Water management problems capture more attention from environmental technology player Locus.
Locus’ cloud-based environmental data management and EHS compliance software solutions are built on the cloud— read more about how we use the cloud to help our customers.
New EIM tool, LTMO, helps customers reduce groundwater well monitoring
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 23, 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental software, announced today the release of its Long Term Monitoring Optimization (LTMO) software that helps customers cut the cost of groundwater remediation projects. LTMO is built-in to EIM, Locus’ web-based application for managing sampling, analytical and geological data associated with environmental projects.
Long term monitoring of contaminated groundwater is one of the biggest costs of many environmental projects, often requiring that hundreds or more wells be sampled at regular intervals, with each sample event costing hundreds of dollars. Over time, changes in site conditions may mean the number of sampled wells or the frequency of sampling can be reduced. A number of analytical tools and approaches exist to identify redundant wells and pinpoint opportunities for sampling and monitoring reductions. MAROS (Monitoring And Remediation Optimization System) software application, developed by the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, is one of the most popular of these tools. With the LTMO tool, Locus has incorporated many of the techniques and methodologies of MAROS, including trend analyses and the Delaunay triangulation method.
The Locus EIM LTMO tool offers several distinct advantages over MAROS and other existing stand-alone or spreadsheet-based applications that perform similar analyses. First of all, there is no need to export data in a special format to another application. All analyses are performed under the umbrella of EIM. Secondly, robust integrated Web 2.0 graphical tools and reports provide a wealth of options for examining the results of the analyses, including extensive backup data that can be supplied to regulatory agencies as needed. Finally, the results of any analysis can be saved and easily pulled up for review or modification.
“We expect the incorporation of the LTMO tool into EIM to be extremely beneficial to our large enterprise customers that have thousands of groundwater sites. Instead of the analyses being performed on the desktops of their many consultants, long-term groundwater management data resides in a single, central, web-accessible database. LTMO is a very powerful tool that significantly reduces the cost of long term stewardship of groundwater contaminated sites,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
“The recent $11 billion bill passed to fix California’s water infrastructure includes a provision for mandatory monitoring of the state’s groundwater, which is often used during times of drought and is most vulnerable to contamination. From the onset of the new bill, Locus’ LTMO tool will be there to help industry and government to optimize groundwater monitoring programs,” added Duplan.
Contact Locus today for a demonstration of this exciting new feature and see how Locus EIM can help you reduce your long-term sampling and analytical costs.
Industry Leader Takes Action on Climate Change
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., September 28, 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental software, announced today that it has joined The Climate Registry and The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to report its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and GRI Performance Indicators and to assist its clients with doing the same. The Climate Registry is a nonprofit organization established to support organizations in calculating and publicly reporting GHG emissions in a common, accurate and transparent manner consistent across industry sectors and geographical borders. The Global Reporting Initiative has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide. This framework sets out the principles and indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance.
“Locus Technologies has demonstrated exemplary environmental leadership by taking the critical first step toward analyzing its impact on the environment” said Doug Scott, Chair of The Climate Registry and Chair of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. “In order to manage and reduce emissions, it is important to calculate and verify emissions data accurately. By measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions according to the most rigorous and comprehensive standards, Locus is holding itself to the highest level of accountability and responsibility.”
Registry Members calculate and verify their GHG emissions according to The Climate Registry’s protocols, which are based on and consistent with international standards such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and WRI/WBCSD. By calculating, reporting and verifying their GHG emissions, Members serve as international role models for environmental responsibility and commitment. Because they have experience in managing their emissions, they also serve as valuable resources in developing future policies.
The GRI Guidelines are the world’s most widely-used sustainability reporting framework. The common framework enables like-for-like comparison to be made between companies, and for change to be effected from within a company. GRI’s mission is to create conditions for the transparent and reliable exchange of sustainability information through the development and continuous improvement of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. The GRI vision is that disclosure on economic, environmental, and social performance is as commonplace and comparable as financial reporting, and as important to organizational success.
