Our Sustainability Metrics 360 (SM360) system helps public and private sector clients minimize environmental risks of their operations through modern data management tools and insightful performance analytics.
With heightened environmental awareness around the globe, there is growing concern about the adverse health effects of water pollution, air emissions and other types of waste discharges. As a result governments are under tremendous pressure to tighten their regulatory enforcement. Businesses also want to be responsive to their stakeholders and they view good environmental practices as essential for their long term economic and financial success.
To meet their goals cost-effectively, governments and businesses need to get their environmental data in order. Accordingly, we work with our clients to: (1) Integrate scattered environmental data into one unified database, (2) conduct QA/QC to ensure accuracy, (3) establish online and desktop data entry and compilation system, (4) customize web applications to visualize data on dashboards, (5) provide access to data through user-friendly download tools, and (6) generate reports for regulators and other decision purposes.
Data Integration
We can help any organization bring together environmental and other related datasets scattered in various Excel spreadsheets, non-standardized local databases and hard copies into one integrated relational database. In the case of one client, we successfully integrated data from more than a thousand different Excel spreadsheets and tabs covering air emissions, effluent, dust monitoring, surface and groundwater, drinking wells, ambient air quality, hazardous and solid waste into one integrated large-volume database system on a SQL server.
Data Quality Control
Environmental data are highly prone to error and quality concerns could arise at the stages of sample preparation, sample collection, transport, storage, testing or when data are finally recorded in a laboratory or reported to clients. Our QA/QC tool comes integrated with the overall environmental information system and it helps to weed out data for manual verification and correction before any result is used or reported for regulatory or management decisions.
Data Entry and Compilation
Environmental data are generated in a variety of formats and forms. Sometimes there are automatic monitoring instruments that transfer data directly to a database server and at other times, data need to be entered manually. Data-generation is highly decentralized and is often distributed across different departments, cities or countries. We have encountered many data entry challenges in our projects and over time have developed a suite of tools and strategies that ensure that data are current and readily available to end-users.
For environmental agencies, we provide both desktop and internet based data entry interfaces that enable reporting entities (manufacturing plants, mining companies, power plants and others) to report their data to regulators on a timely basis. For private companies, we customize data entry and compilation tools using desktop, intranet, internet or through bridge applications to access data from other databases.
Data Analysis and Visualization
We apply interactive data analysis and visualization tools to present key performance analytics to the senior management. At the same, our data display tools generate actionable information that operational managers need on a day-to-day basis.
Our innovative data aggregation techniques provide the big picture on executive dashboards and at the same time enable users to drill down and review the back-end data, statistical summaries, metrics and benchmarks. Users can also dig deeper into a specific indicator and review the time series data from various sources, review data quality and validation notes, do benchmarking and comparative analysis, analyze key correlations and generate reports on-the-fly. Our data visualization tools are well recognized by users (see sample display and a live dashboard).
Data Query and Download
Over years of research and deployment, we have developed user-friendly interfaces for querying and downloading the data that users often need from large and complex online databases. Our tools enable easy download of raw data and key statistics by day, week, month or year from a single or multiple reporting entities. Such data are seamlessly exported to common desktop applications like MSExcel or MSWord.
Performance Reports
Our reporting tools generate customized reports for internal use as well as for regulatory reporting. These reports control for factors like compliance versus corrective and surveillance samples, and ensure that correct data are reported to regulatory agencies. A user-friendly interface generates reports for water and air quality, hazardous waste management, emissions and discharges for individual monitoring stations as well for the entire project site.
Regulations and Guidelines Knowledgebase
Our environmental information system also includes a database of regulations to keep track of current and historical environmental standards and compliance requirements in emissions and discharge permits. This database tool also maintains a knowledgebase of international guidelines and performance standards prescribed by organizations such as the IFC and the World Bank.
Environmental Modules
Our environmental information system is designed to be comprehensive and encompasses all the critical environmental issues. From one web portal users have access to data and analysis covering:
- Ambient air quality and air emissions
- Water quality covering discharges, surface water, groundwater, marine and estuaries, wells and drinking water
- Soil and sediment quality
- Hazardous, toxic and solid waste management, including manifest tracking system
- Metals in tissues covering fish, animals and plants
- Biological monitoring including species population and diversity
- Weather data covering wind, precipitation, solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity and other parameters
- Site-audit and inspection module
- Environmental performance ratings
