6 Tools for New EHS Professionals from New EHS Professionals

Posted by Entech Engineering on Monday, December 9, 2024

As recent college graduates who have entered the field of Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) compliance industry, Miranda Miller, Environmental Specialist, Entech Engineering and Jolie Malinowski, HES Specialist, Arkema teamed up to share tools that they have learned in their first year in the field.

Miranda: We both graduated from college with degrees in environmental and/or safety, but even with a solid educational foundation, there is much to put into practice and much more to learn. All the acronyms alone can feel like a new language. Here are the tools that Jolie and I have found valuable in our first year.

1. Take Advantage of Community and Networking Resources

Take initiative, show interest in learning and involvement, and opportunities will start coming your way.

Miranda: : We met through a networking event at the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance (GRCA). They host a roundtable for those in EHS roles to connect, collaborate, share resources and learn from guest speakers. This is an excellent opportunity not only to grow in your professional knowledge but to build a network of peers.

Jolie: The Local Emergency Planning Committee is another great way to connect with local EHS professionals. I have enjoyed getting to know other people and organizations who have similar waste responsibilities and reporting requirements. Although it can be a difficult talking point, sharing information about incidents and the lessons learned from them has been very helpful in reducing injuries and avoiding undesirable situations.

2.Leverage Training Resources

The ability to decipher and understand permits and regulations such as the PA Code is essential to understanding your permit language and maintaining compliance for your organization.

Jolie: My best piece of advice is repetition. Read permits multiple times to get as much out of it as you can, put it down, then read it again.

In manufacturing, safety meetings are a major aspect of our overall training program. It is so important to capture the audience’s attention. The safety team at Arkema uses a variety of tactics to make the meetings informative and entertaining to help attendees retain the information shared. I have found American Training Resources and Atlantic Training, two streaming services that supply an abundance of safety training videos, to be great resources. They have a video for almost every topic you can think of, and they’re perfect to pair along with your safety meeting.

3.Utilize Benchmarking Tools

Miranda: For effluent flow tracking, FlowLink Cipher is a fantastic resource that tracks and stores flow data in real time. By completing daily check-ins on a facility that uses these meters, I recently caught a blockage and was able to prevent further issues from occurring. When compiling permit information such as average and max flows, the data these meters collect makes it a very simple task.

Jolie: Benchmark Gensuite is a valuable tool that helps me stay on track, effectively use my time, and manage multiple compliance responsibilities. After uploading your tasks and due dates onto the calendar, you can set the cadence of reminders. It is also a trusted tool for waste tracking and other environmental reporting. Benchmark Gensuite has an app called Waste Tracker that allows you to create profiles for each waste and subsequently upload them to their designated manifest. The software can be customized to fit your organization’s tracking needs, whether it is used for incident tracking, observation tracking, etc.

Miranda: An environmental compliance calendar is another visual tool you can use to track upcoming environmental tasks for your site. Each year Entech creates such a calendar for clients to reference. It is important to understand that application renewal dates may be months in advance of the date each permit expires. With some permits valid for as long as ten years, these dates can easily be forgotten. Keeping thorough annual records is a great way to make sure you don’t miss something.

Jolie: AVEVA’s PI Vision tracks operations data and meter readings, monitors air emissions and water flow, and tracks data in real time. I use this program every week when I do my air inspection, and I also rely heavily on it to report on our site’s water usage. PI Vision is connected to Arkema’s water meter and provides real-time data into a programmed spreadsheet that tracks our well usage and sewer flow.

4. Dive into the Regulatory Databases

Miranda: Every state has them. For the purpose of this article, I will highlight one I frequently use – eFacts, a regulatory database in Pennsylvania. This is an all-encompassing compliance tracking database for registrations, clients, sites, and facilities. In consulting, this is a valuable tool that allows me to access every piece of history in terms of permitting, inspections, and violations. This can also be used when starting a new position as an EHS manager for a particular facility for information that may not be physically present on-site.

5.Master the Management Systems

Jolie: Governmental sites also have resources. RCRA Info’s e-Manifest system is a great way to track your manifests. Through this online management system, getting ahold of your return manifests has been made easy. After the manifest is signed at the receiving facility, it can be uploaded to e-Manifest so that the generator has access to the completed manifest for their recordkeeping. This online system has helped me ensure that my manifests are all up-to-date and in compliance.

The platform “HSI” is where we store the SDS's of all the chemicals we use onsite. This allows for easy access when you need information in a pinch, which is extremely helpful for any chemical emergency. Having all safety data sheets stored in one place online removes the confusion of sorting through pages and pages of an SDS binder. Simply search up the chemical name, click on the PDF button, and the associated SDS will pop up for viewing. I have used this platform countless times when I have had a question about a chemical and needed accurate information that could only be found through the data contained in an SDS.

6.Learn to be a Monitoring and Reporting Tools Guru.

Jolie: Online submission has become more widely used by the State of Pennsylvania and has become a requirement for most state submissions. There are two submission databases that the state uses: DEP OnBase and DEP Greenport.

OnBase covers submissions having to do with Air Quality, Clean Water, Waste Management, Mining Programs, and many other regulatory programs. It uses an efficient sorting method depending on submission type and program area that will get it to the correct department without having to spend money on mailing the entire application or notice. There is a learning curve when it comes to selecting the correct submission type during the submission process, but if you are unsure, you can call DEP, or they will transfer the application internally to the appropriate reviewer after submission.

DEP Greenport is a resource used for many reoccurring submissions, such as weekly or semi-annually due Electric Discharge Monitoring Reports (eDMRs). The system allows for a consultant or third party to prepare reports and send them to the certifier to finalize them.

We hope that you have found this collaborative list helpful in jump-starting or restarting your career in EHS Compliance. We certainly enjoyed learning more about each other’s tools, relied upon resources, and experiences to date.

Categories: Industrial & Manufacturing

Tagged: Environmental  |  Health & Safety