Our Product and Company News

ERA Environmental Management Solutions has taken the next step in environmental software leadership and migrated its award-winning Environmental Management Software (EMS) software onto the Cloud.

PEER 1 Hosting will be providing the enterprise-grade VMware cloud platform, known as the Mission Critical Cloud, the leader in secure cloud services.

This move to the Cloud has enhanced our existing security and data handling capabilities - in addition to the bank-level security we have always provided our clients, the EMS software will now feature extra layers of redundancy and backups. Clients' data will now benefit from double layers of protection against natural disasters and service disruptions with extra servers in secure, separate locations. 

In addition to ERA's stringent security protocols, PEER 1 Hosting also provides 24/7 monitoring and protection. Clients' data will be kept according to ERA's exacting standards of safety and reliability - ensuring that clients are always in complete control and ownership of their information. 

With this Cloud migration, EMS software users will benefit from 99.999% uptime, even when ERA is updating our massive regulatory library and when client information is getting backed up.

"ERA chose Mission Critical Cloud because PEER 1 Hosting demonstrated a clear commitment to meeting our high expectations for security and reliability. ERA has always guaranteed our clients that their data is secure and protected, and PEER 1 Hosting has proven to be up to the task," explains ERA CEO Sarah Sajedi.

Now on the Mission Critical Cloud, ERA’s clients will benefit from PEER 1’s FastFiber Network, Agile Load Balancing™, SAN storage, and their RapidEdge Content Delivery Network™. PEER 1 is SSAE 16 Type II certified, CSAE 3416 certified, PCI DSS compliant, Safe Harbor certified, Microsoft Gold certified partner, a Red Hat Advanced Hosting partner, and a Magento Platinum partner.  

This move to the Cloud is part of our commitment to bringing our clients the very best in environmental, health & safety technology and software. 

ERA Environmental Management Solutions is proud to announce that Sarah Sajedi, CEO and Director Research and development, has been awarded the Silver Stevie Award for the Woman of the Year in Technology Leadership.

Sarah accepted the award last Friday November 8th in New York. The Stevie Awards are an international organization that recognizes entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world for their significant contributions to their industries and for setting new trends.

This Stevie Award adds to Sarah's glowing accolades she has recently garnered, including the 2013 Sara Kirke Entrepreneur of the Year Award and an RBC Women of Influence National finalist position.

Watch what Sarah had to say about her Stevie Award win:

(Image credit: mikeg44311, photographer on behalf of the Stevie Awards)

Sarah Sajedi, ERA's award-winning CEO and founder, has been shortlisted for the Stevie Awards' Woman of the Year award in the Technology Category.

The Stevie Awards recognize and honor the societal and economic contributions of businesses and people around the world. The Stevie Award Women in Business began in 2004 and have since celebrated the amazing accomplishments of women leaders in industries like technology, business services, and consumer products, for both large and small organizations.

Sarah Sajedi has been recognized for her significant leadership in bringing together sustainable & green business practices with cutting-edge software tools. ERA's EH&S software, which Sarah envisioned and designed, is the leading EH&S solution for air emissions management in the automotive and general manufacturing industries: it has been implemented at hundreds of sites for some of the world's greenest Fortune 500 companies as well as small & medium-sized businesses across North America.

The Stevie Award ceremony will take place Friday, November 8 in New York. 

Earlier this year Sarah was honored with the Sara Kirke Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT). Read more about it here.

For more information about the Stevie Awards read their official webpage here.

To learn more about ERA Environmental Management Solutions, visit our website: www.era-environmental.com.

(Image credit: Official Stevie Awards website)

ERA Environmental Management Solutions will be in attendance at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)'s upcoming Advanced Air Permitting Seminar & Oil and Gas Facilities Workshop, running from September 25th through 26th.

The workshop will cover air permitting rules, requirements, and issues specific to the oil and gas industry. Some of ERA's environmental compliance specialists will be there to discuss the complexities of air permitting as they relate to oil and gas facilities. 

ERA's team of environmental compliance specialists are air permitting experts, and we've already worked closely with the oil & gas industry to understand its specific environmental management needs. We're looking forward to this opportunity to share our insights and learn even more about the challenges the oil and gas industry is ramping up to overcome.

If you, or someone you know, will also be in attendance for the TCEQ Advanced Air Permitting Seminar & Oil and Gas Facilities Workshop, be sure to stop by and say hello. Our environmental compliance specialists will be happy to discuss your oil & gas facility's air permitting and emissions accounting needs.

You can learn more about the event here.

ERA is rolling out a helpful new feature to your ERA-EMS setup that will streamline your recordkeeping by enabling you to customize which errors are flagged when importing material usages or inventory into your facility database. Please read the entirety of this update, as it contains important cautionary information.

This new feature is designed for use with purchasing software outputs that often contain non-chemical materials, i.e. "gloves" "aprons", "plastic wrap", which cause the ERA-EMS to generate an error report because the item is not contained in the master chemical database.

