Charleston Water (CW) implemented an Environmental Management System (EMS) in 1999 and became the first public utility in the US to achieve ISO 14001 certification.
Initially, CW's EMS focused on managing environmental risks, but it realized additional benefits like improved business efficiency and cost savings.
In 2005, CW presented its EMS performance improvements to bond raters at Fitch Ratings. While the raters were impressed, they wanted more data quantifying the EMS's financial impact.
In 2006, after providing additional financial performance data, CW received an improved bond rating from AA- to AA, resulting in estimated annual interest savings of $17,000
Never Underestimate the Power of an Environmental Management SystemJason Yarborough
Article about Palm Bay Utilities World-class Environmental Management System in January 2009 AWWA journal highlighting the benefits of instituting ISO 14001 under Jason Yarborough, Palm Bay Utilities Director. The environmental management system was used by the utility department as a continuous improvement tool that resulted in recurring annual savings of over $1M.
Never Underestimate the Power of an Environmental Management SystemJason Yarborough
Article about Palm Bay Utilities World-class Environmental Management System in January 2009 AWWA journal highlighting the benefits of instituting ISO 14001 under Jason Yarborough, Palm Bay Utilities Director. The environmental management system was used by the utility department as a continuous improvement tool that resulted in recurring annual savings of over $1M.
Environmental Management System - ISO 14001:2015-Kawther MEKNI
The ISO 14001 standard stands as the world's most acknowledged environmental standard.
It's internationally recognized, applying to organizations of all sizes and sectors.
economic impacts.Current costs related to current operatio.docxSALU18
economic impacts.
Current costs related to current operations
How to account for current social, environmental, and economic costs related to current
operations is less controversial; these costs should be reflected in operating activities, processes,
and products. However, the difficulty for many organizations has been to separately identify and
account for those costs as social, environmental, and economic costs. In some companies, social,
environmental, and economic costs related to production are accounted for as manufacturing
overhead costs and are arbitrarily allocated to activities, processes, and products using a cost
driver that does not reflect the relationship between the cost incurred and the activity, process, or
product. Still other social, environmental, and economic costs are accounted for as administrative
overhead costs, and are never allocated to activities, processes, or products. This makes it
difficult to understand the social, environmental, and economic cost impacts of operational
decisions, which again impedes effective decision-making. Tools such as life-cycle costing,
activity-based costing, and full social and environmental cost accounting can help managers to
better capture and assign these costs.
Future costs related to current operations
It can be difficult to accurately predict the future social, environmental, and economic benefits,
costs, and liabilities related to past or even to current production. Estimating future impacts
depends on many factors that may be unclear today, including changing social and legal structures.
It is unlikely that Philip Morris understood, 40 years ago, that changes in the social and legal
climate in the US would result in extensive product liability costs for cigarettes. Recognizing
potential future liabilities may cause a company to modify its strategy, product or production
processes, or its accounting and management decisions.
The difficulty of predicting changes that may occur in the social and legal climate, along with
the inability to reasonably estimate and measure the economic impact of those changes, is one
reason why many future costs are not accounted for in the formal accounting system. However,
there are some future costs that can be reasonably understood and should feature in the decision-
making process, such as post-consumer use and recycling costs, disposal costs, facility
decommissioning costs, natural resource restoration costs, and risk and legal liability costs. Other
costs that are less predictable, such as those related to changing social and legal structures or
reputational costs and the changing costs of technology, also need to be factored into the decision-
making process.
Many managers find that practices such as life-cycle analysis and full social and environmental
cost accounting are useful in helping them to identify and evaluate the longer-term impacts of
current decisions. Other approaches identified in this book provide ways to measure and in ...
Focus on Corporate SustainabilityInvestors are increasingly us.docxkeugene1
Focus on Corporate Sustainability
Investors are increasingly using the shareholder proposal process to push companies to integrate corporate sustainability-generally defined as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations-into their business plans. Sustainability proposals typically promote climate change reporting, greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency goals, employee and management diversity, human and animal rights, fair labor practices, and worker and consumer health and safety. This article focuses on shareholder proposals asking companies to link executive pay to sustainability metrics, companies that already link pay to ESG goals, the role of the board in ESG issues, and proxy advisors' views.
Sustainability Proposals Gain Traction
Of all the shareholder proposals filed, 40 percent seek ESG action, according to an Ernst & Young report. A 2013 Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRQ report looking at proposals from 2005 through 2011 identified the following trends:
* Average support for all types of ESG proposals increased from 10 percent to 21 percent, with those seeking disclosure or reporting on ESG matters receiving greater support than those seeking changes in company policies and practices.