“Locus is very happy to join these organizations that are leading initiatives to standardize reporting of GHG and Sustainability Indicators for the benefit of the planet and business community. For the last several years Locus has been developing web-based software that incorporates guidance documents from these organizations to help its clients with reporting needs in various jurisdictions around the world. Locus’ goal is to provide its clients with Software as a Service (SaaS) tools where clients need to input GHG and Sustainability information only once and report it many times in accordance with various geographies and standards. This is particularly important because many regions around the world still don’t have a clear set of enterprise GHG reporting standards. With passage of the Federal Greenhouse Gases Rule on 22 September 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will, for the first time, require large emitters to begin reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) data under a new reporting system. This new program covers approximately 85 percent of the U.S. GHG emissions and applies to roughly 10,000 facilities. The owners of these facilities need to be ready to organize and report their data in the most efficient way. Furthermore, by organizing their GHG and Sustainability data in a system like Locus’, companies will not only be able to lower the reporting costs and organize their data better, but also use the very same data to improve their operational efficiency across their organization in a way that could self-fund these important initiatives,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
“We hope that Locus will pave the way for many other companies from the US and other regions of the world to recognize the importance of GRI and GHG reporting. Embedding the GRI guidance in ePortal applications through a multi-stakeholder process will help industry to faster adopt a set of standards for sustainability disclosure,” added Dr. Duplan.
Market Leader Expands its Offering to Meet Demand From Nuclear Industry
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., September 14, 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental software, announced today that it has expanded its flagship product EIM to include a module for nuclear facilities information management and reporting.
Nearly all of the activities associated with water and soil protection at nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, including the assessment of site characteristics, the ongoing monitoring of site conditions, and the remediation of adverse environmental impacts, involve the collection and/or analysis of data. The tools and systems used to manage and store this information must satisfy strict security and QA/QC requirements to ensure that only the appropriate people can access the data, and that the quality of the data adheres to the highest Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) standards. It is also critical that these applications allow engineers and scientists to do their work in a cost-effective way, allowing them to focus less of their time on finding the data they need and formatting various outputs, and more on the evaluation and analysis of these data.
The new EIM module was specifically designed for managing subsurface and other data at nuclear facilities, including commercial reactor sites, research labs, and nuclear materials production and storage complexes. The system provides an unmatched level of data security and enforces an extensive set of QC/QC requirements on all uploaded data. At the same time it provides a variety of easy-to-use options to upload, validate, flag, examine, map, plot, download, and report data. The system has the capability to store such radioanalytical parameters as uncertainty, uncertainty type (Standard, Combined Standard, and Expanded), and required method uncertainty. It also has the capability to convert weight to activity concentrations, calculate sums of ratios, and evaluate action limits that pertain to either single or groups of parameters. The system helps reporting entities enforce data quality in accordance with the NRC or other standards such as NQA-1, and ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q 9001:2000, and validate incoming analytical data.
“Locus has been present at Department of Energy (DOE) facilities such as Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) that deal with radioactive data for some time. With the highly expected return of the nuclear industry for commercial use and decommissioning of older generation power plants and weapons complexes, we felt that the market needs an off-the-shelf tool to manage radioactive data that are subject to a different set of regulatory guidance documents from those managed under regular chemistry data under the US EPA and other guidance documents. The new radioanalytical functionality introduced through this release provides any nuclear facility that has a need for data management and reporting—and almost all have—to meet these needs using Locus’ EIM,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. Locus worked with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in developing the needed functionality. As part of a demonstration of the system’s flexibility and expandability to EPRI earlier this year, various statistical (sign, fraction limit, and normal distribution tests) and graphical (regression-correlation, regression with error bars, box, and rank trend plots) outputs were added to EIM’s already impressive list of analytical tools. “We are very excited to introduce this tool at the upcoming EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop (in collaboration with NEI) to be held in Charleston, SC from September 15 to 16, 2009,” added Dr. Duplan.
EIM, Locus’ Environmental Information Management tool, is the world’s largest commercial on-demand environmental data management system. EIM completely replaces existing stand-alone data systems and reporting tools to provide a comprehensive integrated solution to one of the environmental industries’ most vexing problems – the centralization and management of complex data pertaining to contaminated water, groundwater, soil, and/or air. EIM provides for the complete electronic processing of analytical data, beginning with the upload of electronic data deliverables from labs, and terminating in state-mandated regulatory exports and reporting. EIM is deployed through Software as a Service (SaaS) model which eliminates most of the difficulties associated with the adoption of a new technology, while offering the opportunity for more rapid customization to meet the ever changing needs of its user population. The system currently stores over 120 million records for over 35,000 sites worldwide.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., August 24 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental software, was recently chosen as NASA/Ames Research Center 2009 Small Business Subcontractor of the Year.
