologies.

Energy usage is a major component of indirect GHG emissions. The stimulus bill provides funding for technology that facilitates easy access to energy-related data and generates a complete profile of the organization’s GHG footprint. Our new interoperability platform, ESS Gateway™ enables users to directly interface with these new technologies through adapters to reduce the overall costs of integration.

While specific energy-related commitments haven’t yet been released, one thing is certain – there will be a large amount of stimulus money to support technology for energy management. Soon businesses and federal, state and local government agencies will be making significant investments that will support smarter energy usage.

ESS has already made the investments in our interoperability products and we stand ready to leverage these new technologies to support our customers’ initiatives.

Add comment February 18th, 2009

Analysts Predict Carbon Market Growth to Hit $150BN Despite Downturn

The global downturn may have a dampening effect on most economic activity, but a pair of leading analysts predict the carbon emissions market will shrug off the effects of the recession to extend a steady pace of expansion into a sixth consecutive year.

The global market value of carbon allowances will increase to $150 billion by the end of 2009, a 27 percent increase, according to a report by market analyst New Carbon Finance. Businesses reported 4 billion metric tons of carbon emissions under national and international protocols and programs, a 42 percent increase compared to 2007.

Guy Turner, director of New Carbon Finance, said growth in the market for certified emission reductions (CER), the carbon credit currency used by the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), will drive increased carbon credit market trades this year.

(CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialized nations to reduce their overall greenhouse gas footprint by investing in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries.)

Neil Eckert, chief executive of Climate Exchange PLC, which owns and operates Chicago and European-based commodity exchanges where carbon emissions futures are traded, agreed with Turner’s assessment. “It is a pretty bullish market. The growth is not in a straight line and there are ups and downs, but overall there is a really healthy growth pattern.”

The chart above indicates that the total value of the global carbon market has grown from $1 billion in 2004 to $118 billion last year. The purple bar shows that European Union transactions accounted for $94 billion of last year’s total. This year, EU transactions are expected to post moderate growth. However, demand for allowances from U.S. and Australian buyers is expected to increase as those nations’ regulators prepare to implement national carbon emission cap-and-trade schemes.

Calculating the impact of carbon emissions on your business can be a substantial investment of time and staffing resources. If your jurisdiction adopted a cap-and-trade scheme this year, would your business be prepared to efficiently address the complex requirements for reporting carbon emissions? The price of inaction could be greater than you think, as reflected by the continued growth in the worldwide value of carbon allowances.

Add comment February 3rd, 2009