Winds of Change Signal Seismic Shift in U.S. Climate Change Policy

There were two events in Washington that clearly signal that climate change and greenhouse gas management will soon become a front-burner political issue starting in January.

President-elect Obama’s address to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit this week sent a message that signaled that the incoming U.S. administration will make climate change a major priority. That’s not a huge surprise.

The surprise development occurred earlier today when Rep. Henry Waxman was elected chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce, unseating his longtime colleague Rep. John Dingell during a closed-door session of the House majority caucus. That was a significant action because Waxman has long been a vocal proponent of U.S. federal agencies, specifically the Environmental Protection Agency, taking a more proactive role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Dingell championed the interests of major American car companies, which generally opposed aggressive emissions legislation.

No matter what your political preference, it’s now a well-established fact that U.S supporters of greenhouse gas legislation, and emissions management in general, got a boost from two committed climate change intervention advocates ascending to positions of authority. Both events immediately signal that American emissions regulation will be more activist in nature, starting in early 2009.

If your business has put off implementing processes that address the reality of a carbon-constrained environment for manufacturing, you might want to rethink your position. Your company’s legislative affairs staff is probably preparing recommendations that will detail the implications to your operations. Allow me to provide a concise summary: There’s just been a seismic shift in the U.S. regulatory landscape for emissions management. Both the new president and legislative leaders have indicated that the current economic slowdown won’t affect their efforts to pass climate change legislation next year. And, apparently, the winds of political change are blowing in their favor.

Add comment November 21st, 2008

Analyst Report Cites ESS’ Strengths as a Leading GHG Management Software Provider

We’ve just learned about a recent analyst report that spotlights ESS as a leader among providers of GHG data collection and reporting software. It was published by The 451 Group, which watches market activity from its offices in the U.S. and U.K. The report entitled, “ESS, Oracle’s Carbon Management Partner, Seeks To Move Beyond Its Healthy Niche,” was written by analyst Lynley Oram.

The 451Group’s report is one of the more extensive analyst evaluations of ESS. While the report is only available to subscribers, it has lots of information that is worth sharing, including comments like:

• “ESS appears to be thriving…”
• “Because this is still an early-stage market, it is difficult to assess where this puts ESS in terms of market share, but the company is clearly established as a leading supplier in this growing sector.”
• “To date, ESS has sold …to specialist environmental health and safety managers in companies with a strong interest in environmental management, such as manufacturers. Many are interested in the entire, integrated suite.”
• “ESS is selling its Carbon Management Solution as a standalone software product, or as part of its environmental management suite, a 23-module product spanning most key aspects of sustainability management.”
• “The company is making good use of partnerships. It has signed a partnership deal with Oracle… to provide the carbon management capabilities that Oracle does not as yet have. ESS has similar initiatives with SAP, Microsoft and IBM.”

Why is this important? Our leadership team has positioned the company to meet the growing demands of businesses that are besieged by local, national and international mandates for sustainability reporting, including GHG/carbon management, health & safety management, crisis management, environmental compliance and corporate responsibility reporting.

Our approach has enabled companies to conduct all of their compliance activities on a single software platform, which can reduce operational costs and risks. Our efforts, in large measure, have been well received in the marketplace. It’s good to see that industry observers like The 451 Group, Gartner and AMR Research, recognize our efforts, too.

Add comment November 20th, 2008

US EPA Competition Drives Reduced Emissions

Competition is good for everyone. So it’s not so surprising that many leading corporations, municipalities and small businesses are participating in a different kind of competition: a contest to see which organizations can go beyond regulatory requirements to improve the quality of the environment.

Companies like industry leaders Intel and John Deere are examples of organizations participating in the National Environmental Performance Track program. Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Performance Track competition encourages organizations to develop programs that reduce emissions is excess of EPA-regulated limits for air, water and land pollution. For example, another noteworthy participant, the City of Dallas, has pledged to reduce water consumption at city-operated sites by 49 million gallons over 3 years, a 5 percent reduction.

Performance Track participants are encouraged to develop measurable emissions reduction goals that drive improvements to air, water and land quality. Since the program launch in 2000, more than 500 Performance Track member organizations have established in excess of 4,000 goals, resulting in a reduction of 310,000 metric tons of GHG emissions, 13,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 52,000 tons of hazardous waste from being released into the environment.

Your organization still has a few more days to submit a 2008 Performance Track application. If your organization or government entity would like to join the competition, applications will be accepted through October 31. Members can obtain annual performance reports and renewal applications starting February 1, 2009. Submission deadline is April 1.

Needless to say, ESS can help Performance Track participants monitor progress against EPA and corporate benchmarks. ESS’ integrated EHS platform and powerful software tools, including our Environmental Compliance and GHG/Carbon Management solutions, help organizations streamline collection, processing and communicating emissions information to reduce complexities and risks and costs associated with generating both mandatory and voluntary reports.

Add comment October 28th, 2008

Regulations Pose Potential Risks to the Enterprise

We have provided our customers with important updates to help them stay on top of key regulatory activities that could impact their operations. It’s worth noting that there has been increased activity recently, focused on GHG management, and not all of those proposals are coming from environmental regulators. Here are three examples, courtesy of Jeff Ladner, Director of ESS’ Climate Change Solution Practices:

Binding requirement to disclose climate risk for energy company

• “Under a first-ever binding and enforceable agreement with New York’s Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, Xcel Energy will have to disclose the financial risks that climate change poses to its investors in its annual SEC filings.” The deal also commits Xcel to a broad array of climate change disclosures including: projected increase in CO2 emissions from planned coal-fired power plants; strategies for reducing emissions; and corporate governance actions related to climate change.
• Important tip for you: This agreement is expected to set a precedent for climate risk disclosure requirements from the SEC.
• On a related note, 70 institutional investors are following up on earlier petitions to the SEC. The institutional investors are driving the requirement to disclose climate change risk for all public companies.

FASB proposing new standard for disclosing loss contingencies, including environmental liabilities

• The proposed accounting standard seeks to modify the rules currently governing loss contingencies [financial reserves]. The new amendment reflects the growing pressure that large investors are placing on FASB to force companies to come clean about their liabilities in the name of increasing transparency.
• If the rule remains unchanged, it will become effective for annual financial statements issued for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2008.

Climate related shareholder proxies

• You can now track climate/environmental related proxies demanding improved disclosure and transparency. Numerous companies with whom we are actively engaged are involved in addressing shareholder issues THIS YEAR. The file for the proxies is available for download.

Although we’ve been talking about these issues for many years, they seem to be accelerating, and the regulatory environment is changing daily. That’s why we continue to remind decisions makers that integrated information technology is an essential tool for companies that want to successfully navigate through today’s complicated regulatory environment.

Add comment September 12th, 2008