Locus, as a subcontractor to NASA prime contractors, provided industrial automation diagnostic and repair services to NASA’s automated Groundwater Treatment Systems. With its expertise in onsite and web-based industrial automation and controls, Locus successfully met aggressive budget and schedule constraints.
“Locus Technologies’ hard work, and excellent performance in support of the continued operation and maintenance of the Center Groundwater Extraction and Treatment System (GWTS) were completed within budget and the projected schedules,” wrote S. Peter Worden, NASA/Ames Center Director. “Your company’s ability to provide diagnosis and/or a report of various automated components in a timely manner, such that there has been minimal to no “down time” is important as it is considered a value added performance,” continued Worden.
“Locus is very proud to receive this honor from NASA/Ames Research Center for our expertise in groundwater treatment system automation services,” said Neno Duplan, Locus President and CEO. “Locus has a long history in treatment system automation and was one of the first companies to use the Internet to streamline monitoring and management of groundwater treatment systems.”
“Our work at NASA/Ames Research Center demonstrates our continued belief that strong environmental domain expertise, coupled with innovative online software services, is a powerful business model few if any other firms can match in the environmental space,” continued Duplan.
Locus has provided industrial automation services for the environmental remediation and water industries since it was founded in 1997. Locus’ Automation Services Group specializes in using automated and wireless sensors for remote monitoring, data collection, and control of water treatment systems. Locus’ automated systems are available onsite or online via Locus web-based ePortal, where customers can view, manage and report via the Internet, and mashup their environmental data and activities through ePortal.
“Interest in our water management software is strong, but not just for automating treatment plant operation or regulatory reporting. We see our clients moving toward an era of sustainable remediation that leverages environmental business intelligence,” said Duplan.
“Water treatment or air emission monitoring can be viewed as a key data source for lowering overall cost of operations, instead of simply as input for regulatory reporting. We help our clients use information gathered for environmental compliance to create an operationally competitive advantage,” Duplan stated.
Integration of the latest Web 2.0 technologies optimize environmental management and corporate social reporting
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 22 June 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance, sustainability and GHG information management software, announced today a key release of their ePortal platform, which incorporates both enhanced corporate sustainability reporting tools and Web 2.0 collaboration tools, provided by Alfresco Software (www.Alfresco.com), the leader in open source enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. The addition of Alfresco’s ECM capability to Locus’ popular ePortal product enables distributed teams working online to securely share, track and manage environmental content, as well as automate reporting within and across companies.
Locus’ ePortal environmental management solution integrates its environmental management modules into a single software solution through a single sign on (SSO) for large and small enterprise applications. Locus’ ePortal automates environmental information management workflows, as well as compliance, sustainability and greenhouse gas reporting at the enterprise level through its environmental Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings. Locus’ enhanced release due this summer expands corporate sustainability and GHG reporting and adds collaboration tools powered by Alfresco.
“Corporate sustainability reporting is all about measurement, metrics and improvement as companies strive to be better stewards of the earth while conducting their business and lowering costs,” said Rick Bergquist, Chief Software Evangelist and former CTO of PeopleSoft. “By adding the power of collaboration using Alfresco, Locus’ ePortal can track sustainability progress, sharing best practices among far flung corporate divisions to further enhance a company’s return on investment. This is part of the key Locus vision to provide rich, easy to use, on-demand software tools that streamline environmental reporting and foster continuous improvements through active collaboration,” added Bergquist.
“Locus has provided online sustainability solutions since 2002, covering the core Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators for environmental performance, labor practices and decent work,” said Locus President and CEO, Neno Duplancic. “Although GRI reporting can be complex, our system provides an easy-to-use multi language user interface that streamlines data entry and requires little or no user training,” said Duplancic.
“Locus’ inclusion of Alfresco into their solution provides a cost-effective way for organizations to address their environmental management and corporate social reporting requirements,” commented John Powell, CEO of Alfresco Software. “Alfresco has been designed to provide flexible collaborative content services well suited to the SaaS delivery model. ”
In addition to GRI-compliant sustainability reporting, Locus’ ePortal includes auditable and actionable compliance task-based tracking with automated notifications, environmental data management using a powerful online database, regulatory permit tracking, asset tracking and document management. Robust business analytics and on-board mapping with Google maps enable enterprise users to manage and track trends at divisional or corporate levels on configurable dashboards. Locus provides unprecedented access and environmental information control across all enterprise environmental content repositories, structured and unstructured. This functionality enables a new generation of solutions and modules that can intelligently leverage information to automate tasks previously requiring human action, providing significant ROI.
