With a variety of automated Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS) to help track and report environmental, health and safetyClass X capacitors are used in “across-the-line” applications where their failure would not lead to electric shock. Class X safety caps are used between the “live” wires carrying the incoming AC current. In this position, a capacitor failure should not cause any electrical shock hazards, rather, a capacitor failure “between-the-lines” would usually cause a fuse or circuit breaker to open. (EH&S) requirements, it’s surprising that a majority of companies are maintaining existing paper and spreadsheet-based compliance programs.
Paper and spreadsheet-based reporting solutions are not only inefficient, but are also prone to errors. When used for compliance reporting, there are significant risks and financial fines and penalty costs of up to $25,000 per non-compliant event, per day. So why are companies accepting unnecessary environmental liability associated with these archaic programs and what can they do to leverage existing technologies to bring their EH&S systems into the 21st century?
There are, unfortunately, several reasons why companies are staying steadfast in using outdated tools and methods. For one, historically, upgrading to complex customizable EMIS systems has been a huge undertaking requiring significant cost and labor resources to configure and implement. Implementation and deployment used to be an expensive, ERP-style approach, which takes significant time and costs multiple millions of dollars. Continuing misperceptions fuel the expectation that the effort in migrating from current spreadsheets or paper systems into a modernized EMIS platform will be an arduous task –this can scare managers away from making the change.
There are also companies who would like to modernize their EH&S systems, but do not yet see the need because the current system is “good enough.” Unfortunately for these companies, there are often hidden problems that they have yet to discover. Independent studies have shown that 88 percent of spreadsheets contain an anomaly. In addition to spreadsheet errors, most companies will go through separate data collection efforts for individual reporting purposes such as Air Emissions Inventory (AEI) and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting. Collecting redundant data sets duplicates data collection efforts and increases risk associated with data accuracy reported for each program. As data is collected in different data calls, the potential to collect slightly different raw data sets increases.
