The platformization of environment, health, safety and sustainability

Recently, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) went so far as to require all publicly traded companies to publish regular sustainability reports. In other words, we now must not only mitigate the impacts of climate change and proactively take measures to improve the future of our planet, but also make changes that are visible and actionable.

We all need to look toward innovative, digital technologies as the solution. Digital platforms, specifically, can help businesses of all sizes look across their enterprise to gain insights into their operations and manage their compliance obligations for a more sustainable future.

A digital platform manages business processes from start to finish to meet the needs of an end-user. These platforms improve and digitize antiquated, traditional, and often manual processes to solve modern challenges.

Platforms can remove friction from the value chain by removing unnecessary links, automating processes, and building new ways for participants to optimize their operations, communicate with stakeholders, and collaborate in previously unattainable ways.

In other words, a platform is the facilitator of a much larger purpose. They can bring together the right people and enable exchanges between two or more independent groups in one convenient location. But, they can also disrupt traditional industries and business models, most apparent in the current age of digital transformation.

But, they can also disrupt traditional industries and business models, most apparent in the current age of digital transformation.

Take, for example, Airbnb. The entire business functions through a single digital platform: short-term property rental is streamlined through a device, whether web or application-based, and the outcome for the end-user is immediate. Regular, everyday people have access to rentals, from small to large, unique to traditional, remote to central. Whereas property owners have access to a vast community with the benefit of the Airbnb brand and reach of millions of subscribers.

Depending on the needs of both parties, every aspect of the transaction is tailored. What if we could harness this business model and the connectivity of a platform and apply them beyond a traditional consumer space?

Last year, rideshare and food delivery platform Uber acquired Transplace, an international freight business. Uber, generally considered a platform business that operates in the transportation market, will now be creating a freight technology operating system to enable an end-to-end shipper-to-carrier solution, ultimately improving shipping efficiency and services.

Essentially, new players are entering traditional markets. There are limitless opportunities for players to embed themselves in markets that are not traditionally considered “dynamic” or “digitally transformed.”

We are amidst a radical shift in both thought and corporate responsibility. Across the board, we are seeing companies publicly declare that they are reducing their emissions by, for example, 2050, and becoming net-zero or carbon neutral. These are changes that will not be realized for almost 30-years, and in some cases, businesses are even setting mid-range milestones of meeting 50% of their goal by 2035, for example.

But how can these businesses transform, often, non-digitally enabled operations to meet the demand of the modern world? How can the businesses focus on measuring and monitoring, reducing emissions, and making changes to offset their emissions, while also continuing their regular operations?

In many cases, markets that lag in digitization still use manual reporting, tracking, and analysis. These processes are often time-consuming, cost-ineffective, and inaccurate. And, they are relying on multiple disconnected and outdated documentation methods with limited visibility across their whole portfolio. As a result, when it comes time for a business to tackle its carbon footprint, they are not able to deliver.

Platforms are uniquely positioned to help. Through automation, digitization, reporting, tracking, and more, platforms can help a business understand, down to the most minute detail, how their operations are impacting the environment. They unlock the full scope of data and information so that at the end of a financial quarter or year, businesses can report their sustainability impact publicly.

Through our platform GHD Navigator, an integrated software solution that manages, automates, and streamlines key aspects of EHS&S activities, we help ensure regulatory compliance and cost reduction. We have worked closely with team members across GHD and externally to apply extensive domain knowledge and solve challenges all too common for businesses. An integrated suite of cloud-based products, in this case to manage waste, ensures regulatory compliance and overall cost reduction.

With new technologies and businesses invading new markets, platforms allow us to deviate from the norm. By understanding the world through a platform lens, we can solve several age-old challenges, both big and small.

Through a platform, conventional retailers could sell lightly damaged goods that would otherwise go to waste. Connected to the appropriate bargain-hunters, we could potentially reduce significant food waste. Looked at another way, if a truck driver is interested in either a short- or long-haul route, a platform could help connect them with cargo that meets their requirements, fuel demands, emissions targets, timing, and cost.

Using the waste industry as an example, there are two drivers at work that we can call “pull” and “push” mechanisms. The “pull” is financial; businesses are potentially leaving huge sums of money on the table. For example, for each piece of waste created by a manufacturing process, there is a potential for it to get resold as a raw material for another item or process (i.e., a circular economy). And, there are massive costs in hauling said waste to landfills, with additional disposal fees that businesses want to reduce.

The “push” is meeting sustainability obligations and targets; some are in the form of regulations about waste disposal, particularly if those wastes are toxic or hazardous. Increasingly, businesses need to perform well, not only from a financial perspective but in terms of environmental social governance (ESG) and corporate citizenship.

When it comes to doing good for the planet and helping companies meet their financial and sustainability goals, platforms can pioneer new ways of thinking and operating. Specifically, platforms can help businesses around the world understand the pull and push mechanisms that are most relevant and unique to their operations.

Today, the most digitized and connected we have ever been, stakeholders involved in EHS&S activities are struggling to connect their programs and operations in a cohesive and modern way. Relying on multiple, disconnected, and outdated methods, today’s businesses remain unable to understand their portfolio and how it affects the environment.

This gap in compliance management and innovation prevents important decision-making, which inevitably means reduced cost savings and increased impact on the environment.

To bridge the gap, we must effectively “platformize” our EHS&S operations. Platform solutions help businesses measure and manage aspects of their performance that are otherwise difficult to understand, but for which demonstrating compliance and progress are increasingly key to success.

Aided by the right digital platform, we can help the world spin a little easier and support the sustainable use of resources and the continuation of operations.

Sean K. Grady is the Digital Market Leader for EHS and ESG and a Principal with GHD. Throughout his career, he has been a transformational leader within GHD’s enterprise, developing regulatory compliance service offerings while creating value through digital innovation and technical delivery. Sean is also a Masters Level Certified Hazardous Material Manager (CHMM).