* The number of proposals voted on that sought ESG measures in pay programs increased 35 percent.
* The number of proposals voted on that asked companies to consider ESG expertise in director qualifications increased 73 percent.
Proponents and Targets
Faith-based organizations, public pension funds, and socially responsible investment (SRI) funds typically take the lead in sponsoring ESG proposals, and these shareholders have generally focused on the same group of high-profile companies, according to the IRRC report:
* Of the roughly 350 companies targeted with ESG proposals, 30 large-cap companies received more than 500 proposals (or more than 40% of all proposals) during the 2005 to 2011 period.
* Nearly half of the proposals voted on were at large-cap companies and more than one-third at mid-cap companies; smalland micro-cap companies made up 16 percent and 1 percent of the total, respectively.
Some Success
Although ESG proposals do not typically receive significant shareholder support, a 2013 proposal at CF Industries Holdings Inc. asking the company to provide a sustainability report on ESG issues received majority (67%) support, as did proposals on board diversity and political spending disclosure. An Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) blog called this a "high-water mark" for environmental and social policy resolutions.
The Ernst & Young report shows growing attention from institutional investors, with average support for ESG proposals in 2012 reaching 19 percent, nearly double the 2005 level.
Linking Pay to Sustainability Goals
Companies that link executive pay to ESG goals often focus on worker health and safety, such as the number of OSHA incidents. But shareholders are pressuring companies to consid.
Overview of CAM-I (Consortium for Advanced Management - International).
Over four decades of industry led collaborative research.
Global leadership in cost, process and performance management
Managing ResponsibilityWHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROMTHE QUALIT.docxinfantsuk
Managing Responsibility:
WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM
THE QUALITY MOVEMENT?
Sandra Waddock
Charles Bodwell
S
ince the 1980s, competitive pressures and widespread consumer
attention to quality have meant that companies cannot compete
successfully without paying close attention to the quality of their
products and services. Today, demands for enhanced corporate
responsibility1 come from corporate critics, social investors, activists, and, in-
creasingly, customers who claim to assess corporate responsibility when making
purchasing decisions. These demands go beyond product/service quality to focus
on areas such as labor standards, environmental sustainability, financial and
accounting reporting, procurement, supplier relations, environmental practices,
and supply chain management.
Further, the recent corporate scandals have generated significant public
concern about corporate responsibility, transparency, and accountability. Exter-
nal critics raise the specter of reputational damage, as Nike, Levis, Gap, Adidas,
and other global brands found in the 1990s when activists focused attention on
abusive labor and human rights practices in developing nation suppliers.2 These
global brands were forced to adopt new systems for managing supply chain com-
panies, auditing them to ensure that they live up to Nike’s own code of conduct.
Most large brand-name companies are adopting internal responsibility manage-
ment systems to avert similar criticisms.3
Corporate responsibility is defined as the ways in which a company’s
operating practices (policies, processes, and procedures) affect its stakeholders
and the natural environment.4 External and internal demands for changes in
company practices can provide an opportunity for organizational learning.5
25CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004
The responsibility for opinions expressed in this article rests solely with the authors, and publication
does not constitute an endorsement of these opinions by Boston College or the International Labour
Office.
Managing stakeholder relationships and natural resources is quickly becoming
a more significant part of the modern corporate landscape, much as managing
quality did in the early 1980s.6 While some progressive managers are paying
attention to it, many still believe explicit responsibility management is not nec-
essary.7 Despite similar reservations in the history of the quality movement, by
the end of the 1980s, total quality management (TQM) had become a business
imperative for most major corporations. From early skepticism, managers gradu-
ally realized that quality was important to customers. The quality movement
was boosted by major European Union companies requiring suppliers to meet
ISO quality standards.8
There are significant signs that responsibility management is following a
similar trajectory and could conceivably become the new business imperative9 of
the early 2000s. The recent scandals in the U.S. further these pressures by cre ...
Managerial Accounting Asia Global 2nd Edition Garrison Solutions Manualfinifej
Full download : https://alibabadownload.com/product/managerial-accounting-asia-global-2nd-edition-garrison-solutions-manual/
Managerial Accounting Asia Global 2nd Edition Garrison Solutions Manual
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
4. A GROUP 6 INITIATIVE
•PRITHVI GHAG
•PRATEEK BHARDWAJ
•PRANAY CHAND
•PRATIK LADDHA
•PRERNA GUPTA
•PRASHAKHA SAXENA
5.