If you frequently see errors flags being generated for non-chemical items during product imports you may now choose to tell the ERA-EMS to stop creating error flags for that specific item. For example, if each month the ERA-EMS warns you that the item "gloves" could not be found in the database, you can now set those warning messages to stop appearing.

To use this feature, simply click the checkbox next to any error flag that appears in the Error List during product import and then click the Add Selected to Ignore List and Proceed with Import button at the bottom of the error report. See the image below:

ERA urges you to use caution when using this new feature. It is possible to set the ERA-EMS to ignore important error messages like incorrectly spelled chemical product IDs. Choosing to ignore these helpful types of error flags will result in inaccurate chemical databases and reports. Only choose to ignore recurring errors that you are absolutely certain are nonchemical items from purchasing program outputs like gloves, aprons, employee uniforms, etc. Never choose to ignore an error related to a chemical product, even if you believe the error to be inaccurate.

When used properly, this new Error Ignore feature will save users time by reducing the amount of recurring unimportant errors that the Product Import function generates.  

If you have questions or concerns about using this new feature, please contact your ERA technical support specialist: 1-866-493-6409 by phone or email at tech_support@era-ehs.com

On August 2, the U.S. EPA announced that it has finalized changes to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for VOCs regarding storage tanks used for oil, natural gas, gas production, transmission, and crude oil.

The changes have been approved in order to ensure that new tanks that are likely to produce the highest levels of air emissions will be controlled first while providing tank owners and operators enough time to implement VOC controls. 

All tanks subject to the NSPS must control VOC emissions by 95% or meet the alternative emissions limit set by the EPA.

Here's what has changed:

1. Tanks affected by the rule

In an important press release published July 23, 2013, the EPA announced that it has modified its hazardous waste management regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to exclude solvent contaminated wipes under the condition that those wipes are either disposed of or cleaned under certain conditions.

This includes solvent-contaminated reusable and disposable wipes. However, for wipes contaminated with Trichloroethylene, only reusable wipes (not disposable wipes) are included in the new final ruling exemption.

Wipes contaminated with the following substances are included in the new exclusion:

• Acetone
• Isobutyl alcohol
• Benzene
• Methanol
• n-Butanol
• Methyl ethyl ketone
• Chlorobenzene
• Methyl isobutyl ketone
• Creosols
• Methylene chloride
• Cyclohexanone
• Tetrachloroethylene
• 1,2-Dichlorobenzene
• Toluene
• Ethyl acetate - 1,1,2
• Trichloroethane
• Ethyl benzene
• Trichloroethylene (*For reusable wipes only.)
• 2-Ethoxyethanol
•  Xylenes

Which Conditions Must be met for the Exclusion

In order to be excluded from RCRA waste reporting regulations, any solvent-contaminated wipe must:

• Be managed in closed, labeled containers. The containers must be labeled “Excluded Solvent-Contaminated Wipes”.
• Used wipe containers cannot contain free liquids when sent for cleaning or disposal.
• Facilities cannot accumulate solvent-contaminated wipes for longer than 180 days.
• Facilities must adhere to record keeping requirements regarding their wipe and other waste management. This includes
  • The name and address of the laundry, dry cleaner, or combustor handling the wipes.
  • Documentation that proves the 180 day limit has not been exceeded.
  • Description of the process being used by your facility to ensure there are no free liquids in the container (proof that you are complying with the second condition of this list).

The Projected Benefits

As such, some manufacturers will see a decrease in the amount of waste they have to report under RCRA regulations, provided their waste management practices meet the above standards. Waste reporting will also become easier, as accounting for waste in contaminated wipes can be a time consuming process.

This new EPA final ruling is expected to result in a net savings of $18 million per year in avoided regulatory costs and up to $9.9 million in other benefits – including pollution prevention and waste minimization. In particular, small businesses are expected to benefit from the regulatory update, including automobile repair shops and manufacturers of electronics, furniture, and chemicals.

Online Resources

The EPA has prepared a short FAQ for anyone affected by this new ruling. You can access the online version from the EPA here: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastetypes/wasteid/solvents/wipes_faq.htm

The EPA has also prepared a simple chart outlining the new rule: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastetypes/wasteid/solvents/sumry_chrt_wipes_fnl_rul_070913.pdf

ERA Environmental Management Solutions is pleased to announce that our team of environmental analysts will be attending the Supplier's Partnership (SP) first North American Summit on Accelerating Innovation to Drive Sustainable Automotive Manufacturing Growth Across North America.

The summit is a collaboration between the Supplier's Partnership for the Environment (of which ERA is a proud member), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), and Oakland University. The event is taking place June 26 to June 27, 2013, at Oakland University's LEED Platinum certified Human Health Building in Rochester, MI.

