In 2019, Oldcastle Infrastructure was adding employees and suppliers at a record pace to fuel growth. They quickly realized they needed a better way to manage their environmental compliance programs and also to scale with their growing business of over 80 manufacturing locations.
One of the biggest challenges faced was limited visibility into compliance activities — this was largely due to the fact that they still relied heavily on outdated processes such as paper inspection forms, compliance binders, and email. In fact, environmental managers often found themselves calling and driving all over to ensure inspections and other requirements were being completed and completed correctly. “I found myself calling, emailing and bugging my guys to figure out if they had done their monthly inspections and other things,” said Todd Ravazza, Northern Californa EHS&S Manager. “I used spreadsheets and calendar reminders to try to track the performance of each sites’ requirements but it was a cumbersome process to manage and I often felt like we were playing catch up,” he added.
Adding to the challenge of outdated processes and sheer geographic distance, was Oldcastle Infrastructure’s reliance on paper-based processes which frequently required staff to transcribe data electronically after notating it on paper. This process was slow, time-consuming, and they felt like it was wasting valuable time and resources. Not to mention, this manual process made them vulnerable to transcription errors and time delays — which ultimately put them at greater risk of compliance issues like missed inspections or late reports.
The last challenge they faced was not being able to respond quickly or efficiently enough to regulatory changes. For example, when the California state stormwater permit was revised, multiple plans needed small updates to ensure compliance with the new regulations. This posed a daunting task for environmental staff as so much of their stormwater program lived in binders and on paper forms. As a result, environmental managers lost critical time compiling the necessary documents and they often struggled with version control and consistency issues when it came to stormwater plans.