6. “Cost savings and improved management control are by far the main benefits
of implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS), according to
survey conducted by the Edinburgh-based Institute of Environmental
Management (IEM). “
Industrial Environmental Management
7. According to the responses of 204 of its members, 95% of companies
considering or implementing an EMS put cost savings and improved
management control at the top of their 'wish list' of benefits and an equal
number found they materialised.
Companies were less prepared for the motivational effects of the certification
process, especially since staff resistance and poor communication was cited as
being the biggest obstacle to implementing an EMS. Only a third of companies
implementing an EMS expected it would bring staff together, but nearly double
that number found it improved 'buy-in' across all levels of the company.
Equally surprising was the fact that EMSs did not produce the environmental
performance benefits many thought they would. Only 29% said their EMS had
resulted in fewer accidents and reduced environmental impact, while 95%
thought it would.
EMS certification did, however, have the desired effect of demonstrating
corporate commitment to the environment and in meeting customer demands.
8. ISO Certification & Financial Performance-the
Evidence
The Internet, including especially the ISO site itself, is replete with testimonials
purporting to document the economic benefits that companies have achieved as a
result of having their EMS certified under ISO 14001.
Here are some examples of companies getting financial benefits as a result of EMS
certification:-
9. 1. Irish Printing Company Case Study
After achieving ISO 14001 certification in 1996, Printech, an Irish printing
company with 360 employees, dramatically reduced emissions and energy
costs and improved its market position as a result (Gallagher, 1997).
2. Study of EU Companies
Study author Ruth Hillary assembled case studies of 33 small- and
medium-sized enterprises in the EU that adopted an EMS. The good news:
All of the companies reported energy savings, greater efficiency and
enhanced reputations as a result of the EMS. The bad news: The
companies generally had to spend more time, money and effort than
anticipated to achieve these benefits (Hillary, 1999).
3. Japanese Manufacturers
A 2001 study documents the increases in profit maximization and utility
maximization achieved by Japanese manufacturers after obtaining ISO
14001 certification (Nakamura, Takahashi and Vertinsky, 2001).
10. 4. Australian Companies
A review of 13 Australian companies in a variety of industries showed mixed
results with some companies achieving strong financial and reputational
benefits from ISO 14001 certification and others achieving no benefit at all
(Percher et al., 2002).
5. U.S. Aluminum Company Case Study
In perhaps the most thorough case study of a company's experience with ISO
certification, study authors looked at the Alumax aluminum reduction facility
plant in Mt. Holly, South Carolina. In 1995, Alumax's EHS coordinator won plant
manager approval to pursue ISO 14001 certification. The plant accomplished
that goal a year later. Although the study focuses primarily on the plant's
environmental performance (we'll talk about this next month), the Alumax
facility also improved its management procedures, operating effectiveness and
profitability (Rondinelli & Vastag, "Panacea, Common Sense, or Just a Label?
The Value of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems," European
Management Journal, Oct. 2000).
11.
12.
13. Charleston Water (CW) is the largest publicly owned water and
wastewater utility in the South Carolina Low Country.
Provides retail water service to the City of Charleston, including
North Charleston, West Ashley, James Island, Daniel Island,
Hollywood,Ravenel, Goose Creek, and other small townships in the
region.
Also provides wastewater service to the City of Charleston, including
West Ashley, Daniel Island, and James Island.
14. CW became the first public utility in the United States to
achieve Environmental Management System (EMS) ISO 14001
certification in June 1999.
The utility quickly realized that their EMS provided more
than just environmental benefits.
These additional benefits ranged from using their EMS as a
comprehensive management tool for achieving improved
business efficiency (cost savings) to reducing its risk exposure
(costs avoided).
15. Based on interviews with CW personnel, Fitch Ratings bond
raters, and external research, the following case study
explores the perspectives of both a bond rater, Fitch
Ratings, and a utility,Charleston Water (CW), as applied to
the impact an EMS has on a bond rating.
After presenting the EMS to its bond raters, CW decided to
pursue a bond rating evaluation and in early 2006 received a
rating that improved from AA- to AA.
16. A bond rating for a utility like CW generally costs
around $40,000 to $50,000 and therefore is a significant
business decision.However, CW estimates that its
improved bond rating improvement will save between
$17,000 and $170,000 annually over the life of its
current bond.
17.