It will focus on driving technological innovation through the automotive supply chain and collaboration between OEMs and their vendors. The summit is expected to bring together some of the best minds in automotive sustainability to create and share new ideas for and techniques for sustainable growth. 

In addition to joining the discussion, ERA will also be exhibiting our cutting edge EMS solution which is currently used by some of the world's most sustainable automotive manufacturers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, and Oshkosh Corp.

If you plan on attending the summit, make sure to stop and say hello to us. We'd love to meet with you!

ERA Environmental is rolling out an improvement to your EMS set up that improves the handling of xylene isomers (and other similar isomers) and some metal compounds in calculations for TRI threshold determinations and general TRI reporting.

These changes will ensure that your TRI report for the 2012 reporting period is accurate and in compliance with current federal regulations. No additional actions are required on the part of the user.

The following sections explain the logic behind the newest EMS updates:

Xylene Isomers and the de minimis Threshold

The toxic chemical list at 40 CFR Section 372.65 contains 4 xylene listings, each with their own CAS numbers:

• mixed isomers CAS: 1330-20-7
• o-xylene CAS: 95-47-6
• m-xylene CAS: 108-38-3
• p-xylene CAS: 106-42-3

According to SARA313 regulations, all mixed xylene isomers must be aggregated when determining if the isomers’ percent weight is eligible for the de minimis exemption. For xylene, a percent weight of less than 1% in a particular product allows a facility to not report the xylene from that product.

For example:

A facility uses or manufactures a product that contains 0.5% of o-xylene  and contains 0.7% of m-xylene . Even though neither o-xylene nor m-xylene exceeds the 1% de minimis exemption reporting threshold, the product itself contains 1.2% mixed xylene isomers and must be reported using the specific SARA313 CAS number for mixed xylene isomers (1330-20-7)

When the threshold and de minimis concentration for each isomer in the mixture are exceeded independently, the facility may report under the individual isomer listings or under the mixed isomers listing.  When the threshold and/or de minimis for each isomer in the mixture are not exceeded independently, but are exceeded collectively, the facility should report under the CAS number for xylene (mixed isomers). Therefore, if a covered facility otherwise uses a mixture containing 8,000 pounds of ortho-xylene, 4,000 pounds of meta-xylene, and 2,000 pounds of para-xylene, the facility would report as xylene (mixed isomers) because it exceeded the 10,000 pound otherwise use threshold for xylenes (mixed isomers).

To learn more about how the ERA-EMS uses and configures for the de minimis exemption read ERA-EMS Finishing Reports: Clarifying the De Minimis Option.

Other Isomers

The ERA-EMS has also been updated to handle SARA313 regulations regarding other isomers that are handled in a similar manner to xylene isomers. Cresol isomers, dichlorobenzene isomers, dinitroluene, and toluene diisocyanate isomers all must be treated in the same manner as xylene isomers for TRI reporting.

For each of these substances, the different isomers must be aggregated when determining if the de minimis exemption applies. If the aggregate exceeds the de minimis threshold, they should be reported collectively under the CAS associated with the appropriate mixed isomers in your report. The ERA-EMS handles this automatically.

The following isomers are affected by this update:

Modified Handling of Certain Metal Compounds

The EPA has mandated that certain metal compounds should be reported separately from their general TRI toxic category: 

• C.I. Direct Brown 95 (N100 Copper compound) CAS: 16071-86-6
• Maneb (N450 Manganese compound) CAS: 12427-38-2
• Zineb (N982 Zinc compound) CAS: 12122-67-7
• Hydrogen cyanide (N106 Cyanide compounds) CAS: 74-90-8

Accordingly, the EMS will no longer include your annual usage amounts for these four particular metal compounds against the corresponding category reporting thresholds.

Instead, the EMS will apply the following EPA-mandated thresholds to the compounds:

• Manufactured reporting threshold: 25,000 lbs.
• Processed reporting threshold: 25,000 lbs.
• Otherwise Used reporting threshold: 10,000 lbs.

Sarah Sajedi (centre) wins the Sara Kirke Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

ERA's CEO Sarah Sajedi has been honored with the Sara Kirke award recognizing her achievements in creating an innovative world-class technology product and for being a role model for women entrepreneurs across Canada.

The award was presented to Sarah Wednesday night, May 29, at a gala by the Canadian Women in Technology group (CanWIT) and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance groups. 

CanWIT awards the Sara Kirke award to one woman each year who has demonstrated consistent and superior innovation and leadership skills, including the creation of a world-class technology product that helps to put Canadian entrepreneurs on the map. Sarah was nominated due to her corporate leadership, dedication to excellent customer service, and for striving to make a difference for other women in the environmental and software industries.

After accepting the award, Sarah was asked to share the secret to her success. With CATA she recorded a short video of her insights and experiences which we'll share with you later here, so stay tuned.

Congratulations on winning another impressive award Sarah! The entire ERA team is proud of you!