As announced in a press release on August 19th 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has recently been established between two of the major players in the Canadian standards and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions industries. Leading Canadian standards-based solutions organization, CSA Standards, and the leading North American GHG registry, The Climate Registry, have come together through the MoU to more closely align the two organizations in regards to supporting a consistent GHG measurement and reporting culture in Canada. The partnership solidifies the collaboration between the two organizations to promote the voluntary reporting of GHG emissions to The Climate Registry as well as the adoption of The Climate Registry’s platform for mandatory reporting among Canadian jurisdictions. The MoU also strives to improve upon and create new training opportunities and capacity building programs related to The Climate Registry as well as for general GHG accounting, verification, reporting and tracking.

With over 340 members, The Climate Registry currently operates the foremost North American voluntary GHG registry holding a unique relationship with the 12 Canadian provinces and territories as well as the 41 states that all sit on their board of directors. The Climate Registry, by setting consistent and transparent standards for calculating, verifying and publicly reporting GHG emissions, plays an active role in supporting mandatory reporting schemes across North America. On the other side, CSA Standards serves industry, government, consumers and other interested parties in North America and the global marketplace and has been working with Canadian jurisdictions to build components that support GHG reporting, regional emissions trading systems, and program performance tracking.

Speaking on the newly established MoU, Suzanne Kiraly, president of CSA Standards commented, “This MoU highlights CSA Standards and The Climate Registry’s mutual purpose and common goal of building standardized methods for measuring and tracking GHG emissions. Continued collaboration between our two organizations will serve to further these efforts and, in turn, benefit various organizations, including government and industries.”  Alex Carr, Canadian Regional Director of The Climate Registry, also sees the benefit that the MoU will bring to both government and industry stating that, “By working together with CSA, we can better support Canadian governments and industry as climate policy continues to evolve and capturing high quality GHG emissions data becomes even more important – both to regulators and to companies wanting to manage their risks, improve energy efficiency, and demonstrate their leadership.” The establishment of this MoU is a positive sign that the standardization of GHG emissions reporting in Canada is moving closer to becoming a reality, ultimately creating a reporting climate where ingenuity and continuous improvement are held as key drivers.

Web-based Environmental Management Systems such as the one offered by Intelex provide a platform to track and report GHG emissions data across an entire organization in real-time, providing a 360 degree view of emissions performance fostering regulatory compliance as well as driving continual improvement.

As announced in an article posted on Quality Magazine's website, a new ISO standard defining the Quality Management System requirements for suppliers to the automotive sector has just recently been published. ISO/TS (Technical Specification) 16949:2009 was jointly developed by the members of the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and submitted to The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for approval and publication. The new document comes in the wake of a review conducted of its predecessor ISO/TS 16949:2002 which was carried out by the IATF and ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 176. No major changes to the standard’s technical requirements have been made; instead the updates mainly consist of improvements to management requirements to reflect the content of quality management systems standard ISO 9001:2008 and an improved consistency with the environmental management system standard ISO 14001:2004.

The 2002 version has been used by major automotive manufacturers to approve the more than 35,000 organizations worldwide that produce and supply parts for the automotive industry. Implementation of ISO/TS 16949:2009 is seen as an opportunity for automotive suppliers to improve quality while reducing costs and the IATF has set a transition period of 120 days from the date of publication (June 15th 2009) to comply with the new requirements. As the article quotes ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele, "With the global nature of the automotive industry quality management systems based on ISO/TS 16949:2009 throughout the supply chain will serve to streamline operations, and thus help organizations cut costs while improving efficiency," commented Steele, "The publication of ISO/TS 16949 will assist the sector, reassure consumers and ensure significant benefits for automotive suppliers amid the challenges facing the industry." As organizations begin to implement the new specifications associated with ISO/TS 16949:2009, improvements should  be seen on an ongoing basis as the new standard is aimed to foster the development of a quality management system that emphasizes continual improvement, specifically focusing on defect prevention and reducing variation and waste in the supply chain. A Web-Based Quality Management System such as the one offered by Intelex Technologies provides the tools, adaptability, power and support needed to comply with and surpass ISO standards, all in a web-based system that is easy to use and implement organization-wide.

A recent article published on Business News America's website addresses Intelex Technologies growing presence into the South American market. During an interview with journalist Renzo Dasso, Intelex Account Manager Jason Fitzpatrick explained how an increased awareness surrounding environmental considerations has been a motivating factor for many organizations to begin implementing web-based environmental management systems, despite the current economic climate, "We have done quite well in spite of the global financial crisis. The environment industry is developing rapidly and companies are becoming more aware of these issues, which for us is an advantage."

Visit the Business News America website to read the complete article.

Intelex Technologies has released its latest software innovation, the Intelex OpenPass API, a revolutionary application programming interface that will enable its users to sync and report data between multiple business management systems.

The Intelex OpenPass API functions as a conduit for seamlessly feeding data between multiple software programs. This means that Intelex’s environment, quality, and health & safety, and business management Software can now share data with pre-existing business software applications; thereby, saving time and resources while maintaining a degree of accuracy that’s difficult to achieve when data is transmitted manually.

The City of Calgary and St. Gobain are the first Intelex clients to take advantage of the OpenPass API.  The City of Calgary used our OpenPass API to import employee and location data from their pre-existing HR system into their Intelex System. They also used the OpenPass API to export employee injury data (i.e., incident number with date and time stamp) from Intelex’s Master Incidents Module into their HR program.

St. Gobain used the OpenPass API to import training courses, employee lists, and employee workgroup data from Lotus Notes into the Intelex System and Training Management Module. By using the OpenPass API St. Gobain was able to quickly populate their new Intelex System with historical data that will be a key factor in reporting accuracy and trending.