18. CW implemented its EMS in 1999, and became the first
public utility in the United States to adopt the ISO
14001:1996 international standard. Initially, CW chose to
implement an EMS specifically to provide senior
management confidence in how the organization managed
its environmental risks.
It anticipated that the results-oriented system would
provide the utility with improved business practices that
would reinforce the utility’s commitment to being a “best in
class” utility. The improved business practices of an EMS that
impressed CW included the EMS’s commitment to continual
improvement, its operational focus (as opposed to a program
focus), and its performance-based culture change.
19. Charleston’s continual improvement programs have formed
the backbone of its EMS’s success. For each of its 17
significant aspects, CW has an effective continual
improvement program. Examples of these programs include:
• Preventative Maintenance: reduces number of water and
wastewater system failures and costly corrective repairs and
improves corrective to preventative maintenance ratio.
• Pipe Replacement Rehabilitation: involves replacing of lead
service lines, increasing size of water mains, and improving
system capacity.
20. • Other Programs include: Reduced Sanitary Sewer
Overflows, Improved Certification and Training
Program, Inflow & Infiltration Reductions.
Similarly, in anticipation of the EPA’s forthcoming
Capacity, Management, Operation, and Maintenance
(CMOM) regulations, CW used its EMS to develop a CMOM
program crosswalking and bridging many of its EMS
elements to satisfy CMOM requirements.
21. CW’s EMS—Expanding Benefits
As the EMS became institutionalized at CW, the
management system became the “business as usual” way of
identifying a broader range of risks than initially considered
and for defining solutions to control the risks. At that
point, CW management began to realize that the EMS
provided significant business value beyond its original
purpose.
For instance, Charleston’s EMS helped the facility establish
predictive and preventative management and maintenance
programs that senior management believe have led to
significant cost savings and avoided costs.
22.
23. Although the way in which CW decided to explore the
possibility that its EMS might affect its bond rating may
seem serendipitous, interviews with CW personnel
suggest otherwise.
Rather, senior management
understanding, commitment, and involvement in the
utility’s EMS and awareness of the EMS’s
value, positioned them such that they were able to
pursue an opportunity to maximize the EMS’s benefits.
24. Additionally, CW’s EMS Manager, the program’s champion, was
diligent in maintaining regular and frequent updates and program
communication up, down, and across the organization.
The utility’s strong internal communication allowed its managers
to share ideas about how to use the EMS to its fullest capacity.
In this way, senior management involvement and strong internal
communication, both characteristics of a successful EMS, allowed
CW to push beyond the normal scope of an EMS to explore how it
might impact its financial obligations and opportunities.
25.
26. Recognizing the business value of its EMS both as a tool for
improving business efficiency (reducing costs) and as a risk
mitigation tool (avoiding costs), CW’s Assistant General
Manager, John Cook, asked the Director of Financial Services and
CFO, Wesley Ropp, in 2004 if he thought that their EMS might also
help it achieve an improved bond rating.
Accordingly, Ropp conducted web-research to determine if other
organizations already had received improved bond-ratings as a
result of their EMS benefits. The only mention of another utility
that had tried to connect its bond rating to its EMS that Ropp
identified was a public utility in Australia.
27.
28. In its first meeting with Fitch Ratings’ bond raters in
Charleston in the spring of 2005, CW senior staff presented a
full overview of its EMS performance improvements and
organizational efficiencies to two members of the Fitch Ratings
team.2 Fitch Ratings was impressed by the facility’s EMS,
particularly CW’s improved management, greater
organizational efficiency, and enhanced environmental
compliance. However, because bond-raters are ultimately
responsible to their investors, and need information about the
facility’s bottom line and the factors that influence the bottom
line, Fitch Ratings wanted more specific cost data about how
the EMS affects CW’s financial profile.
29. Fitch Ratings’ publicly available “Water and Sewer Revenue
Bond Rating Guidelines,” outlines the criteria it uses for rating a
utility such as CW. The Guidelines group Fitch Ratings’
evaluation categories into “Fitch’s Ten Cs” that span the
spectrum from considerations of the market the utility
depends on, to its infrastructure, financial
status, environmental compliance and even internal
management and business quality. Of Fitch Ratings’ ten
evaluation categories, CW has identified three that it believes
its EMS positively affects:
30. • Compliance with environmental laws and regulations,
• Coverage and Financial Performance criterion, and
• “Crew” management.
