Last week, the Mapistry team attended the NAEM 2020 EHS Software, Innovation, & Technology Showcase. As a first-timer at the conference, and someone relatively new to the EHS world, my goal was to attend the show and be a sponge to what is happening in the industry – how far have we come, and what is in store for the road ahead…
This blog will highlight the top things I learned from the conference and key points from Mapistry’s presentation with industry leader, Tina Lau, from Lehigh Hanson.
First and Foremost, the Importance of EHS
… and why an EHS manager has the hardest job within an organization. Over the years, different business functions have been created to satisfy the demands of the ever-expanding compliance landscape, including: Responsible Workplace, Asset Protection, Security, Environment, Social, Governance, Health, Safety, and Sustainability. All of these individual titles have very important roles and responsibilities to carry out, and if they cannot do their job properly, the organization suffers. During the event, I heard from COO’s and CEO’s, Directors of Sustainability, Environmental Land Resource Managers, Directors of Strategy and Operations, and a countless number of EHS professionals all telling a similar story of data management and how their role would be impossible without technological innovations. As I attended the different sessions and learned more about the roles and the problems these individuals face, I acknowledged the difficulty of their role. I discovered the challenges EHS professionals deal with on a day-to-day basis, which made me realize the margin for error is decreasing. They no longer have the luxury of simply checking compliance boxes. They need to learn how to keep pace with a constant onslaught of changing regulations, new risks, and higher stakes. The conference did confirm something I already knew – that the only real way to cover your bases is to have thorough documentation and some sort of management system in place to help master your compliance needs. As regulations become more complex, the role of an EHS manager is also getting more involved. Environmental, health, and safety are very broad disciplines, and each focus area deserves its own role; however, many organizations lump EHS together for efficiency purposes. In an era of dwindling budgets and more complex systems, how can you expect one person to carry out this specialized role without tools? Lean teams can no longer rely on the physical 3-ring binders on site; thus, the need for digitization and adoption of technology.Emerging Technology Adoption
What exactly is “emerging technology” and what does this “adoption” look like for a large, multi-site organization? The age of technology is upon us, and it is a well-known fact that more automation will streamline processes, creating greater efficiency. During the NAEM conference, companies presented their unique choices for emerging technologies including mobile apps, real-time GPS tracking, smart sensors, and drone imagery, to name a few. The implementation of the technology is dependent upon the organization and where they fit within the industry; thus, the great diversity of unique solutions. A message that was repeated again and again: # of integrated assessments = more visibility = greater productivity = increased savings. One consistent remained throughout conversations – the more data, the better – because how do you manage what you don’t measure. What is always needed, regardless of where an organization exists within the digital transformation of compliance, is a light-weight solution that acts as a system of record to manage this data. Whether the data is from a sensor or a stormwater permit, a platform to view information is needed. Adoption is another challenge entirely because you are not just implementing a tool, but revolutionizing how people think about their day-to-day processes. Therefore, you need solid reasons to proliferate adoption.Drivers for adopting emerging technology
… and strategies for championing the unification of data. The goal of implementing technology is to reduce duplicative efforts and non-standardized processes. Data, resources, strategies, and teams should not be siloed, but rather, unified for a single source of truth to promote interactive functional areas. Some of the drivers for adopting emerging technology, as provided by NAEM research:- Risk reduction and safety improvement
- Increased complexity of regulations/compliance
- Driving productivity and cost savings
- Advance sustainability and Improve transparency
- Driving innovation
- Site-functioned risk profile
- Audit results and methods for efficiency
- Corrective actions and priorities
- Task completion tracking and notification
- Increased productivity through automation