For the first time since it was created more than four decades ago, the legislation protecting America' workers is about to get a new set of teeth.

The Protecting America's Workers Act (PAWA), currently before Congress' Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, represents the single biggest expansion of workers' rights since the 1970 establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which has only seen minor amendments in the intervening years. Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), spoke before the subcommittee last month in strong support of the passing of the proposed bill, HR 2067.

"The workplaces of 2010 are not those of 1970," he said during his March 16 address, underscoring the urgency of updating the legislation. "The law must change as our workplaces have."

The proposed bill's many changes to the original act include significantly increased civil penalties and prison sentences for violators, more protection for whistleblowers and coverage for government employees currently without protection. The reforms proposed within PAWA would throw a lot of old conventions out the window and significantly transform the existing regulatory framework. And, as Michaels cautioned, employers will have to adapt.

"Because OSHA can visit only a limited number of workplaces each year we need a stronger OSH Act to leverage our resources to encourage compliance by employers," he said. "We need to make employers who ignore real hazards to their workers' safety and health think again."

PAWA's many changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act include the following:

More protection for whistleblowers: If an employee has a reasonable apprehension that performing a duty may result in injury or a serious impairment of the health of an employee, PAWA will ensure they are not discriminated against and will face no consequences, if their concerns are deemed warranted.

Expanded coverage: If enacted, PAWA would extend coverage to more than 10 million local, state and federal government employees not currently covered by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Criminal conduct: PAWA would make it easier for employers to be criminally charged in the event of a violation. Some of the provisions include the following:

• Whereas a misdemeanor represents the most severe criminal charge applicable to an employer, under PAWA, an employer could be charged with a felony offense.
• Employers who can be charged would include "any responsible corporate officer."
• Maximum prison sentences would expand from six months to 10 years for a first offense and from one year to 20 years for additional convictions.
• The threshold of conduct required to trigger criminal liability would be lowered.
• The burden of proof in a criminal case would be broadened from "willfully" to "knowingly", making it easier for employees to make a case.

Increased civil penalties: The current $70,000 maximum penalty for willful and repeated violations would nearly double to $120,000 under PAWA. Also, penalties for willful or repeated violations resulting in an employee's death would fall within a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $250,000.

All indications—including President Barack Obama's outspoken support for strengthened health and safety legislation—suggest the reforms proposed in PAWA will be implemented. It is incumbent on proactive employers to begin a review of how these changes will affect their current workplace safety and health management programs, a process rendered headache-free with Intelex's health and safety management software solutions.

For more information, find the act here or read Michaels' remarks to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections here.

The discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained considerable momentum in recent years with all signs indicating that this movement will continue with even greater force throughout the remainder of 2009 and into 2010. Business leaders that have had CSR programs up and running for several years will tell you that when their programs started there was very little measuring and reporting on established objectives, but with sophisticated consumers and stakeholders demanding greater accountability gone are the days of just saying "it's working."

A general framework for CSR reporting has been established by The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a large multi-stakeholder network of thousands of experts, in dozens of countries worldwide. Intended to inform shareholders, stakeholders and the general public of all efforts to adhere to laws and ethical standards as well as any improvements to the sustainability of the company and the environment, CSR reports are a means of increasing the transparency into an organizations operations, which some say will spur other companies to further action. As the GRI's website (www.globalreporting.org) describes, "The Global Reporting Initiative's vision is that disclosure on economic, environmental, and social performance is as commonplace and comparable as financial reporting, and important to organizational success." On an organizational level CSR reports can be useful for companies to benchmark organizational performance, demonstrate organizational commitment to sustainable development and to compare organizational performance over time.

Celeste LeCompte investigates some of the ideas surrounding CSR reporting in a recent article on BusinessWeek.comentitled "How to Put Sustainability on the Books." The issue at the heart of LeCompte's piece is not so much what types of data organizations are including in their CSR reports but rather how they are collecting and then extracting this data. As DeCompte explains, "CSR data are notoriously complex. Putting together a report can mean pulling data from environmental health and safety departments, community and education programs, philanthropic giving records, supply chain partners, and operations records. Historically, companies have pulled that data into Excel spreadsheets to create new datasets for CSR reports. But as stakeholders—and shareholders—show more interest in sustainability concerns, companies are beginning to eye more sophisticated software to help them manage and report that data." Because collecting, verifying, and publishing data from multiple spreadsheets and various other sources is an obvious limitation on the accuracy and efficiency of a CSR report, a more sophisticated, web-based software solution such as what Intelex offers is something that many organizations have now implemented to streamline operations and make data reporting more accurate and manageable, a trend that will likely continue to increase as we move towards a more accountable, socially and environmentally conscious business world.

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.

In an environment where corporations are demanding that their suppliers and business partners assume greener corporate processes, Standard & Poor’s launched the S&P US Carbon Efficient Index as a means of measuring the performance of large US companies with relatively lower carbon emissions.

According to Standard & Poor’s, the companies listed on the new US Carbon Efficient Index had a 48% lower carbon footprint when compared with the average company on the S&P 500. There are currently 362 companies listed, with plans to examine all 4,500 companies recognized on S&P’s indices.