31. The “Compliance with Environmental Laws and Regulations” category links
most obviously to the targeted role of an EMS. Fitch Ratings describes their
main concerns for this evaluation category as follows:
Is the utility staying ahead, keeping up, or falling behind regulatory
mandates?
What is the status of consent decrees or compliance litigation, milestones
to meet, and current stage within corrective plans?
What developing regulations could affect the utility?
How much will meeting the regulations cost in the five- to ten-year
timeframe?
32.
33. In its evaluation of CW, Fitch Ratings focuses on CW’s financial
health and its performance against Fitch Ratings’ bond rating
criteria (which affect the bottom line). If Charleston’s financial
performance is improved because of its EMS, then it is likely
that the EMS will result in an improved the bond rating.
Because bond raters will not identify for CW the extent to
which they believe that CW’s EMS has improved its financial
performance, CW will have to determine for itself and make a
strong case supported by good data on how its EMS has
affected its financial performance.
34. Although CW’s senior management is convinced that its EMS
makes a compelling business case, admittedly it has not attached
dollar values to the EMS’s performance improvements. Even
though CW has good monitoring and measuring programs, it has
not converted its metrics to dollar values that explicitly
demonstrate the EMS’s positive influence on the utility’s financial
picture.
35. During interviews, CW regretted that they had not anticipated the
value of quantifying the economic savings associated with the
performance improvements that its EMS has achieved.
However, many of the savings are in terms of cost avoidance, and
these are difficult to quantify without the application of complex
risk models, which CW is presently researching.
They hope that this insight will assist other organizations
contemplating associating their EMS with improved financial
obligations to do so as early into implementation and maintenance
as possible, and they anticipate greater future effort in tracking
economic value associated with EMS performance improvements.
36.
37. Following the round of preliminary discussions with its bond
raters in the spring and fall of 2005, CW decided to pursue a new
bond rating before issuing a $170 million bond in 2006. CW’s new
bond rating improved the utility’s status from AA- to AA. CW
estimates that this improved AA rating allowed for an interest
rate between 0.01% and 0.1% lower than it would have received
with an AA- rating when it sold its $170 million bond in early
2006.
38.
39. Active and ongoing senior management understanding, commitment, and involvement
in CW’s EMS led to business applications of the EMS beyond environmental performance
improvements.
Although its EMS seems to strengthen CW’s profile in at least three of the ten Fitch
evaluation categories, at this point it is not possible to categorically quantify the impact of
the EMS on the bond rating. There are two primary reasons for the difficulty of
quantifying the extent to which an EMS may affect a bond rating:
First, EMSs can vary from facility to facility in their scope and quality, thus making it
difficult for bond raters to generalize that an EMS will always improve a rating.
Second, the subjective nature of bond ratings (i.e. criteria are not assigned a specific
weighting) leads to difficulties when attempting to quantify the extent to which an
EMS might improve a bond rating.
40. Through thorough, regular, and frequent monitoring and measuring, an
organization must be able to demonstrate that its EMS has produced
environmental performance improvements and the cost savings that
results from these improvements.
Through risk reduction models presently being researched, it might be
possible to
demonstrate and quantify cost avoidance as one of the impacts of an
EMS.
It is not the bond raters’ responsibility to identify and highlight the
benefits of the EMS that can improve the bond rating. It is the
organization’s responsibility to show how their EMS has positively affected
each of the bond rater’s evaluation criteria.
41.
42.
43. Dual-headquartered in New York and London with 50 offices
worldwide, Fitch Ratings is a global rating agency dedicated to
providing value beyond the rating through independent and
prospective credit opinions, research and data. Offering a world
of knowledge and experience behind every opinion, we
transform information to deliver meaning and utility to
investors, issuers and other market participants. Fitch Ratings’
global expertise draws on local market knowledge and spans
across the fixed-income universe. The additional
context, perspective and insights we provide help investors make
important credit judgments with confidence.
44.
45.
46. A green bond is a type of tax-exempt municipal bond, issued by
organizations and local governments that have been qualified by the
Federal Government to do so. The idea behind a green bond is that it
is issued to promote the development of so-called brown field
sites, which are buildings or parcels of land that are abandoned or
under-developed, and may have small amounts of industrial pollution.
The full name for a green bond is a Qualified Green Building
and Sustainable Design Project Bond. Green bonds are meant to
promote environmentally friendly land use and development.
Increasing awareness of environmental issues forms the background
for the implementation of the green bond. They are intended to raise
money that will support environmentally sensitive business practices
and new ventures.