Upcoming changes to regulatory reporting requirements drive new solutions
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 27 April 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, today announced a development relationship with Ecotek, a leader in helping industry navigate the complexities of Federal and State air and greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation compliance reporting.
The environmental industry is at a critical point in determining how businesses, government agencies, and community organizations respond to unprecedented legislative mandates to reduce greenhouse gas to curb global warming. The California Air Resources Board recently adopted the proposed Scoping Plan for implementing AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. And, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed the first comprehensive national system for reporting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by major sources in the United States, the Federal Mandatory GHG reporting Rule.
Business will be required to provide the best possible environmental information and Locus and Ecotek are teaming to make that possible. Progressive companies should be acting now to prepare. Locus is a leader in cloud computing solutions for the environmental industry. Historically, Locus has emphasized environmental data management for complex analytical data with their Environmental Information Management (EIM) system, used by Fortune 100 companies to manage environmental data and risk. Locus’ ePortal is the industry’s first on-demand environmental software that automates environmental information management workflows, compliance, and reporting at enterprise level through Locus’ Software as a Service (SaaS) environmental software offerings. Locus’ ePortal already offers eEHS, a streamlined enterprise corporate sustainability and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) tracking application that includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions tracking and key Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) environmental and labor indicators. GRI is independent institution (started in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and became independent in 2002) whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. The GRI is an official collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The GRI performance indicators are grouped under three sections covering the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability.
CSR, corporate sustainability and corporate governance collectively are shaping the identity of organizations and are therefore increasingly integrated into the business strategy of successful corporations. Consequently, the field of responsible business strategy and practice is becoming one of the most dynamic and challenging subjects corporations are facing today and possibly one of the most important ones for shaping the future of the world.
Ecotek is a key player in development and support of air emission and air regulatory reporting software and provides expert air compliance consulting services to a strong base of private sector companies and public agencies. Ecotek’s areas of expertise include EPA Title V and California Air Quality Management District (AQMD) Annual Emissions Reports (AER) and upcoming Greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations. Ecotek is a Climate Action Leader with the California Climate Action Registry and a founding member of The Climate Registry.
“Locus’ eEHS application, in use since 2004, was already tracking the Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions and GRI sustainability indicators as well as calculating carbon footprint for customers. It was natural to take the next step and round out the offering by covering the current (AB32) and proposed (Federal) air quality indicators and GHG reporting requirements expected later this year,” said Locus President and CEO, Neno Duplancic. “Locus selected Ecotek based on their superior qualifications and deep domain expertise in both old and new air regulatory reporting requirements and their excellent reputation with the California South Coast AQMD, as evidenced by their twelve year relationship providing support for that agency.”
“Ecotek is excited to work with Locus on enhancing their popular on-demand software suite,” said Ecotek President, Natasha Meskal. “We have long believed that the advantages of SaaS software applied to air emissions reporting was a perfect match and would offer a wide range of users subject to State and Federal regulations an easier and better way to comply with the current and future requirements, which are only getting more complex.”
“Business owners have so much on their plates to comply with requirements and keep up with regulatory changes, having an easy online tool to streamline that process for all their various reporting needs will be a huge benefit.” concluded Meskal.
ABOUT ECOTEK
Ecotek is a leading environmental engineering company providing environmental compliance consulting services and information technology solutions to a strong base of private sector companies and public agencies. Ecotek specializes in the design and implementation of strategies that provide practical compliance and emission reduction solutions that are not only cost effective, but also improve process efficiency and allow businesses to optimize their growth potential. Ecotek manages data to minimize the regulatory impact, by the development and implementation of a customized, proactive compliance programs, applying technological innovations. Ecotek is a Climate Action Leader with the California Climate Action Registry and a founding member of The Climate Registry.
For more information, visit www.locustec.com or contact Ms. Marian Carr at (650) 960-1640.
Locus Rated by Leading Analyst Firm
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 11 May 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus) today announced that Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, has rated the company “Promising” in a recent report.
