PG&E enlists Enviance to manage GHG compliance

PG&E is using Enviance's Environmental ERP (EERP) solution to manage its mandatory and voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting at the state and federal levels. PG&E will use the solution to comply with mandatory regulations like the USEPA GHG Reporting Rule and California's AB 32 Reporting Regulation, as well as for voluntary reporting efforts like the Carbon Disclosure Project, the Climate Registry and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. PG&E can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete reporting related to state and federal mandates by as much as 80 percent, allowing its environmental team to focus on other high-priority activities. This kind of process optimization is not only good for the bottom line, but also good for the planet and ultimately customers. 

Utilities have the most to gain or lose when it comes to compliance. Environmental compliance is quickly becoming an integral part of a company's business and overall success. As the United States moves toward a clean energy economy and the EPA, SEC, and federal, state and other regulators continue to implement environmental reporting mandates, organizations must be in compliance or risk huge fines and legal action. From Title V to Toxic Release Inventory to state and federal mandates, utilities face myriad compliance obligations and are accountable not only to regulatory agencies like the EPA, but to shareholders, NGOs, and the communities in which they operate. The need for a system to manage this time-consuming and business-critical process is indisputable.

Implementing an EERP solution is often challenging given the complexities of emissions requirements. In the past, many companies relied on legacy enterprise software and homegrown solutions - such as Excel spread sheets - as the go-to method for tracking and managing emissions. With environmental and regulatory requirements evolving at a rapid pace, these legacy options simply do not suffice.

As a result, EERP companies should have their attention. There could come a day, in the near future, when carbon ends up on every company's balance sheet. Companies focused on conducting better business will embrace the change early and be fully able to address the financial elements behind compliance.

EERP solutions allow users to track, manage and report environmental pressure points, including GHG emissions, to meet federal, state, regulatory, corporate and financial compliance and sustainability mandates and goals, and delivering information online, enterprise-wide, and in real-time for a transparent and holistic view.

Automation and intelligent technology is the key in EERP, and will continue to be moving forward. As this technology grows, the reliance on homegrown systems prone to human error will be eliminated. One person cannot be tasked with monitoring the myriad regulations the EPA has put in place to protect the environment and guard against harmful emissions. A streamlined and centralized solution with online connectivity, providing seamless communication enterprise wide, is the best way to ensure total compliance.

EERP helps companies quantify what matters most environmentally and allocate their resources to what improves both the environmental sustainability of their company and their bottom line. The implementation of EERP software requires less of a utility's key resources to operate, reduces their IT costs, easily connects to legacy systems, and centralizes information-all elements needed to better manage processes related to environmental compliance, self-assessment and awareness programs. This, in turn, makes the company more productive and effective and centralizes and streamlines operations, allowing them to focus on other business critical initiatives, like introducing new efficiencies into their business and servicing customers.

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