The realization that the environment and development are interconnected and inseparable in 1992 during the famous UNICED conference of 1992 signaled a radical shift in every area of business operation. Building on UNICED findings, later conferences, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development of 2002, were more specific on what businesses should do to help to protect the environment.
Today, most governments, individual departments, and certification organizations demand that companies operate sustainably.
Because sustainability is such a broad term, trying to gather data and follow the process of compliance manually is very challenging. This is why you need to identify the best environmental compliance software, but it is also tough because of the long list of apps on the market. So, how exactly do you identify the right program for your company? Here are some useful tips to consider. All about climate risk reporting here.
Why Focus on the Environment?
The focus on the environment is based on the fact that for so many decades, people were mainly committed to optimizing productivity from the earth's resources (all about ESG procedure). They never realized that the earth's resources are finite and over-harvesting them would result in exhaustion. Take the case of petroleum.
With annual oil extraction at around 35.9 billion barrels, it is estimated that the current reserves might not last up to 2300. With this information, your company must think of ways to continue operating in the event fossil fuels run out. Good alternatives to consider are installing solar-powered equipment, using electric cars, and relying on local supplies (All about SASB Standards).
Apart from the risk of getting exhausted, fossil fuels are also the primary cause of greenhouse gases and global warming. Therefore, installing a new system that cuts down emissions or replaces fossil fuel use can go a long way in addressing the challenge. Other notable environmental issues include:
● Loss of biological diversity
● Pollution of water resources
● Human-wildlife conflicts
Why Do You Need to Use Environmental Compliance Software?
Now that we have identified some of the issues that are dangerous to the environment, how exactly does compliance software come in? Environmental compliance software is a program designed to help companies operate within the recommended guidelines to reduce the risk of damage to the environment (all about SASB sustainability software).
The programs are created to work with your organization’s management system to assist you to avoid surpassing the set threshold of emissions or pollution, which can result in serious penalties.
Here are other reasons why you should select good environmental compliance software for your firm:
- Helping you to understand the requirements for compliance to government-set rules and regulations.
- A good program makes it easy to gather data so that your environmental report gives the right position of the company.
- The software can be an important part of your ESG sustainability reporting for your company (value of sustainability software).
- You are able to generate data that can be used for strategic management.
- You can use the environmental reports from the software to win more stakeholders, such as investors and customers.
Useful Tips to Help You Identify the Best Environmental Compliance Software
Now that you understand the benefits that come with using the right environmental compliance software, how do you select it? Here are some useful tips to help you pinpoint the best.
● Look for Referrals
As a manager, you probably have a friend or colleague who has at some point used environmental compliance software. Such friends can be good referrals to programs that work. So, engage them and find out if they were satisfied with the programs and if they were, that might be a good point to start (know more about ESG consulting).
Remember that additional reviews should be done even when referrals talk so fondly about specific programs. So, you should do due diligence and establish whether the app is suitable for your situation. For example, does it have all the features needed to make compliance easy?
● Select the Program Designed for Your Industry
When designing programs, some developers are very specific about where they can be used. For example, sustainability management programs for banks are different from those of agro-based businesses. Therefore, engage the support of selected environmental compliance software to determine whether they have what works best for your industry. You might even want to see some demonstrations of the program at work.
● Ease of Use
The best environmental compliance software should be pretty easy to use for your staff and facility. Therefore, you need to review the program, focusing on areas such as the user interface and features. The developer should also have reliable customer support to help you address issues that might arise when using the program. The developer should also have a training system, either on or offsite, to help your team understand how to use the program.
● Easy Integration with Your Management System
Only go for a program that is easily compatible with your management system. This means that it will be easy to manage the new software alongside other aspects of the management system. Again, the program should make it possible to automate data gathering as a way of simplifying environmental management and compliance.
For example, if the waste or emission thresholds are reached, the environmental compliance software should pull out the data and raise a red flag so that you can take note right away.
Where possible, make sure to take advantage of the trial phase for the selected environmental software. This can offer you an excellent opportunity to test different features and compatibility of the program. You will also be able to engage the support more objectively, seeking confirmations about specific features and limitations if any.
Other important attributes to check include the ability to restrict access to only the vetted persons, regular backups, and affordability. One program that ticks right in all the above attributes we have listed above is Diginex environmental software. You can count on it, not just for environmental compliance, but also ESG reporting.
The developer is also very supportive and will be there to ensure you achieve the targeted objective. Do not just pick any program for environmental compliance; go for the best!