“Locus is very pleased to have received a Gartner Vendor Rating. Our current customers already know the value our Cloud Computing solutions bring to their environmental information management challenges” said Locus President and CEO, Neno Duplancic. “We believe Gartner’s coverage of our firm confirms our position in the market and our commitment to providing customers with cost-effective and innovative SaaS software solutions that meet their current and emerging environmental data and information management needs, including addressing upcoming GHG and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting.”
Locus’ flagship environmental data management system EIM is used worldwide to manage and report environmental data and information and is managing over 100 million environmental data records for some of the world’s largest companies. Locus’ ePortal provides the platform to bring together Locus’ modular applications into a single integrated solution that can be tailored for environmental compliance, greenhouse gas tracking, or environmental health and safety (EHS) tracking depending on a company’s individual need. Locus’ EHS module also provides GRI indicator tracking and reporting capabilities. All of Locus’ solutions are on-demand providing customers with cost-effective and timely implementation options to meet their business requirements.
VENDOR RATING DISCLAIMER
The Vendor Rating is copyrighted 21 April 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Vendor Rating is an evaluation of a vendor as a whole and is based on Gartner’s assessment of the vendor’s vision and execution for a product or service, relative to Gartner’s analysis of clients’ requirements. It is not intended as a comparison relative to competitors in the market. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Vendor Rating, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Gartner “Vendor Rating: Locus Technologies” by Dan Miklovic, 21 April 2009
The complete report is available to Gartner clients at www.gartner.com.
For more information, visit www.locustec.com or contact Ms. Marian Carr at (650) 960-1640.
Join Locus at the EUEC 2009 Annual Conference & Expo in Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ., 1-4 February 2009 |Booth #827 —Locus will present a paper on Cloud Computing solutions for the EHS industry and display our newest cloud computing products (eEHS and eTask) as well as our flagship product EIM. Please visit us at Booth 827 and see the systems that are changing how environmental professionals manage, analyze, and report environmental data and information.
Is a large portion of your environmental data sitting in spreadsheets and home-built databases?
Robust enterprise databases are standard tools in other industries, but, for whatever reason, the environmental business has failed to fully embrace them. What happens to the sampling and analytical data generated from the investigations, cleanups, air emissions monitoring, or operation and maintenance of a company’s sites? For many, it is entered into spreadsheets, a commercial client/server database, or a home-grown database—with spreadsheets often being the most popular of these alternatives.
Let’s suppose a company has 10-million analytical records stored in spreadsheets and databases dispersed across multiple offices. Our research shows that the average cost to organize, manage, and report this data through independent systems over a 3-year period would be more than $2 million. Stop by Locus’ Booth #827 and let us demonstrate how using our Locus EIM on-demand data management system can drop your number by 85%—or more than a staggering $1.7 million.
Locus Presents | Cloud Computing Solutions for Global Environmental Sustainability Reporting, by Marian Carr and Robert Albo | Session G5: EMIS and EHS | Tuesday, 3 February 2009 1:40 pm
Hovensa Moves to Cloud Computing with Locus’ EIM Software
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 12 January 2009 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, today announced that the Hovensa Refinery in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands has selected Locus Technologies Environmental Information Management (EIM) system to streamline managing environmental sampling and remedial operations data at the refinery.
Hovensa is a joint venture between subsidiaries of Hess Corporation and Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). This refinery is one of the ten largest in the world and one of the most modern in the United States with a crude oil processing capacity of 500,000 barrels per day (BPD). Hovensa operates its facilities on 2,000 acres on the south shore of St. Croix and receives and processes crude oil from around the world.
After reviewing available options to manage their environmental data, Hovensa opted for EIM to meet their demanding requirements, which include a single data repository accessible by all their vendors, regardless of location. EIM’s cloud computing platform was the ideal system to provide the access desired and the robust data management features to address both sampling and operations data.
“Locus is excited that Hovensa selected EIM and is using the system to its fullest,” said Locus President Neno Duplancic. “It’s very gratifying when a customer fully embraces the system and its potential to not only manage their data but to drive cost savings through data collection and report automation. Using EIM’s flexible interface, Hovensa can streamline sample planning and data validation using mainland contractors and labs and produce automated reports of operations status all from the same system.”
Locus Technologies
299 Fairchild Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
P: +1 (650) 960-1640
F: +1 (415) 360-5889
Locus Technologies provides cloud-based environmental software and mobile solutions for EHS, sustainability management, GHG reporting, water quality management, risk management, and analytical, geologic, and ecologic environmental data management.