To calculate the carbon footprint, S&P is working with the environmental research organization Trucost PLC. Trucost arrives at a figure by dividing greenhouse gas emissions by annual revenues.

With the potential for new and more conservative emissions regulations just around the corner, and an increase in consumer demand for socially responsible products and services, it appears that tracking corporate greenhouse gas emissions is evolving from an optional business initiative to a mandatory one.

Click here to read a recent press release addressing how Intelex is enabling organizations to improve their sustainability efforts through greenhouse gas emissions tracking and reporting.

(Above: EUEC Energy & Environment Conference 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona)

(Above: Intelex's Steve Ross & Dan Marcus with Intelex Users and colleagues)

The EUEC Energy & Environment Conference was a great source for industry news and best practices, but this year's conference was particularly relevant in light of President Obama's proposed renewable energy initiatives, which include "Implementing an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050," and "Helping create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future." (White House Agenda - Energy & Environment).

Information on managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and other environmental initiatives.

It's not uncommon to hear about organizations working feverishly to develop effective quality and environmental management programs so that ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 certifications can be attained. While securing these certifications is a great accomplishment, implementing a web-based software application after the fact is a trend Intelex's Account Managers are not unfamiliar with.After discussions with organizations such as these, it’s often the case that the ISO implementation team was unaware that web-based quality and environmental management systems can actually help work toward this certification, as opposed to simply maintaining a compliant status.

Intelex's web-based Quality and Environmental Management Systems are designed to help organizations implement ISO standards and maintain ongoing compliance. Both Intelex's Quality and Environmental Management Systems function as frameworks enabling organizations to define an ISO registration schedule, identify project objectives, record policies, assign and track ISO tasks, manage all ISO-related documents, and provide real-time implementation progress reports. And because the Intelex System operates on a web-based platform, your organization's "ISO Portal" can be securely accessed by any approved employee with access to the internet.

The main takeaway here, is that organizations that purchase web-based quality or environmental management systems like the Intelex System, consistently report faster ISO registration turnaround times and more effective use of intellectual resources. When combined, these factors typically translate into significant cost savings.

If your organization has identified becoming ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001 registered as a business objective in 2009, save yourself time and money by speaking with an Intelex Account Manager first. Our account managers will be able to provide valuable insights, implementation best practices, and a no-obligation quote.

With initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Western Climate Initiative, tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become a necessity for many organizations. To help our customers address this business need, Intelex developed a Greenhouse Gas Emission Tracking Module in 2008.

Like all of Intelex’s systems and modules, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tracking Module is designed to be both scalable and configurable; in turn, making the system applicable to all emitter types and constituents.  The Intelex System has the ability to track a single point source at a single location or thousands of point sources around the globe. Larger emitters with multi-locations and diverse point sources will benefit greatly from the built-in location-oriented logic that allows all emissions of a common type to roll up to a top location for a top-down view of all point sources.

Organizations using the Intelex GHG Tracking Module have the ability to:

• Define any number of point sources for GHGs or other air contaminants
• Determine point source emission factors that can be applied organization-wide or made specific to each location or source (many emission factors can be found in the USEPA AP-42 document)
• Outline the method and frequency for capturing GHG or air contaminant activities. Energy consumption, vehicle usage, fuel used, etc.
• Create organization-wide tasks for any company representative to complete GHG-related activities
• Automatically convert all GHGs to CO2e and define normalization factors for all organization locations
• Outline multiple emission factors per location and source
• Create frequency-based emission tasks
• Emission inventories  for single locations, divisions , business units with organization-wide data roll up 
• Define and maintain permit levels at each location or as an organization
• Chart normalized trends across point sources and locations
• Gain unparalleled transparency of carbon credits
• Facilitate transparency across all sources and locations to identify GHG and air contaminant abatement program

Legal and Other Requirement Dashboards and Scorecards are now available for free download on the Intelex-Exchange.  Import them directly into your Intelex System to get the most out of your Legal and Other Requirements Intelex Module. 

DASHBOARD
Legal and Other Requirement Dashboard

SCORECARDS
Metric Scorecard
Legal and Other Requirements - Metric Scorecard

Configurable Report Scorecards
Overdue Legal Requirements
Overdue Other Requirements
Overude Permits by Reapply Date
Legal Requirements - Next Year
Legal Requirement History - Current Year
Other Requirements - Current Year
Upcoming Legal Requirements - Current Year
Permit Renewal - Current Year
Overdue Permit Activities - Current Year

Graphical Scorecards
Legal Requirements by Type - Current Year
Legal Requirements - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Legal Requirements
Other Requirements - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Legal Requirements
All Overdue Permits
Permits - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Permit Activities
Permit Activity by Month - Current and Upcoming Year
Permit Activity Cost by Location

Search Component Scorecards
Legal Requirements - Search Component Scorecard
Other Requirements - Search Component Scorecard
Permit Activities - Search Component Scorecard
Permits - Search Component Scorecard

Other Scorecards
Legal and Other Requirements - Toolbar Scorecard
Legal and Other Requirements - Task List Scorecard