ENERGY STAR® certification is a US government backed EPA recognition attained by business and organizations for the implementation of environmentally energy efficient solutions. The EPA’s Energy Star has helped businesses and households save more than 450 Billion dollars and significantly reduce emissions for over three decades now. [1] Energy Star helps facilitate the use of…

Industrial safety in the context of occupational safety and health refers to the management of all operations and activity events within a given industry for protecting its employees and assets by minimizing hazards, risks, accidents, and near misses. Industrial safety covers a number of issues and topics affecting safety of personnel and equipment in a…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) greatly emphasizes safe keeping and proper management of chemicals in US facilities. Because these facilities operate in a global network of manufacturing, distribution, and storage of these chemicals, the DHS stipulates safety and security regulations that ensure hazardous or dangerous chemicals stay away from those who would misuse them.…

The EMS Waste Management and Reporting System is a tool that allows companies to easily create, validate and report waste usage data to federal and state reporting authorities. The software is designed to collect manifest and manifest waste stream data, consolidate it as required for reporting purposes, and create both paper and electronic reports as…

Staying in compliance with the latest federal, state, and local environmental regulatory requirements are becoming increasingly complex as governments expand to focus on enforcement and transition to electronic filing. More than ever before, EH&S professionals are challenged by the increased workloads required to properly comply with environmental regulations. Chemical Safety’s Environmental Management Systems (EMS) software…

Most technology providers, including Chemical Safety Software, now offer software tools on the cloud at a fraction of the cost of licensing and implementation. Examples include Microsoft, that now offers their office products (Like Microsoft Word and Excel) on the Cloud for a monthly fee, as does Adobe with all their many designs and other…

One key aspect of chemical safety in the workplace is determining the maximum quantities of different materials that should be stored or used at any given time, and who should be allowed to use them.   Chemical Safety’s EMS software helps you set up Inventory Limits for labs, rooms, buildings, the entire site and, most…

Safe, efficient and cost-effective management of chemical inventories at the lab or other places where chemicals are stored and used is essential to every organization’s daily operation. I say daily, because chemicals are ordered, received, transferred, mixed, used, stored and disposed on a daily basis and limiting chemical inventory to static or periodic checks can…

At a high level, inspections are a “do” and audits are a “check”. An inspection is typically something that a site is required to do to ensure that safety and compliance requirements are being met. Audit is the process of checking that these requirements are being met and that corrective actions are initiated, monitored and…

EH&S software is not a new concept, in fact, it’s being around for almost 30 years. There are numerous software applications for SDS record keeping and management, chemical inventory tracking, container transactions, waste management, workplace safety, OSHA reporting, audits, and inspections.   Most of these applications contain features that software vendors have designed to automate…

This is a question that is often posed by companies that want to move away from SDS binders with paper-based Safety Data Sheets (SDS) that are hard to find, store, manage and update. The short answer to the question is a resounding yes; however, there are conditions that must be met.   The first and…

EPA will strongly encourage the use of electronic manifests as these manifests will be the easiest and least expensive way to manage the disposal of waste. Once e-Manifest becomes effective, States will have access to the manifest data in the e-Manifest system.   Benefits of the e-Manifest Benefits of the e-Manifest system include: Cost savings…

Federal regulations require large quantity generators to submit a report every two years regarding the nature, quantities, and disposition of hazardous waste generated at their facility. EPA refers to this as the National Biennial RCRA Hazardous Waste Report or Biennial Report.   The Biennial Report form (EPA form 8700-13A/B), must be submitted to the authorized…

Today, I counted 20 years as an EH&S professional and looking back over these years I have to admit, without a doubt, that technology has transformed the way we approach EH&S.   Everything now has an e in front of what it used to be. We have SDS e-Binder, we have e-Manifest, we have everything…

The EPA Waste Biennial Report (BR) must be submitted to the authorized state agency or EPA regional office by March 1, 2018, and must include hazardous waste generation activities from the calendar year 2017.   It is important to take the time to carefully review your facility to determine the quantity of waste generated during…

Chemical Safety Software just released version 6.3 of its Environmental Management Systems (EMS). The new version offers significant enhancements to the software following requests and recommendations from our customers, as well as keeping abreast with the changes and requirements imposed by numerous federal agencies. EMS 6.3 also includes many new features and tools, including an…

Significant Changes to 2018 CERS Reporting for California: Are You Ready?   Effective December 28, 2017, CalEPA will replace the existing five (5) federal hazard categories available in CERS used for the completion of chemical inventories as part of the annual hazardous materials business plan submittal with twenty-four (24) new federal hazard categories adopted by…

EHS, ESH, HSE?  You say potayto… In our peculiar and sometimes perplexing world, coming to a consensus on as simple a task as unifying an acronym seems to be much harder than it should.   The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OHS) was America’s initial attempt to address workplace safety. An estimated 14,000 workers…

Purpose of Tier II Reports Tier II reports must be submitted by March 1st to your State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and local fire department(s). Each violation of EPCRA Section 312 may result in civil penalties of up to $25,000. The purpose of this form is to provide State, local…

The United Nations GHS Purple Book is updated every two years. The 7th revised edition of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling (GHS Rev 7) was published in July 2017. This revision is of particular significance as OSHA already stated that it intends to update the HazCom 2012 standard to incorporate the changes…