If you think that your organization could use the Intelex OpenPass API to import, export, and sync data between a pre-existing management program and your Intelex System, send an email to client.relations@intelex.com or call 416.599.6009 for more details.

On March 10, 2009 the United States EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) announced a proposal for the first nation-wide system for reporting greenhouse gases.

"The new reporting requirements would apply to suppliers of fossil fuel and industrial chemicals, manufacturers of motor vehicles and engines, as well as large direct emitters of greenhouse gases with emissions greater than a threshold of 25,000 metric tons per year." March 10, 2009 EPA News Release.

Organizations effected by the new regulations would be required to submit their first annual report to the EPA in 2011, with the exception of automobile and engine manufacturers who would submit their first report for model year 2011.

If you’re interested in learning how your organization can begin to track and report greenhouse gases submit a request for more information or ask for a live demo.

With increasing concerns throughout the world regarding pollution, and the consumption of non-renewable resources, reducing the amount of paper usage is at the forefront of many activist campaigns and multi-national corporations’ agendas.

One tree is able to produce 80,500 sheets of paper. That much paper, although huge to the average person, is dwarfed in comparison to what the world requires. An astonishing 786 million trees are needed to meet the world’s paper demand for one year.  Of that, 1/3  is consumed in North America, resulting in 5 million tons of paper waste ending up in landfills every year. The harm in massive dumping of paper and paper products is that they emit methane gas while decomposing, a very potent greenhouse gas. With such drastic numbers, more companies are regarding recycling as an attractive option.

The reality is that corporations use massive amounts of paper in order to track policies, work instructions, and SOP’s.  So aside from recycling, what else can an organization do to cut down on paper consumption and minimize their operating costs? They can work toward creating a paperless business solution. The Intelex Document Control System is a web-based application that enables organizations to streamline the control, routing and revision management of critical documentation and records. The system leverages a database driven engine to facilitate the creation, approval, storage, control, update and distribution of documents, records, lists and inventories. The system is also designed to meet document control standards defined in ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

Becoming sustainable, environmentally sound, and reducing operating costs are targets every corporation seeks to achieve. To learn how Intelex can help your organization achieve these goals feel free to visit our website and submit a request for more information.

The number of organizations achieving ISO 14001 certifications around the world continues to grow at a quick pace. The ISO secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland conducts an annual survey of organizations that implement ISO standards. A report detailing the results of the survey is published annually. The most recent report shows a sixteen percent increase in ISO 14001 certifications from the year before. The countries with the most certificates are Japan, China, and Spain – with China showing the quickest growth in total certificates. ISO 14001 is the most widely used standard for implementing environmental sustainable practices around the world.

According to the International Organization for Standardization [ISO], ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 are the most well-known and frequently adopted management standards. To date over 100,000,000 million organizations across 161 countries haveachieved these certifications.

_{© 2008 ISO- Used with the permission of ISO Central Secretariat.}

The ISO 9000 standards were designed to regulate quality management while ISO 14001 focuses on environmental management. Both standards aim to drive continual improvement intheir respective areas.

One of the challenges faced by organizations is showing the value derived from the management systems they have implemented.  It is often the case that an organization will implement a system such as ISO 9001:2000, OHSAS 18001 or ISO 14001 primarily to satisfy a client requirement.  When this occurs, the organization may not realize the potential value of the management system and could be wasting time and resources simply achieving the status quo.

At Intelex, we believe it is very important that organizations realize the true value of their management system approach.  Recently, Devon Ambrose, a key member of Intelex's Client Services Team, gave an informative presentation that highlighted the importance of maximizing the value of a management system by continually improving an organization.  The purpose of Devon's presentation was to explore the benefits of applying the Process Approach to a management system, thereby creating a 'Value Added Management System'.  A management system is the method in which an organization manages their processes and activities.  Devon's presentation underlined the opportunity for an organization to leverage their management system to drive continual improvement.  This opportunity is guided by the Process Approach that states that in order to facilitate meaningful decisions; a management system must consider all the variables involved in a process/activity.  Furthermore, we must understand how the processes within an organization are interrelated (referred to as the process links).

Essentially, the Process Approach creates a foundation for a Value Added Management System, by allowing for managers to pinpoint the use of resources, the overlap and interrelationship between processes (process links), and measure the effectiveness of the various contributions that make up processes.  This operational control over the processes that make up an organization's activities gives management and employees the necessary information to adjust and document activities to meet both operational and organizational objectives.

As Devon explained, this is the fundamental logic behind the Intelex system.  Consider for example an effective Quality Management System (QMS).  It must be able to track, analyze and report on all quality management initiatives from product defect tracking, to supplier management to document control.  Each process or sub-process is linked to another through variables such as inputs/outputs, resources, material, time, location and staff.  The Intelex QMS suite is structured so that interrelated processes are easily identified and accessible between modules.  If, for example, a nonconformance arises as a result of an audit, when the auditor records that nonconformance, it is also linked back to the audit record where it resulted from.  It is essential for a management solution to have continuity between its components that reflect the interrelationship between processes.  Thus, the Value Added Management System, guided by the principles of the Process Approach ensures organizations go beyond compliance to drive continual improvement.

View Devon's presentation

Continual improvement. Is it an optimistic notion? Newest buzz words? Or is it a new wave in management function? I know I have blog'd about it before, but after reading an article on the City of Dallas and their commitment to environmental management I couldn't resist sharing what I had read. The City of Dallas is a fantastic example of what an organization can accomplish when it sets out to go beyond compliance.

Several years ago, the City of Dallas selected Intelex's Environmental Management System as the tool to support their goal towards an environmentally healthy city.  This is by no means a small commitment. They are following through on their promise to not only comply with laws and regulations, but to "go beyond what's minimally necessary and do the best work possible on behalf of the environment, the citizens and resources of Dallas."